YESTERDAY I took a few hours off from the farm to go and have lunch with a friend. I don’t do this often as you know and I never know what I am going to be dealing with on my return. I left the Poppy’s big door open to the weather so she did not get stir crazy, put on clean clothes and left the farm. 
But all was well. On my return, the worst Poppy had done was upend her water all over her courtyard. But it was warmer, the babies did not mind getting wet feet. Inside the barn was still dry and their creep was still warm and cosy.
To my relief, they were just as shiny and fat and funny when I got home as when i left. Even fatter probably – they grow very fast.
The wind has started to blow which is a good sign. We have three days of warm weather ahead of us before we drop back down into the cold. And I am going to make the most of it. Once the chicks come it will be busy again for a while.
I called to discuss the ducklings and the cold weather with Murray McMurray the hatchery and the woman seemed unperturbed about them travelling in next weeks cold. (As long as the Post Office does as it should, she said, deftly passing the buck). She did ask me if I wanted to reschedule but that would result in a hatch of ducklings that they may not be able to resell. And we all know what happens to chicks that do not sell. I know we don’t want to think about it but what do you think happens to all those rooster chicks from a hatch when we only order the females as layers. Unless we are vegans we are all part of that cycle. They do their best to place the extra chicks – the other hatchery I buy from is Ideal Poultry and I have had them call me on occasion trying to place a cancelled hatch. They try not to have to euthanise but the truth is not everything they hatch sells, the males in the laying world do not have the same demand, and my cancelling would add to that problem. My chicks are already started and I don’t think it is ethical for me to simply change my mind because of the weather. I have decided to let the chicks and ducklings be sent out in the post and we will hope for the best.
For the record both my orders are for female birds.
At the very least by next week we will be back above freezing (I hope) when they are travelling. And I will set up nice warm areas for the chicks to grow in when they make it through.
I hope I have not ruined your morning – but there is one thing you know from reading this blog and that is that we do not flinch from the truth here. And in the Lounge of Comments everyone has a space to discuss these issues without raised voices or recriminations. So do feel free to join the discussion.
There are times in life when the knowledge of something sad or unfair is enough. We face it and know it and let that knowledge be. Some things are unchangeable. Some things are sad. Some things stink. But there you are. Own it. We need to use the pragmatic sides of our brains and deal with it. Roosters do not lay eggs, for instance. So they are less valuable. That is just how it is. Some things we must accept if we are to keep eating omelettes.
I do hope you find some loveliness in your day.
Love celi
WEATHER:
Thursday 04/12 0% / 0 in
A mix of clouds and sun. Gusty winds diminishing during the afternoon. High 74F. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph.
Thursday Night 04/12 10% / 0 in
Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 58F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph.
Sun
6:18 am 7:29 pm
Moon
Waning Crescent, 14% visible 4:50 am 4:01 pm
The Kitchen's Garden 
62 responses to “LET’S SEE WHAT WE’VE GOT”
As you say, unless we are strict vegans then we have no right to criticize. Life just goes on.
Yes – and even if we chose to be vegan it does not give us the right to judge either – there is so many choices if you can afford it. We do the best we can and life goes on! Absolutely right. c
Not many people can afford to feed and raise male chicks whose only possible function long term would be eating bugs and scratching out weeds. It’s a harsh reality of raising all animal food, not just poultry, and I think you have the balance right between economics and ethics. We can love your baby piggies, and wish we could cuddle them, but it’s important for us to remember your animals are not pets, they are dollars on the hoof. Entitled to respect, care and mindfulness, but their well fed and cared for lives have one aim.
Yes – and aren’t they cute at this age!! c
I am amazed by the image of the baby next to Poppy’s snout. They are really tiny wee things, aren’t they? And their mamma is really yuuuuuge as our Pres. would say. Goodness. I shouldn’t let him influence my lounge comments in any way. Take that bag. She’s enormous.
Enormous yes – She does look rather long next to those babies – who are growing fast!
One of the things I live about reading your blog every morning is that it keeps me connected to the food cycle. When you don’t live on the farm, it is so easy to get into the mindset that food comes from the grocery store in neatly wrapped packages. If more people were more connected to the reality of the whole thing I think we would have less waste.
The pictures of the piglets are adorable! And tell your peacock that he is mighty impressive. He seems like he might be looking for some attention. 🙂
I agree about the waste – facing your food puts a whole new perspective on left overs.
One way to deal with the males is to surgically caponize them. Many years ago my husband and I caponized 300 birds and sold them. Once you get the hang of it, it goes quite fast! Not many people know what a capon is anymore. Big fat juicy bird.
Yes. And you must have had a good market for them too – well done
I was thinking of mentioning that too …and of course they could be raised for coq au vin – it doesn’t need to be made with a stringy old rooster.
I just can’t see the hatcheries raising roosters for a market – I think they rather hope someone else will buy the chicks and do that. As it iss there are just too many leftover chicks each week for them to hold onto. And they hatch to order! Once the chicks get to a farm it is another discussion altogether.c
They ought to give them to good customers – providing they want them of course.
