Tenth Week - Bday

I am so sorry to be so delinquent in my blog over the last several weeks. All has gone along smoothly and I haven’t lost any of my original 26. Last week our friend Ryan was able to find a place that will butcher chickens for small farms. So yesterday, Mark and I created a coop/crate for the back of his truck. The baby pool that we used the first few weeks was tethered down in the back and we put chicken wire over the top. At 5:00 this morning, Mark and I got up and started to load up the chickens. Since chickens cannot see very well in the dark they are easier to grab (plus I had no idea how long it would take me to catch 26 chickens! It takes less than 30 minutes if you ever need to know.) These chickens are big and strong! Many of them I had a hard time getting my hands around because of their wide girth. Plus they were not happy to be picked up so they fought me as I put them in the pool. Mark was a wonderful gate-keeper, making sure that what I put in did not escape. I have no idea how many pounds each one weighs as I didn’t want to even try getting them on a scale. But based on my weights that I exercise with, I would guess around 12-15 pounds each. The truck was loaded down with probably around 300 to 400 pounds of chicken!

After dropping my kids off at my sister’s house, I drove the chickens to Locust Point Farm in Elkton. When I pulled up, they told me we were in between batches so they wanted me to pull the truck right up the cones. I pulled the top off our makeshift coop and the man pulled out 4 at a time! I was shocked – I had been feeling so cocky about wrestling them one at a time hours earlier and this man is picking up 2 in each hand and making it look like he is holding 4 small bags of groceries. By the time I used the restroom and came back all 26 had been pulled and he was slaughtering the last two as they were in the cones. This farm is fast! As I was leaving, they advised me that there was one piece of information that they didn’t have on their form – the name of my farm that I wanted printed on the bag! Next time I will have to come up with a creative answer (Crazy Lady Farm? Bonkers Bonnie Farm?) I have to return on Thursday to pick them up. They will be butchered and in a freezer bag just like you would purchase a whole chicken from the grocery store. There will be a lot of coolers in the back of my van!

I didn’t take any pictures of the farm today as they were in full swing slaughtering and butchering when I arrived and I wasn’t sure anyone would really be interested in seeing all the graphic pictures. I will try to take some on Thursday when I return and it is much less messy.

Growing & Growing!

Another successful few weeks for the chickens. Last week we moved them off the baby food and on to their adult food, appropriately called Meat Maker. They have completely lost all their yellow fur and now have nothing but white feathers and some have spots of black on them. There are mornings when I bring out their feed and I feel like they have grown overnight! They are four weeks old today.

At first, I was a little leery about moving the chicken coop around every day. It seemed like a lot of work and I was thinking it might be easier to just have a permanent coop instead. But after two weeks, I would be really hesitant to do this any other way. The pure volume of poop that these 26 guys produce is astonishing. If I had a permanent coop it would be a lot of cleanup. I move it every day and just rake a lot into the woods. The kids have been banned from playing in the section of our yard where the coop stays. At first they didn’t understand but after riding out with bike tires caked in brown they quickly got the picture! I now understand why they are saying that chicken run off accounts for a lot of the problems the Chesapeake Bay is having. My little coop is way smaller than Mr. Purdue’s millions! (http://www.wtop.com/?nid=768&sid=1454863)

On other farming notes, I spent a good part of last Monday making strawberry jelly for our family. I am hoping to have enough to get us through to strawberry season next year. It is very easy to make and freezes really well. I don’t have enough time, energy or money to have everything in our lives be organic but I am starting out with our major items – chicken, bread, jelly, milk.

We also did our first CSA pickup from Farmer Donna. This week’s box contained asparagus, lettuce, green onions and 2 dozen eggs. Her chickens are truly free range – I was afraid I was going to back up over one as we pulled out! It was all unbelievably delicious! I would highly recommend a CSA if you can find one in your area.

Third Week – Have you lost your mind?

First the chicken update - these birds are HUGE! Over the weekend, I had to move them out of the pool and into a coop. They will stay in the coop until the b-day in July. One of the biggest worries I have about the Great Bos Chicken Experiment is having them meet their demise as the result of something else. Specifically, I really don’t want to work my butt off only to make a fox or weasel very happy one evening! This coop is movable and the theory is that foxes are great planners so moving the coop around every day or so throws them off. That is my hope!

So far, I have answered how I am doing this and how my kids are doing this but the third question that everyone keeps asking is “Why?” Implicit in that question is “Have you lost your mind?!?! You – a chicken farmer?!?!” This is a bit of a complicated question to answer.

It started out last summer when my book club read a non-fiction book by Barbara Kingsolver. Kingsolver is more known for her wonderful works of fiction that are now standard reading in many high school English classes (Bean Trees) or for being an Oprah Book Club selection several years ago (Poisonwood Bible). Then, last summer my book club read her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It chronicles a year in the life of her and her family where they decided to eat only things they grew or that that they could purchase from local farmers. It is an easy read and very fascinating look at what we have done to our food. I would HIGHLY recommend it.

Then in the fall and again in the winter, I was hospitalized with sudden and unusual liver problems. Long story short is that I was finally diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), a non-contagious virus that is a complication of the mono virus. (Way to complicated to go into here but if you want more info go to - http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/autoimmune-hepatitis/DS00676 ).

