Questions Answered and Other Commentary

Thanks for another wonderful graphic Gayla. :)

 

Its Saturday morning and it is just beautiful out and the sun is warming the day up nicely. My kind of day. :)

I was asked if anyone has ever called me chicken crazy. Well...besides myself...my husband, my daughter, relatives. Who knows who else. I am okay with it though. They call me the crazy chicken lady. :) I am indeed a chickenaholic. I am not alone though, there are many others that exist out there like me! There are message boards and whole sites dedicated to Poultry lovers everywhere.

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For some, wresting a 10+ pound Sumatra roo may not seem like a lot of fun. It isnt. I try to raise most of my birds from chicks so they will be used to handling. When I got Johnny he was full grown and had not been handled. It is very hard to tame one once they are grown. This particular breed is very spirited anyway, whereas polish are very easy going. I got Kuckoo and Coco as young adults just under a year old. They were easy to handle and not a lot of trouble at all. I would have liked to show my Serama as they are just easier to transport, easier to handle, not so much fuss with a bantam bird.

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Spur trimming. Many bird fancier/keepers will tell you to use a dremel. To cut cleanly halfway down the spur. There is less bleeding that way they say.

What you have to know is this. Underneath that hard long spur is a soft spur. It is kind of like our fingernail, hard on the outside, but tender underneath.

The first time I did this I had Ian hold Hank. When we got him his spurs were so overgrown he was tripping over them. I used the only method I knew of, which was using the dremel. It was horrible. His spur bled and bled. Even with stiptic powder applied.

I went for a long time not trimming anyone after that. Then by accident, I discovered something. I decided I would just try using some really sharp snips further down toward the end of the spur. Grabbing a hold of the spur I inadvertantly twisted it and POP. It easily came loose at the base of the leg...like a hollow horn, and slid right off! VERY minimal bleeding. The soft spur in time hardens, then you can file the end down so it is not so sharp, but it achieves the goal of a shorter spur without cutting that tender sensitive tissue. So that is the way I do it nowadays. I take pliers, and wiggle the old spur loose and slide it right off.

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Dont feel awkward about laughing at me and my birds antics! Laugh away..this is what it is all about. If I can get a chuckle out of you, all the better.

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I dont eat my chickens. I don't keep meat chickens even though some consider layers to be meat chickens. Meat chickens are usually the Cornish breed that I have seen. All of my chickens are for eggs, for fun, for show, for pets. My first girls I ever raised are still with me. They will be 5 years old in a month or so. They dont lay eggs anymore, but they have earned their retirement and they will live out their lives here in contentment. Some will butcher these old birds after they dont lay anymore, but that is just not going to happen here. I have had to do three mercy killings since keeping chickens...and let me tell you, it was hard enough just doing that. To actually pluck, gut and cut them up...I am just not up for all of that.

With that said, I do know that the poultry industry is just gross, along with the pork industry..and so on. I pay close attention to where my meat comes from and try to buy chicken that has been raised naturally with no antibiotics, steroids, any of that. Being more rural makes that easier as the small grocery stores here buy locally.

I am a stern label reader, so that helps too.

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I wont have to prep Johnny like the other birds. He is black and I wont be giving him a bath and blow dry. So really he is mostly done other than the morning of the show I will put baby oil on his comb, wattles and legs to make them look nice.

The white birds take a lot more doing as they have to be given baths and kept on shavings and kept clean til the show.

This may not be the way some others do it, but this is what works for me. I have been told by other exhibitors that they dont wash dark birds, but always wash white ones, makes sense.

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When you buy chicken from the store, whole or cut up, does not matter, it is not a rooster. It is always a hen. In order to eat rooster you would have to look for CAPON on the package. I have only seen this at one grocery store and it was not with the regular raw chicken, it was in the freezer section with other unusually carried things like quail and pheasant.

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Dad...I wanted to say...I SO wish you and Mary could come to the show. It is a long way to drive though. I will have plenty of pictures to share from the show just like I did last year and the year before...so dont you worry, there will be plenty to post afterwards for you to see. :)

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