Coop Build Part Three

 Processing Day and More Sheep!

 Today is December 23 so todays post is a few days old, well, not quite a week since we processed the  chickens out of the flock. We also have more sheep but more on that later. 

Processing day was on the 18th, a Saturday and since we were taking the birds off to a friends to make a day of processing both our and her birds, AND she has a working feather plucker, we loaded up our 19 hens and the 2 roos we decided to cull. Our current flock is in it's third year of hens with a very few that were in their 5th year. With this years particularly hard molt (nation wide if you gauge it by the general tone on the chicken forums online) that saw egg production go from 25 eggs a day to actually zero and the high number of older chickens in the flock we decided a hard cull was in order, saving only the youngest in case they start up again in Spring. That means we are keeping the golden comet hens that have been the dominant layers for us this year, accounting for 80% of the measly 25 eggs a day and they are going into their third year this upcoming season. We do have an order ready to be placed in January for a new set of 15 chicks from our local hatchery on Oahu, Asagi Hatchery. We are going to be ordering another set of golden Comet layers, and 20 Cornish Cross chicks for meat processing. But that is in the future, so for now, we'll get back to processing day. 

Total number of birds that brought to process for us was 19, 17 older hens and our two roos. For our friend that we
joined in for making a full day of it, she had 21 roos of hers and 11 rabbits. We travelled to her because she has a mechanical plucker, and if you have never used one, it is a whirling, thumping devil of a machine, bordering on medieval that takes a hot, wet chicken in and delivers a naked, steaming bird, almost ready to be bagged up and chilled. Those that have processed chickens know that the getting the feathers off the bird is one of the most disagreeable parts of the process. This wonderous machine can take three chickens at a time, or one turkey, or one , maybe two ducks, and I am pleased to say that I am about half done in the process of making one of our own and a build post will be following the completion of that! 

We got a late start at about 11 AM but with four people processing, we made relatively short work of it, finishing up at just before 5 pm. Total chickens processed, 40. Total Rabbits done, 11. A very good day. 

Both freezers a little fuller and food security on an Island where 80-85% of all food stuffs are dependent on cargo ships is just a little bit more secure. 

Meanwhile, we have more news on the farm food front. JoAnn and I have gotten 2 more sheep. Both young ewes to boost the breeding stock, and both under a year. They are hair sheep breeds, Dorper
crossed with Katahdins, one about 5 months old, her name is Freckles for the tiny red-brownish spots on her muzzle, and the smaller one, Oreo, named for her black and white spots. Purchased form one of the big farms on the north end of the Big Island, we got them wormed and their hooves were trimmed before they got placed into the truck for the trip home. Once there, they got their CDT initial dose, and FAMACHA check and another once over by JoAnn who wasn't able to be there for their purchase.   

We kept them isolated from the others for a week, just in case, and once their time alone was up, we opened the gate and they were ready to bolt out and join the herd. We run them on a quarter acre for now, we will be expanding that to about 1/2 acre once I put in the more permanent chain link cross fence. One thing about the new girls, they come from a herd of feed bucket callable lambs, but they haven't been handled much so they are skittish. Not as skittish as Mrs. Sheep was, but not a 'walk-up-to-you-to-see-what-you-have-for-them' kind of sheep to be sure yet. It's been just two weeks so far, and they are getting a lot more friendly, even taking treats like papayas, and banana leaves albeit nervously from our hands. Our goal is to have friendly sheep, but not so far as to have lap sheep.

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