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Farm Update. Including chicken adventures of a different sort…

If you’ve been wondering what we’ve been up to at Crack Of Dawn Farms, you’re not alone. So are we 🙂

Seriously… it has been busy here lately. The critters got another weekend without me hovering as Jackson & Jerry took the helm for a few days while Ryan & I took a quick trip to Florida to see family and celebrate the life of a cousin who left this world way too soon. (Miss you, Krysta Kai!)

All the critters passed the weekend with flying colors, and rumor has it that some winter wood preparations happened as well. An upcoming post is in the works to introduce you to my lumberjack hubby and his activities at the farm.

For now, here are a few quick photos before you move on to the real adventures this week (keep reading after the gallery)!

: Atlas has definitely entered the “awkward teenager” phase of pyr puppyhood.

: Gotta find a place for my bone.

: The Rhode Island Red chicks in particular have taken to exploring the railing around the edge of the CamperCoop.

: The Black Stars are in conference to discuss the benefits of coop skid boards as a roost.

: A couple of the ladies enjoying the shade and a little dirt nest as well.

: Every dog needs 8 and 11 year old boys to play with.

The past two days have kept us next door at my mom’s (CoDF annex) doing my own version of winter prep: canning.

I have been trying to plan for and figure out when we were going to be able to do a batch of meat chickens, but I just couldn’t figure out how to make it happen until next year. I had resigned myself to store-bought chicken for the next several months when I got a blessing text. Was able to get a quantity of chickens – plucked and cleaned, ready to cook/can/etc. Mom & I decided to split 20 birds.

I picked them up Wednesday morning at my friend’s house in Kentucky, and as Thursday comes to a close, we are almost done. The last canner batch of broth is processing, and we only have some chunked meat left that we picked off of the bones after broth was made. We will freeze it tomorrow.

The canning wasn’t without excitement, lest you think that it is boring, ho-hum kinda stuff. You see chicken has to be pressure canned. That ups the stakes just a bit.

We had one jar failure yesterday, but tonight was a first for me. We had a jar lid pop completely off after we took the lid off the canner!! I am very particular about letting the canner come down to zero pressure on its own, rather than rushing it by rocking the weight. But, I realized tonight that I am not usually sitting around, tapping my toes, waiting for it to finish so I can start another batch. You see, we had eaten dinner while the canner processed, and then once it was done I turned the stove off as usual. We let it cool off and let its pressure out while we did dishes and such from dinner. We had ONE more canner load of broth to do, and we were ready for it to be done. Note: After 2 days of processing chicken, it’s time for it to be done… we REALLY enjoyed our beef/bison burgers that we had for supper tonight 🙂

Well, as soon as I saw it was at zero, I popped the weight off and took the lid off. The lids inside were doing a lot more popping than usual, which was weird. I just attributed it to not usually opening it that soon — I know it is normal for that to happen as they cool.

Well, Mom was near the stove, and all of a sudden, kerbang!!! I just knew one of the jars had exploded, and I was worried she had a face/arm full of glass. Fortunately, no. She did end up with some super-hot broth splashing on the back of her head, but the sound was actually of the lid and ring becoming projectiles – along with half the pint of broth! A nice mess all over the ceiling and floor, but everyone was safe.

Note the ceiling... slimed by chicken broth! — Note the ceiling… slimed by chicken broth!

A couple of lessons from this for you canners out there:

1. Let the canner sit a while even after it comes down to zero pressure. Take time to have another cup of coffee or something. The next batch can wait a few minutes.

2. Never lean over your canner when the jars are making funny noises. I am so thankful Mom wasn’t peering over into the canner – she could have had serious burns and possibly cuts/bruises on her face.

We laugh about it after the fact, but this stuff is no joke.

On the plus side, we have 32 pints of canned chicken and 21 pints plus 7 quarts of broth between us, and some miscellaneous legs and other frozen parts we saved for frying. We’ll be enjoying our chicken dinners this winter!!

Lots of work goes into this, but I promise you it is worth the effort!!

Look, Ma… we’re getting our tail feathers!

5 weeks old and starting to really show the tail feathers!

Too. Much. Cuteness.

Food first (well, water was actually first). Priorities.

Yippee!! Our 4-week old juvenile chicks arrived today. I am not sure I can handle this much cuteness in one location. Add these little chirpers to our too-cute-to-handle LGiT Atlas, and it is almost too much to bear 🙂

I had stopped by the Post Office Monday after I got notification that they had been shipped just to give them a heads-up on what was coming. Karen called me this morning just before 6:00 am to let me know they were in.

Aside: We originally planned that these would be our first chicks. Back when I ordered them, I had no idea I would be gifted a livestock guardian with two chickens, and I certainly never dreamed I would have also already added 4 more pullets! So, today, what were to have been our FIRST chicks actually DOUBLED the size of our flock. My how life twists and turns!

I was curious to see how easy it would be to wake the boys this morning! As anticipated, they rolled right out of bed. Amazing what a little chick anticipation can do for the get-up-and-go 🙂

The P.O. BACK door at the Crack of Dawn!

We loaded up and headed to the Post Office. I’ve never gone to the back entrance before. We rang the bell, and Karen was there ready with our peeping box!

Soooo very exciting! All 6 little ladies were chirping happily away, and we could see that the box was divided into quarters with the 3 Rhode Island Reds in one corner and the 3 Buff Orpingtons in the opposite corner.

Since it was only a 5 minute drive, I opted to just take them on home instead of opening the box to water them while still at the PO.

Chirping package - handle with care! — Chirping package – handle with care!

When we got home we opened the box in the garage since it was a bit warmer, and gave them some water and food. I was so pleased to see how healthy and happy they looked.

To be honest, I was really a bit concerned since it was a full two days since they shipped. The day-old chicks have the benefit of the nutrients they absorb from the yolk just before hatching to help them in the shipping time, but what about the 4-week old ones? I’m a little ashamed to say I never thought to ask!

Not to worry… it turns out the folks (Claborn Family Farms) that raised and packed the little chicks to send to us put cucumber slices in with the chicks to peck on and keep them hydrated for the trip. How smart!!

After giving them some time to settle down a bit inside, we took them out to their new temporary digs: the CamperCoop. Jerry got the finishing touches done while we were at karate last night (feeder and waterer hung, roosting pole secured, door latch working) so it was ready for new residents.

Atlas, needless to say, was extremely curious about all this new chirping and – oh, what perfectly play-sized little noisemakers! But, he only pawed at the sides once or twice before finding his way back to his sled and getting scratches from the humans.

As my mom said, “more chickens, ho hum.” I think he’s starting to figure out more of his place in the farm.

I was pleasantly surprised how smoothly this day went with our new additions. We got all of our school done AND had time to get Atlas to his next booster appointment and weigh in. He has added 10 pounds since his last visit. At 11 weeks old, he is weighing in at 36.4 pounds!

Jackson modified an old changing table rail to make a cute ladder to the roosting pole, but the chicks seem more content to huddle in a pile for warmth at this point. We added some wind breaks to one of the coop corners to give the little ladies a place to get out of the wind and stay warm. They ate an entire quart feeder container of starter grains today. Amazing!!

Here is a gallery with some more farm photos from today’s excitement. Just click through to see them all.

I would love to hear how you are liking our adventures. This is my fun way to keep a journal, and I hope that you find it amusing, helpful, or at least somewhat entertaining. Leave me a comment, and subscribe if you like so you’ll get a notification as we make updates (I’m not even going to try to promise any sort of scheduled posting — it has everything to do with what we have going on and when I can steal some time to type 🙂