The mystery of the not Red Rangers

Dixie Rainbow chickens at about 7 weeks

Our mystery is solved.  The not-so-red Red Ranger chickens we ordered ended up being Dixie Rainbows instead.  Whew, what a relief.  Thankfully, Rainbows are a hearty dual purpose bird with good feed conversion and the ability to forage well - all characteristics we noticed in this flock.  They average dressed weight for males is about 5 pounds at 12 weeks.

I would like to give props to Mt Healthy Hatcheries for helping us identify what we actually had and making the mistake right for us.  I recommend doing business with them - they give excellent customer service and go the extra mile to make their customers happy.

Tomorrow is the big day.  We've already picked up the equipment from our local county conservation district and are all set up for dispatching the birds. 

Getting ready to bid adieu

WARNING:  philosophical, introspective post ahead

Red Ranger-ish Hen

We're down to the last week with our Red Rangers (or not) chickens.  It's this time of the process when I start feeling a little glum about the final outcome, the actual doing of the deed.  Neither the husband nor I relish the killing of the birds, and since we've experienced the act of butchering several times now, I almost dread it.  But that said, it serves a purpose more than just filling our freezer with healthy, home raised food.  Getting to know our food on a more personal, intimate, day-to-day basis gives us a chance to face our humanity, to look our dinner in the eye and say I respect you and the life you are giving to my family and myself.  I've chronicled several of the reasons why we raise backyard meat birds before, but one I didn't think about at the time was how raising and butchering these animals changes me.  Since we're not large scale poultry farmers and I've fully admitted to having a soft heart, this is a process to which I've not become immune.  And as a result, I think I'm still able to treat it with the reverence it deserves and to be thankful for our food in a deeper way.

Here's to our chickens, the satisfaction of raising them and the humanity we gain from them.

/introspection

South Sound's G.F. Joe's is Closing

Sad news for the South Puget Sound gluten-free community - G.F. Joe's Gluten Free Market is closing both it's Olympia and Tacoma locations.  Last day is Saturday, June 14 including a "garage sale" of store fixtures from 10-6.

Hurry in to stock up on those hard to find and specialty gluten-free products.

Thanks, Joe & crew, for offering the gf community a safe haven and for being such a phenomenal resource over the years.  You all will be missed!

Red Ranger Update

Not-so-red Red Ranger

Big doings in the world of chickens here.

Feeding Station

After about 3 weeks in the chicken tractor, we fenced a portion of our yard and put the flock "out to pasture."  This has had the benefit of giving them more room (it was getting a little cozy in the tractor), allowing more foraging and cutting down on the poo concentrating in one area of the yard.  With 63 chickens, it's doesn't take many hours before the accumulation of au naturale fertilizer is pretty, uh, strong.  By spreading the wealth around, so to speak, we're contributing to overall land and bird health.  The chickens have been enthusiastically in favor of the move and after some initial loitering around the feeding stations, they've now spread out and are making full use of their space.  I think to begin with they were scared of straying too far from the feed in case they couldn't find their way back.

As you may have noticed, our Red Rangers are not looking so red, which has me questioning the purity (or accuracy) of what we received.  In a quick google of "red rangers" the images we find show beautiful red birds with darker tail feathers.  Now we definitely have a few that look like that, but overall, we have many, many more that look like the sample at the top of the page.  In fact, a few are mostly white with a few dark speckles, more like a Cornish Cross.  Even so, the birds we have demonstrate decent growth and excellent health.  It will be interesting to see what average weight and feed conversion looks like at the end.

Since the chicken tractor is a a very heavy yet movable structure with the only entrance being a trap door through the top, the husband had to construct a new place for the flock to roost at night.  We were going for light and movable as well as offering good protection from possible predators (though, knock on wood, that's never been an issue).  We went with a simple A-frame design, covered with field fencing and then when it rains, covered with plastic sheeting.  He included 2 long roosting poles inside.  It took them a couple of nights to get used to the new set-up which necessitated us going out just after dark to hand-move 63 chickens into their new sleep abode (highly recommend this as a repetitive squat workout - feel the burn!).  Most (notice I didn't saw "all") have since gotten the hang of putting themselves to bed, though a few still stubbornly try to tuck themselves in along the outside.

