My biggest regret… waiting so long to get chickens.
Currently have six pullets and one cockerel. Adding some more chickens later this year to get my egg production up. Then I’ll have some for meat afterwards.
I have no desire to kill anything but it’s part of the life cycle. I’m going to struggle with the slaughter as well, but I can at least say I gave them the best life I possibly could.
When I was small we kept and killed rabbits and ducks. It bothered me. If you haven't cleaned and plucked a fowl, or peeled the skin off a rabbit, I suggest you get a reality check. Honestly, I'd rather dress a rabbit. But maybe you should get a nice All American canner and start doing a batch of meat someone else killed every week. I did that and it is the most worthwhile thing I learned to do in the food department. I learned from watching preppers on YouTube during the lockdowns.
I felt the same about canning. What I've learned is that the experts have got it down to an unscrewupable science and all you have to do is follow the directions and you are good. And once you know what to look for as far as something going wrong, you'll be fine. I would suggest a channel called RoseRed Homestead on youtube. This woman is a teacher, scientist and a homesteader. She knows her shit better than anyone else on youtube and her videos are like a priceless course you can take for free. She'll even get super sciency and use some cool tools and show you the data so you can really understand how canning works. (If you like that sort of thing, I do). Watching her took away all my fears of canning.
I can relate although my fear was blowing things up. My first efforts weren't too pretty because they were overcooked and too much water boiled away, but they were still edible.Typhoid from a flood sounds like leaky jars. The main worry is botulism, which only grows in an anaerobic environment such as your vacuum sealed jars. This is why the Ball company (best jars) and the USDA have both written the Bibles of canning, with the procedures to cook the stuff long enough to kill the botulism spores, if any. That takes a temperature of 250 F sustained long enough to heat the entire contents long enough, depending on jar size and ingredients, which is why you need a pressure canner. Not a pressure cooker. But, if you did open something and were worried, the botulism poison is broken down by boiling 10 minutes, or you could make a baked dish.
Well, part of gardening is knowing what things are going to try to eat (bugs, rabbits, deer) your plants or try to kill (diseases, stampeding wild horses, husbands with lawnmowers) your plants. A good garden book will tell you not only how much sun and water, acid or alkaline soil, heavy feeder or needs little fertilizer, those plants need but also what to do to keep them from being eaten or dying. Except the husbands with lawnmowers is up to you. Heavy lawnmower-eating stakes made from 2x4s blocking the way to the plants I've found to be highly effective. This is not a joke.
I like this book for beginners and more experienced gardeners:
So true I was worried. I got ducks for eggs they said 75% hens. We got mostly males. But I have a hunter neighbor who thought eating fresh meat was awesome so I let him take them for free and I have a nice quiet small flock of hens.
My biggest regret… waiting so long to get chickens.
Currently have six pullets and one cockerel. Adding some more chickens later this year to get my egg production up. Then I’ll have some for meat afterwards.
I have no desire to kill anything but it’s part of the life cycle. I’m going to struggle with the slaughter as well, but I can at least say I gave them the best life I possibly could.
They were bred for this purpose after all.
When I was small we kept and killed rabbits and ducks. It bothered me. If you haven't cleaned and plucked a fowl, or peeled the skin off a rabbit, I suggest you get a reality check. Honestly, I'd rather dress a rabbit. But maybe you should get a nice All American canner and start doing a batch of meat someone else killed every week. I did that and it is the most worthwhile thing I learned to do in the food department. I learned from watching preppers on YouTube during the lockdowns.
I felt the same about canning. What I've learned is that the experts have got it down to an unscrewupable science and all you have to do is follow the directions and you are good. And once you know what to look for as far as something going wrong, you'll be fine. I would suggest a channel called RoseRed Homestead on youtube. This woman is a teacher, scientist and a homesteader. She knows her shit better than anyone else on youtube and her videos are like a priceless course you can take for free. She'll even get super sciency and use some cool tools and show you the data so you can really understand how canning works. (If you like that sort of thing, I do). Watching her took away all my fears of canning.
I can relate although my fear was blowing things up. My first efforts weren't too pretty because they were overcooked and too much water boiled away, but they were still edible.Typhoid from a flood sounds like leaky jars. The main worry is botulism, which only grows in an anaerobic environment such as your vacuum sealed jars. This is why the Ball company (best jars) and the USDA have both written the Bibles of canning, with the procedures to cook the stuff long enough to kill the botulism spores, if any. That takes a temperature of 250 F sustained long enough to heat the entire contents long enough, depending on jar size and ingredients, which is why you need a pressure canner. Not a pressure cooker. But, if you did open something and were worried, the botulism poison is broken down by boiling 10 minutes, or you could make a baked dish.
Easy. My chickens die of old age.
Well, part of gardening is knowing what things are going to try to eat (bugs, rabbits, deer) your plants or try to kill (diseases, stampeding wild horses, husbands with lawnmowers) your plants. A good garden book will tell you not only how much sun and water, acid or alkaline soil, heavy feeder or needs little fertilizer, those plants need but also what to do to keep them from being eaten or dying. Except the husbands with lawnmowers is up to you. Heavy lawnmower-eating stakes made from 2x4s blocking the way to the plants I've found to be highly effective. This is not a joke.
I like this book for beginners and more experienced gardeners:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/160342475X?tag=ssg-vegetable-gardening-books-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1
BTW, chicks are like potato chips, at least for me. I can't buy just one. You're probably made of stronger stuff.
So true I was worried. I got ducks for eggs they said 75% hens. We got mostly males. But I have a hunter neighbor who thought eating fresh meat was awesome so I let him take them for free and I have a nice quiet small flock of hens.
Do you have a Rural King or Tractor Supply nearby? They sell sexed chicks - chickens, ducks, turkeys, guineas at Rural King.
I bought them online from Metzer. Got 18 unsexed layers. A year later we have 6 hens, 9 boys, 3 died because of dogs or more natural causes.
Slaughterhouses exist for that type of service if you need it.