Rabbits and Chickens and Ducks, Oh MY!

Our Call Ducks (Bantam Ducks)  Charlie has the curly tail, Cindy has a straight tail.

The Red Frizzle Cochin Rooster Shaggy
The mutant strange chicken, Henny Penny, with the crooked beak.  It actually cracked and half of the top fell off this week.
The Red Frizzle Cochin Pullet (A young Hen) Daphnie 
Prince Edward, the Dutch Rooster.  Isn't he gorgeous!
Some of our Colombian Rock Banatams
Some of the Broilers.
Our newest additions, two silkie roosters, and a Golden Polish Rooster.  Two separate families in Tucson had these on craigslist because they thought they bought hens, and can't have roosters in town!  Noise Pollution!

New Hampshire Reds Topaz and Amber
Woody, the Rabbit (Mason's)
Puddin' -Katrina's Rabbit
Mason and Woody

Caroline and her rabbit Jessie
Taylor and Mason trying to not freak out with Woody.

Coconutz!

Christmas Cookies!

We cut out gingerbread bears, their ears grew together though, so we got gingerbread folks. This year instead of frosting, I dyed some Marzipan and we had fun with the Play-Doh Frosting. So much fun!



Can you tell who made this one?




He's so happy with his creation. I was impressed, he put the eyes in the right spot!




Monster Cookies!




She directed me, and I think I did more of the decorating on this one.




I think the saying is usually "Less is More" but all the Marzipan went to make this one fashionable.

Merry Christmas :)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Experiencing Farm Life without leaving the computer

So knowing that I'm going to have to help butcher the broilers, I started searching for information. I found a few blogs, and the most interesting one was another Blogger named Hanna and her blog, Cultivating Home. Very detailed pictures on how to butcher, and gut :)
Cultivating Home: How to Butcher a chicken ( the easy way)

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Anyhow, I was looking at it, told the kids I was looking how to butcher the chickens so DON'T LOOK (Ha ha, Reverse Psychology at its best!)

So of course they wanted to know what this picture was of, and this picture. After they got their biology lesson, Caroline declared she was not going to eat Chicken McNuggets or any chicken again. I asked what she was going to eat instead. Hamburger, of course! So, being the horrible mom I am, I couldn't help but show her how they butcher a cow (Again, Kids DON'T Watch)

I'll just link, I won't put all 7 Beef Butchering Videos here!


So then Caroline decides she isn't going to eat hamburger anymore either. Katrina joins in and says at least there's still Bacon and Sausage.....Yea you know what happens next. The same guy who butchers the beef, butchers a pig also. You guys if your stomach can handle it, Hog Butchering 3 is so funny, their little 7 year old is filming, and starts making all sorts of commentary and naming parts. Listen carefully starting around 3:30

So needless to say, then Caroline started asking all sorts of questions:

Caroline:Um...where do the beans from like, Bean burros come from?
Lexa: Don't worry, its just plants, no blood is spilled for your bean burros.
Caroline: And um... Spaghetti? Is it from plants?
Lexa: Yes, dear, Spaghetti is from plants also. Except the Meatballs.
Caroline: Oh.. I don't want Meatballs in my spaghetti anymore.

Katrina then has the bright idea, "HEY, let's be vegetarians!" Caroline is all for that idea. We never have to kill sweet little cute animals again. Seeing that it is smarter they figure this out on their own, I said, "Sure, you can be a vegetarian. But, your body needs the right balance of proteins still for your body to grow properly. So you will need to eat beans, even the red kidney ones, and rice, and bean sprouts. Tofu is a good source of protein too. You know that squishy stuff at the Chinese Restaurant I tried to get you to eat?"

They think about this for a minute, and know that for the protection of these little animals, they are going to eat all the beans and rice they have to. So about 15 minutes later, Katrina and Caroline decide they are hungry. We go downstairs to make PB&J Sandwiches, and I pull another mean mom trick.

Lexa: Oh, would you look what we have here! Dino-shaped chicken nuggets!
Katrina: Mom! We're vegetarians now. We're not eating that.
Caroline: Yea, mom, we're never eating chicken again.
Lexa: Oh, Ok, Boys you want some nuggets?
Boys:Yea!
The smell of the cooking nuggets starts coming around....

Katrina: Well, Mom maybe it will be ok to eat the nuggets. They aren't OUR chickens.
Caroline: I don't want to eat chicken!
Katrina (caving in): No, I don't think I'll be a vegetarian.

I set a plate of nuggets in front of them both. It's too much to resist. Caroline joins in, "Can we have ketchup?"


Just to rub it in a little as their 20 minutes of vegetarianism comes to an end, and they start devouring their Chicken Nuggets with Ketchup, I say, "How could you! You killed that poor TOMATO for your ketchup. You Killed a Tomato! Plants have feelings too!

They didn't even pause....Yum :)

We ate it.

The Egg of course! And it was good, and healthy. Katrina got a demonstration on how a farm fresh egg is sturdier, healthier and tastier :) We'll take pictures comparing a store egg and the farm fresh egg next time. It's a big difference!

31 Chickens, 2 Ducks and 1 Egg

We are officially in the Chicken Business. I would post pictures except I can't seem to find my camera upload wire since I'm moved here. But the girls wanted me to tell EVERYONE that we got our first egg today!

It all started when we got home and the couple who had been living in our trailer home next door left their chickens behind. I had always wanted to get some chickens (It was my speciality in 4-H) but hadn't the time to set up pens or anything like I wanted. The couple had our old dog run set up over at their house as a chicken pen and had 3 Red Frizzle Cochins and 4 mutant hybrid scary barred cochins. One even has a deformed beak so it grows completely sideways on the top and straight on the bottom. Scary chicken, but needless to say Mason took one look at it and said That one is MINE! The kids would go out everyday and just sit by their chickens and watch them eat. The poor things were starved, their feathers completely falling out, their combs pale and very small. I thought they were just young still, until they told me they were 5 months old or so, and they just fed them table scraps and moldy bread.

So I took these mangy birds and started feeding them actual chicken food and the Frizzles have really feathered out well and I even found out I had rooster in the bunch after his growth and comb wasn't stunned anymore by lack of nutrition.

So from these 7 Mark and I decided we would go ahead and start the girls in 4-H. If we are feeding 7 chickens we might as well feed more, so we attended a National Poultry Show in Tucson Thanksgiving weekend. I was surprised how many faces I recognized, and also met quite a few new breeders. We came home with 10 Broilers (Yup, those are Lunch), 9 Columbian Rock Bantams (The owner might have 2 more, he sold his entire stock to me), a Trio of New Hampshire Red Bantams, 2 White Call Ducks (These are the Bantam Ducks), 1 Light Brown Dutch Rooster, 1 Rhode Island Red Bantam Rooster We Are still looking for the Partridge in the Pear Tree. Let me know if you see one.

I don't expect any of you to get as excited as my girls are over the variety and type of chickens we have, but they have become super responsible, feeding and watering them every day. They have even been non-pouty over us saying that the white broilers are Food, Not Friends. Taylor asked what the names were, and we said, "That one is Lunch, That one is Dinner, that one is Barbeque..." He has been calling them all BBQ now "I love Barbeque, My Favorite" and "Barbeque is so much cute!" I won't make my kids join in the butchering process at their ages now...

But about the egg! It's been almost 2 weeks, and knowing it was winter and they are all in metal cages, we didn't expect any eggs for a while, but Katrina came home and found the New Hampshire Hen had laid an egg. Now...Do we eat it or Hatch it?