Happy Spring!

May 2014: Celiac Awareness Month

May is Celiac Awareness Month in the United States and is a great time to get lots of information, recipes, coupons, and deals on gluten-free products. 

The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness is sponsoring their Heroes within Us campaign during May to highlight "ordinary people doing extraordinary things" in the Celiac and gluten-free communities.  Also keep an eye out for deals being run on Amazon, gluten-free retailers and in your local grocer.  I'll try to highlight especially good deals and information as the month progresses.

Here's to being gluten-free!

When the smell's so bad you can't breathe...

Buff jumped the nursery fence

Weighing time

...you know it's time to move the chicks out of the garage nursery.  And that's what happened this weekend.  We were planning on moving them outside the middle of this next week because the weatherman is calling for an unseasonably warm and dry spell.  But all of sudden on Friday night their little intestinal systems flipped over from producing little chick poo to making big gross big chicken poo, and the smell in the garage immediately became eye-watery-ly
unbearable.  So out they went.

On the plus side, we usually reach this stage with the Cornish Rock Cross at around 3 1/2 weeks, so we got a week farther along with a much larger flock.  This seems to indicate that the Red Rangers are more efficiently using their food instead of just producing copious amounts of expensive fertilizer.  Hopefully our weight vs. feed consumption will bear that out in the end. 

Outside in the chicken tractor

Spraddle leg, prolapses, and broodiness - Oh my!

Getting the red on

Except when getting the white, gray & brown on

Quick Chick Update:  The Red Ranger chicks are growing fast!  They hit the four week old mark on Wednesday and are gaining, on average, 5 oz per week in weight.  We're trying to take weights of 5 chicks every weekend to get an idea of how they're doing.  I'm planning on posting weight averages and fed usage after we get done with this batch. 

As you can see by these pictures, they're really starting to get their feather on - though some are definitely looking less red than others.  They've been a lively and healthy bunch.  Out of the 67 shipped to us, we've only lost 3; one during shipping and two to what I'm calling failure to thrive. 

Shadow enjoying some scratching time

So even though this group of chicks has been healthy overall, we've had to deal with a few chicken related health issues over the past few months, mostly with our hens.  Currently, two of our girls have gone broody which has frankly been a pain in the butt.  We were not quick to catch the signs when Shadow, our young Cuckoo Maran, starting sitting the nest which we have since learned helps tremendously in breaking a broody hen.  A few days after, Julie, a Buff Orpington, also caught the nesting bug and joined Shadow for the long sit.  As we've since learned, broodiness can be "catching," and some hens are more prone to it over their lifetimes.  We did some web research and talked to chicken-keeping friends about what to do.  Probably the best information we found was combing the message boards at Backyard Chickens and then reading this stellar article from the Chicken Chick.  If your broody hens are not sitting fertilized eggs and your goal is not to have them raise chicks, then it really is best to break a broody cycle as soon as you can.  I think we just about have convinced Julie to be done with her broody moody, but Shadow darling is still having none of it and is determined to keep to the nest.  We separated her from the flock for a couple of days and are not closing the hen house up after the other girls have finished their daily laying.

Another issue we've dealt with recently that was seriously NOT fun was a prolapsed oviduct in our other Cuckoo Maran, Blackie.  After some research on the interwebs we were feeling pretty fatalistic about her chances of survival, let alone, successful recovery, but again the Chicken Chick came to the rescue with a really well done discussion on how to deal with this issue.  It took about a week of constant care and lots of sticking of fingers into poor Blackie's nether regions, but we finally had success, and I'm happy to report there has been no relapse of the prolapse.  Knock on wood, fingers crossed.

