The Fat Ewe Farm and Bed and Breakfast
The Fat Ewe Farm and Moose Hills Inn
Organic Permaculture Farmin' for
the Lazy Ewes
  • The Fat Ewe Farm
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • The Fat Ewe Farm Store
  • Livestock Breeds (click here to see all the breeds)
    • Angora goats
    • Icelandic Sheep
    • Jacob sheep
    • Old English Southdown Babydoll Sheep >
      • Babydoll Sheep on the Fat Ewe Farm
  • Contact Us
    • Photo Gallery (click here for some awesome photos or watch the slideshow) >
      • Video Slide Show
    • Phone Number
    • Map
  • Sale Barn
  • Recipes From the Fat Ewe
    • Old Stuff
  • How Much Meat Do You Get?
  • Ukrainian Easter Eggs
  • Moose Hills Inn

Birds

10/4/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Fifty five of my beautiful birds went to the butcher shop today and came back in body bags, then were 'put on ice' or rather stuffed into the freezer. This was the harshest culling I have had to do, however; in this area, rare breeds of  birds are not very marketable unless one takes them to a rare and unusual animal sale. Those sales happen twice a year and require a full day away from home, plus several full days building proper show boxes and then sticking the animals in them. One is required to stay at the sale as well, which lasts all day. I may go with only  a few birds, bunnies and lambs, but in the spring. There is always so much to do. 

For example, this morning I was up at 6 am, then went out to catch chickens and stuff them in the canopy of the truck with the turkeys, ducks and geese that wre put in the night before. The chickens were quite easy to catch in comparison with the large birds. To catch them, I built a makeshift pen and the birds were herded into it, with feed there waiting for them, and once in, a flexible wire panel was pulled quickly around them trapping them in the pen. Then I simply had to pick the birds up and hand them over to Travis who put them in the canopy for me. Still, picking up a large goose is not easy. Geese and turkeys that run around outside all day and use their muscles are extremely agile and strong. The large white Danish geese with blue eyes all went bye bye, but the lovely rare Sebastpols and their offspring of different colours, actually crosses with the tufted Toulouse cross gander, got to stay. Pairs of the ducks, one male and one female were kept with the exception of the Blue Swedish and Rouens. I kept about 6 Rouen ducks, 5 ducks and one drake and only one drake of the Blue Swedish. I meant to send him off, but he was overlooked for some reason. I will try to find a home for him and the Khaki Campbell pairs, white and Khaki. Those Khaki Campbells dress out at only a couple of pounds and their pin feathers do not come out easy, so they are not a good seller. 

Actually, none of the birds are good sellers. For some crazy reason I thought folks would want farm raised birds, running around all summer dining on grass and bugs with grain supplements, but not here. They just want the fat, big sloth birds that are caged and do not move and grow like Frakenstien so they can be butchered in 5 weeks. Gross! And their eggs do not sell for a fair price of $5 a dozen, so I do not sell them either. Hence the heavy cull. Why keep birds, that cost a lot to feed and take time to care for, if the eggs and birds, live or frozen simply do not sell? The Sebastopol geese might be a good seller, but that will remain to be seen. In the USA the coloured Sebastopol geese sell for as much as $300 and are kept as lawn ornaments and pets because they are so beautiful. Mine are also wonderfully tempered, so would indeed be good pets. Geese are social and intelligent and love to converse. We chatter back and forth to each other every day and they will come right up to me and talk to me. So, they got to stay. 

I do plan to cut down the chickens as well and should have taken more in to butcher, but I was catching alone and trying to load them in the canopy  without losing any of the birds already there, so only  loaded the roosters, except one and two nasty hens that peck the other girls, or did. I have another dozen chickens to butcher, but there are twenty some chicks either just hatched or already feathered, which will grow up over winter. Oy. Less hens will mean less eggs, which is fine ,since I cannot keep up to what is gathered every day anyhow, and less chicks, so less birds to butcher. 