The liver is an amazing organ that does a lot of things but one of the biggest things is that it removes toxins from your system. So in an effort to help my liver out as much as possible, I have been searching for ways to practically eat better without spending a fortune. The Great Bos Chicken Experiment is part of that mission. Since I only eat shellfish and chicken (all other meats make my AIH worse) I thought we would give this a try. It cost me $50 to have the 26 chickens shipped overnight to me and $6 for their baby food (tomorrow I have to go purchase their adult food). I should net out at getting about 150 pounds of chicken meat for way less than the $1.99 per pound I can get at BJ’s. Plus, my chickens are not stressed, not pooping on top of each other and I get to control what they eat. The organic meat at my local market is $9.99 per pound!

So all this will help out with my meat portion of my food but in addition, I have joined Ceilidh Meadows for the summer (http://ceilidhmeadows.blogspot.com/). This farm is what is known a Community Supported Agriculture Farm (CSA). I paid to join the farm and Farmer Donna provides me a portion of her produce all summer long. I am very excited to get fresh, local, non-chemical treated fruits and vegetables for the summer!

Feel free to keep the questions coming!

Week 2 - Hey Mom, can we go out and pick up chicks?

We are starting week two of the Great Bos Chicken Experiment….so far so good. My favorite line of the week came from Nick who innocently one evening, "Hey Mom, can we go out and pick up chicks?" He looked at me very strangely when I couldn't stop laughing!

All our chicks are doing well. Even though we ordered 20, Farmer George likes to throw in some extras because it is not unusual to have a few not take the US Postal Service delivery system too well and go on to the big coop in the sky. We must have gotten lucky as all have made it and so we actually have 26 chickens.

We have only had one small incident so far – a broken leg. I took the broken leg one to Mr. Ed (known as the Chicken-Whisperer in my new found chicken circles). He looked her over and said she was otherwise healthy. He taught me how to look at her ears and eyes and “bandaged” her up with that Nu-skin band-aid stuff you can get from CVS. Seems to have done the trick!

These first few weeks we are keeping them in a baby pool in the garage so that we can have a special heat lamp on them day and night to keep them warm (think red light bulb in hotel bathrooms). It has been in the 30’s and 40’s at night the last few nights so we have also thrown a tarp over the pool to keep some more heat in. They are growing and growing by the day so last night I just caged them in a bit more with a make-shift fence of chicken wire around the outside of the pool.

Oone of the most common questions I am getting is how the kids are handling all of this. What is there not to love at this stage? They are cute, fuzzy and fun to hold. Olivia is the one most in love with them still. She has blown them kisses goodnight and loves to take all our visitors out to see them. She was also trying to come up with names for them so in an effort to remind her what they are for I made some suggestions - Nugget, BBQ, Dinner, Drumstick. For most of this past week, all three kids insisted that we eat all our meals were in the garage with the chicks. I ended up setting up chairs and tablecloths so that we were more comfortable.

When it comes to the big b-day (butchering not birthday!) in July, I will probably just have Mark take the three kids to my parents for the day. I think Mark and I are going to have a hard enough time handling it so it’s not something I want the three kiddos involved in. I think it will help too that we have so many. I have heard that when you only get a few the kids really can name them because it is easier to tell them apart. I will keep you in the loop with how that really works out in reality!

Okay, so since everyone keeps asking lots of questions and asking for more details here is my first attempt at a blog. I will try to keep it up through summer to keep you up with my chicken events! I will try to answer all the questions over the next several blogs...

So, just like all other things in my life, I researched like crazy and decided on the Cornish Rock Cross chickens. These chickens are a hybrid chicken that are known as a “broiler” (ie they are good for their meat) they grow so very fast and should be ready to butcher in 8 to 10 weeks. They will not live long enough to start laying eggs. In fact, I can’t even change my mind because if I let them go too long they will actually have a coronary and die.

Last week I emailed a farmer in Altoona, Pennsylvania who breads them and he let me know that a batch would hatch on Monday, May 10. So on Tuesday, I ran out to pick up supplies from a friend (more about them later) and then food from the Farm & Feed Store in Columbia (I didn’t even know one existed). Whoa – did I feel out of place. I wish I had a Maxwell Smart pen phone to prove that I am not exaggerating….but I was the only one in the store that had all my teeth!!! I didn’t even try to pretend that I knew what I was talking about since the other customers were some serious farmers. Thankfully, everyone that worked there was extremely helpful.

On Tuesday, Farmer George mailed my chickens to me. Yes, mailed. So on Wednesday, our local postmaster called from the post office to inform me that the truck would be arriving at 5:15 and even though they would be closed by then to PLEASE still come pick up my box. I arrived at the same time the big tractor trailer did. The driver had a huge smile as he informed me that he had my box on the seat next to him and it was a very relaxing drive to hear the “peep, peep” the whole way!

Our friends the Millers are really guiding me through this chicken process. They just started some chickens at their house last year and have been gracious and patient in all my thousands of questions. They have also loaned me all sorts of equipment so that I can do a trial run to see if I like it! This makes the accountant in our house (ie Mark!) very happy.

Next blog post will be about how the kids are handling all this!