Spraddle leg

Finally, in the trifecta of recent chicken issues, one of our Red Ranger chicks arrived with both legs seriously splayed, aka spraddle leg.  Unfortunately, we've not had success in correcting this issue on one of the poor little bugger's legs.  As you can see from the picture, the back legs is sticking out at an odd angle and at this point, I have little hope of being able to fix it.  Here is well-done article from PoultryHelp.com that gives step-by-step instructions on how to (hopefully) correct spraddle leg.

With as rewarding as keeping chickens can be, there are definitely issues with which the chicken hobbyist needs to be aware and ready to address.  Having a well stocked chicken first aid kit (electrolytes, bandaids, Vetericyn VF spray, preparation H or witchhazel, pain-killer free antibiotic ointment or spray, vitamins, tweezers and gloves), a willingness to DYT, and reliable sources of information is a must for those times when your feathery friends need some TLC.

Red Rangers

Well the new batch of chicks are here!  Actually, they've been here for almost a week, I've just been so swamped with stuff that I haven't had a chance to talk about them.  Man, are they cute!  After taking a mob of chickens all the way to the freezer, I have to admit, the ending stuff sort of squelches my desire to raise chickens again.  It's hard work, and the in-your-face intimacy of taking down your own dinner can be hard on the tender soul.  So even by the time we plan and order chicks, I'm usually not mentally ready yet.  Then the box of peeping little fluff balls arrive, and it's all good.  Did I mention how stinkin' cute they are?

So I'll bore you with a few facts and then get onto the good stuff:  pictures!

• We ordered 65 Red Ranger chicks from Mt. Healthy Hatcheries out of Ohio.  Unfortunately, we have a limited time frame for butchering and were unable to get them from our good buddies at Jenks Hatchery in Oregon by the time we needed.  Jenks remains our go to source for quality chicks. 
• I'm pleased with the communication and fast shipping from Mt. Pleasant - chicks were shipped on a Wednesday afternoon, and we got the call to come pick them up from our P.O. at 5 a.m. Thursday morning.  (I know, 5 a.m.???!?  I think they must get perverse pleasure out of calling folks that early).  
• 67 were shipped and one died in transit so there are currently 66 happily ensconced in the nursery.
• Once they've feathered out, we'll move them outside to the chicken tractor.  Since the tractor is designed to hold about 50 birds, they'll eventually outgrow it, at which point, we'll put them on a fenced "pasture" in one section of our yard.  Stay tuned for shelter building and fencing fun.

Nursery set-up, pre-chick

Introduction to the water source

Dinner time! Notice the color variation between chicks

Under the hoover

Planning for Chickens 2014

Red Ranger Roo

Most of the United States may still be in the grip of winter (though here in the Pacific NW it's distinctly springlike), but we're already planning for our next mob of chickens.  We're hoping to make a few changes this year - branch out and try something different.  The main change will be breed of bird; after 4 mobs of the ubiquitous Cornish Rock Cross, we're planning on switching to the Red Ranger as offered by Jenks Hatchery.  The Red Ranger is about a 12 week bird and average weights come in at around 5+ pounds for the females and often over 7 pounds for the males.  This breed produces a hardy bird which enjoys foraging and has excellent feed conversion.  Plus they are prettier and less boring than the CRX. 

In addition to changing breed, we're also considering changing up how we raise them.  Usually we do two flocks a year, but with a possibly busy summer and the longer growth period of the Ranger, we've decided to only do one run in the spring and skip the later summer/fall mob.  Because of this, we want to order more chicks (like 60-70) in order to fill the freezer with a year's worth of chicken.  With the larger number of birds of greater size, this means The Chicken Fortress will be too small (which means more building for the husband since we'll need something to house this motley crew at night).  So we're considering other options including fencing off a large section of our yard to devote to chicken raising.  Changes, changes changes!

 I also found this cool YouTube video about sprouting animal feed, and we're thinking of giving that a go with these birds.  Check it out!