I was just thinking about that myself, I recall my mother saying their wedding meal was capons (some 70 yrs ago!)
I do hope that you had an enjoyable lunch date..its good to see friends now and then for a good conflab… Yes it has to be accepted that busines is business and as you say..sometimes we may not like the way things are done or the reason for doing them but when its your business then logic gives way to softie hearts…. Its a fact of life… Have a great day…the sun is out and the sky is blue here in BG…lots of love. Me
A softie heart could never work at a hatchery I think.. c
In my townie ignorance I thought the male chicks would likely be fattened for meat. Is that not the case?
If they are a meat bird breed they will be fed out if someone buys them of course. but many of these breeds are layers – these are very different birds to meat breeds. – some are dual purpose but once again this depends entirely on the market. Many chicks are not sold so will be euthanized and used in dog food etc. It is an unfortunate result of commercial hatcheries
I believe some of our chicken production plants deliver unwanted chicks to our zoo for feed for the smaller Cats and snakes. By the way we have a new farmer at our market on Wednesdays and yesterday he had huge (organic farm) chickens. Most of the people asked why he was selling turkey so early. They were all over 2kgs and had plump yellow skin. Some of the chickens that were under 2kgs had been deboned and rolled with interesting fillings. He had cooked one and was offering free samples, the meat was delicious and tender. I still remember the day you went to the post office to collect bees and cleared the place 🙂 Laura
Hi Laura! Do you know if his chickens were Cornish Crosses? They get quite big, with really large breasts. We have raised them, but it’s hard to watch them try to move their large bodies about. They seem mutant like, but the meat was quite good.
I will ask next week.
The rolled roasts sound tasty – i think i would have to bring one of those home.
Tane is looking a bit thin. I hope he is well. Those little piglets are learning to dump the water at an early age.
Hi Kim! I was thinking that Tane was looking a little thin too, but maybe that’s a good thing. I’m thinking that as with people, the thinner you are, the more lithe and limber and easier to move around it is. Hope that’s the case with Tane!
I was thinking much the same, especially when we see Tima in comparison.
Agreed, he’s looking very thin – and the other day I was wondering if WaiWai might have been trying to help keep him warm…
Tane has always been this way – since his back went out – he has been a lot worse this winter but is doing better lately. Keeping him moving in the biggest problem so he has no muscle tone. I feed him twice what the others get and he is keeping his weight on at least. c
We order cockerels only for meat, layers we order pullets.
Yes – we can only do our best- it would be better if the meat birds were the layers then it would work out so much better. There are some like that. I tried it last year but by the time I got the roosters to any size they are as tough as oldboots
We order cockerels only for meat birds, pullets only for layers. When the layers are done with laying, we breast them out like grouse – waste not want not. I can or freeze the meat. Sometimes I get a yen for a layer variety that they don’t sex and we roll the dice on how many will be roosters. We keep a few aside for ‘yard candy’ and process the others like we do the old layers. Even dual purpose breeds don’t produce a lot of meat.
Sounds like you jhave a very good system – I have a freezer full of birds waiting to be eaten – so i am not growing any meat birds this year. c
So curious to see how the duck operation goes! We have always had ducks, at first to provide food, but we became so attached to them that it never happened. We are getting ten Muscovies in June, as predators took all but one this past winter. They have always been free range, but we are now building a safe enclosure where they will go at night, and then can free range during the day.
I’ve heard that Muscovys are great bug hunters: )
I am hoping to also put them to bed at night – it will be interesting to see how my plans evolve when they hit reality!!
I had three ducks to start and was surprised that they put themselves to bed every night. They are also much easier to ‘herd’ than chickens!
If we end up with some roosters, we try to fatten them and harvest by six-months of age. After that time, they’re not great eating. Another story, I once stopped at the farm store and a woman was yelling at the female manager about a chick that some kid had rendered lame due to mishandling. After assuring the woman that she’d remove it to their “injured” area in the back and care for it. The woman left and the manager turned to me (I’m a regular there so we see each other often) and said, “Are people that dumb to think we have a hospital area back there? Doesn’t she realize we can’t keep those chicks? I can’t do the deed myself but I have guys that can. I almost feel like I should have told her the truth.” There are, unfortunately, a lot of folks who don’t want to hear the reality of a lot of things.
An escape for a bit of lunch with a friend is often difficult to manage, but often is just the diversion we need in the day or week. I’m glad you didn’t return to some kind of catastrophe! Of course you would have dealt with that too… it’s life.
I have a whole bunch of “not great eating” in the freezer. We have some wonderful soups though and broth. c
If you are a farmer of animals or reading about them, you must take pragmatism along as a companion. That’s life. In and out. I’m happy you enjoyed your lunch with a friend. Those things are as important as everything else. Piglets are just beautiful.
Yes – I feel nourished after a day in the city – just stretching out and walking from the station to the restaurant is a treat let alone the wonderful company.. c
My mother and grandmother really liked a nice big capon for dinner. Pity they don’t really bother with them anymore. I know a lot of people may not even know what a capon is. It would nice to have them available again.
I saw plenty when I was in Italy last! c
We should have them here.