Winter is setting in.....

Well the chickens are 1/2 time laying, and they aren't a year old yet.  Of the 7 chickens, 3 polish and 4 aurcanas chickens, I am getting 2 green eggs per day.  I read an article on my friend's blog:  http://livinghealthyinthemodernworld.blogspot.com/2011/12/egg-shortage.html  I posted a comment that I am thinking the shortage is due to the lack of light.  Chickens need 12 - 14 hours of light in order to lay.  I am going to let my chickens continue to rest and molt, and put a light bulb on a timer in their house in Jan or Feb.  I am thinking I should be able to get a outdoor timer pretty cheap.  I had seen they are selling them for Christmas decorations. 

Sorry, but I am going to add that if they don't start laying regular, we will cull the flock.  For many years I had issues with eating my chickens.  They have been like pets.  Now with this corn allergy I am looking at them more as food/meat.  Its very hard to find uncontaminated meat.  The meat industry has become so unsafe.  I think due to their size, and greediness that they wash all the meat with citric acid made from corn.  Therefore I now need to look at my chickens as roasters!  Breaded and fried.  Again sorry if that sounds sick, but I really need to change my mindset. 

Chicken Processing

We had a couple of roosters I wanted to process and didn't know exactly how.  Wade and Lucy Wisner of  Wisner's Farm asked if we'd like to come to their meat bird processing to learn how, and we could bring our birds.  My husband Mitch and I chased down our nasty rooster and took him and another over for processing today.  Mitch learned how to put them down, scald, and pluck.  I learned the butchering part.  We enjoyed learning this art. 

What I learned about possible corn contaimination.  Before butchering the birds are chilled in ice water.  Corn allergic have issues with store bought ice due to the water softening process.  The other possible contamination comes with disinfectant.  I was told there is a requirement for sterile water to be available or used to clean the cutting surface and the equipment.  The sterile water contained pinesol or white vinegar. 

I made sure to bring along my own ice chest and 2 1/2 gallons of ice from home, plus ziploc bags to put my birds in.   I made ice water in my ice chest to chill my birds.  When we were done butching their birds I rinsed my corner of the table off with water to butcher my birds.   I am excited that I now have small uncontaminated chicken.  Yeah!  I am now ready to start buying larger breed laying hens that can also be good for meat.