25 broilers processed

Chase, Andrew, Iona, and I processed 25 of the 28 surviving broilers. The missing 3 are being trialed with my laying flock, as I want to have a back up rooster. (I thought for a while that I was going to have to dispatch the current feral rooster, but he may be on the mend from his injury.) I did most of the catching and dispatching, since the roosters were least stressed by my presence in the run. We all prioritized having it be humane death for them. Everyone did take a turn at dispatching to gain some experience.

I had borrowed a large pot and propane heater from Rachel and Eli, who couldn't make it. So scalding was a simple process.

Then plucking was SO easy with my new Yard Bird plucker!! It was a very generous gift from Chase and Andrew!

By far the most time-consuming part was gutting the chickens. Chase and Andrew had brought over a couple of fancy sharp knives, and we all got faster at the process as the night went on, but still we worked from noon to 10 pm with only a few short breaks.

They also brought a vacuum sealer, so these almost look like store-bought chickens!

All the volunteers took home a couple of chickens each. It takes a village - I definitely couldn't have done all this myself! Thank you to my amazing friends!!

Replacing rabbit doe

The doe I'd brought home a couple weeks ago was quite determined to escape her pen. She found a weak point in the old cat pen and made it into a neighboring pen. I caught her, fixed up the hole, and put her back in. She found another spot she could break out of. Once again I happened upon her while she was still nearby, but this time she escaped from my net and ran out into the orchard. That's that, I thought. Five days later, she came back! But she had a bad respiratory infection and passed within 24 hours. At which point, I could handle her without unnecessary stress, and realized that she'd been a buck all along. The person who had sold the pair to me had made a mistake, and I hadn't thought to check when I picked them up, because sexing a grown rabbit is pretty easy.

On the bright side, when I posted to the local homesteading list that I was looking for a doe, someone offered me a two year old female who had already had healthy litters. She's a California/New Zealand cross (very common hybrid for meat rabbits).

Crossing my fingers that there are no more shenanigans!

Breed IDs on the 10 week old broilers

This batch of broilers contained 5 Black Australorps and 25 "all heavy" breeds, plus 1 free "rare chick." I could identify most of the breeds but needed a few IDed over on Backyard Chickens. Here's what we have:

Barred Rock

Blue Cochin

Buff Orpington

Light Brahma

Partridge Rock

Rhode Island Red

Silver Laced Wyandotte

Speckled Sussex

White Rock

Either the Blue Cochin or the Partridge Rock are the "free rare chick." I'm going to trial both of them as well as one of the Black Australorps as a replacement rooster. All of the roosters I trialed out from the previous batch ended up being jerks to the hens and were culled. The old feral rooster is still doing a good job but has a nasty foot injury. It will be good to have a second boy ready to take over if needed.

Rabbits!

I'd been wanting to get into raising meat rabbits for years. When I moved into my current location, I realized that the existing old animal pens could be easily converted into rabbit pens. Still, I kept putting off acquisition of rabbits until I had time to do more research (LOOOOOLL), and I worried about how they would do in the heat.

Last week, someone posted on a Bay Area homesteading list about old rabbit hutches and supplies they were giving away. Even though I wouldn't need the hutches while I'm living here, I decided to pick them up.

Last week, someone else posted about needing to sell a few rabbits, and were offering them for cheap. I decided to bite the bullet and got a male and female pair. It turned out that they were already second hand to the original owner, so I don't know their age or breed or whether they're fertile, but you know, they're rabbits so that's probably fine. On the downside, it's probable they're siblings, and they're a bit worse for wear. But they were cheap and I realized that I needed to just start, or I would never get around to it, and they needed a good home.

Two days after I brought them home, we have our first 100 degree days of 2018. So far they're weathering it better than I expected. They're set up in separate pens. They prefer to push the straw away to lie on the cool concrete floor. They have frozen water bottles to lick at or lie against. The doe has been drinking from a typical hanging rodent bottle but I realized that the buck hadn't figured it out and I gave him an extra bowl of water. They'll take treats from my hand. I'm giving them at least a week to acclimate before I try them together for breeding.

The buck has damaged ears from fights with other rabbits.

Look at that cat peeking in.

The doe has healthy ears but patchy fur from either overgrooming or fights.

Enjoying a strawberry on top of a frozen water bottle.

Bobble and Twist Hood

This was a super fun pattern! If I were to make it again, I would make the cabled brim out of a thinner yarn (it is super bulky on 6.5 mm needles). Even with the tight gauge, it comes out long and wide and overwhelms my small head. I'll definitely be wearing it, though. I might add a bobble onto the back and the sides of the brim, as pictured in the pattern.