The 55 birds cost 6 hours of driving time, there and back twice, once to deliver and once to pick up, 4-6 months of being fed, and believe me, large birds like turkeys and geese eat a lot, and then, are you ready for this? $455.85 to have the birds butchered. Yup, folks, four hundred and fifty five dollars and eighty five cents! I cannot possibly eat 55 big birds this winter. They will keep frozen for up to three good years. I will give some away and definitely cook a lot of them, but I have a feeling that the dogs will get their share when they get old and freezer burned and that is such a pity and expense. 

Lesson learned. Birds are  out. In this area they do not work. I refuse to get the meat birds that grow so quickly they cannot sustain their own lives and they often keel over and die. I refuse to feed animals foods containing gmo's either so force feeding in small pens is out. And since from now on, it is for me only, no more guests at the bed and breakfast, and the occasional friends or family, about 5 or 6 ducks and maybe 10 chickens, maybe less, is all I need. I am not sure what to do when the birds reproduce at such a rapid rate as they have been doing. I will try to sell the chicks and ducklings and have been able to do so sometimes, but not always. Then what? break their necks?OMG break the neck of a baby duckling???? NO. Can't and won't be doing that. I gues the rest of the story will be written after the next year trying to cut down and stay with low numbers. Time will tell. 

Roast goose for Thanksgiving anyone? Duck? Turkey? Maybe a black skinned chicken? 
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    Airstream Land Yacht 1964
    Alpacas
    Alpine Goats
    Ameraucana Chickens
    American Buff Geese
    Ancona Ducks
    Angora Goats
    Angora Goats
    Angora Rabbits.
    Babydoll Southdown Sheep
    Babydoll Southdown Sheep
    Bed And Breakfast
    Berkshire Pigs
    Blue Faced Leicester Sheep
    Blue Swedish Ducks
    Boer Goats
    Border Collie
    Border Collie
    Bronze Turkey Standard
    Bronze Turkey (Standard)
    Canadian Horses
    Canadian Horses
    Cats
    Chickens
    Cotswold Sheep
    Crafts And Hobbies
    Cream Legbar Chickens
    Dorset Sheep
    Ducks
    Embden Geese
    E'st A Laine Merino Sheep
    Farm Life
    Farm Life
    Farm Store
    Finnsheep
    Flemish Giant Rabbit
    Flowers
    French Lop Rabbit
    Galloway Cattles
    Gardening
    Gotland Sheep
    Guinea Fowl
    Herbs
    Holstein Steer
    Icelandic Sheep
    Jacob Sheep
    Japanese Bantam Chickens
    Jersey Cow
    Kahaki Campbell Ducks
    Karakul Sheep
    Kiko Goats
    Kilo Highland Cows
    Light Sussex Chicken
    Livestock Guardian Dogs
    Livestock Guardian Dogs
    Maremma Sheepdogs
    Maremma Sheepdogs
    Meishan Pigs
    Miniature Nigerian Dwarf Goats
    Moose Hills Inn
    Muscovy Ducks
    Norwegian Red Dairy Cow
    Nubian Goats
    Nygora Goat
    Ossabaw Hogs
    Partidge Chantecler Chickens
    Pekin Ducks
    Permaculture
    Pied Guinea Fowl
    Polish/Ameraucana Bantam Cross Chickens
    Polled Dorset Sheep
    Potbelly Pigs
    Pygmy Goats
    Recipes
    Rigit Galloway Cows.
    Romanov Sheep
    Romney Sheep
    Rouen Ducks
    Saddleback Pomeranican Geese
    Saxony Ducks
    Sebastopol Geese
    Sheep And Goats
    Shetland Sheep
    Silver Spangled Hamburg Chicken
    Soap And Hand Made Cosmetics
    Standard Jack Donkey
    Sustainability
    Swiss Blackneck Goats
    The Llamas
    The Llamas
    Toulouse Geese
    Tunis Sheep
    White Chantecler Chickens
    White Danish Geese
    Wool

    Author

    Fluffy writes daily about the experiences on the farm and with the bed and breakfast patrons. 

    Archives

    October 2020
    September 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    view old blog site

    RSS Feed

Contact Us
Home

The Fat Ewe Farm 

All text and photos are the sole property of The Fat Ewe Farm  and may not be used without written permission.