How Challenging Can Chickens Be?

To say we've had a LOT of drama on the farm this past week would be an understatement. Between disastrous weather, chicken surrogacy gone bad, and Dave traveling out of state for several days, it's been an absolute whirlwind (pun intended). I think it's somewhat natural for people to assume I am not hands on with our farm responsibilities but that couldn't be further from the truth. We love to watch Homestead Rescue and on one episode they said "there's no his and her work in homesteading...there's just work." Operating the homestead wouldn't be possible without all five of us actively contributing and when Dave leaves for business travel, I have to be able to do everything he does. I never take for granted how much he does around the farm but it's a great reminder that our teamwork is absolutely necessary for long term success. So here's what's been going on and what I've been doing to keep things afloat with my 3 tiny helpers!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/0430e8_5ba048e4cbe542e1ac8b321a65af383e/360p/mp4/file.mp4

Hail No!!!!!

We had an absolute DISASTER Saturday on the farm...the worst fiasco we have ever faced and it is only by God's grace it wasn't a catastrophe. We left our house for 2 hours and when we pulled up the driveway Dave said "what's that white stuff on the ground?" It was a mix of hail and snow...in May 😳 We started walking over to the barn to take care of the chickens and noticed the former snake house was completely flooded...which meant the field was flooded...and so were the chickens. Never in a million years would we have imagined they would be standing in chest-deep ice water for who knows how long. Dave was like Hercules and lifted the chicken tractor up so the girls and I could start frantically moving chickens to less flooded ground. Poor little David was screaming and crying because "all of the chickens are going to die." One chicken had already died by the time we got to them and the rest were shivering like a dog pooping raising blades. Cornish Cross chickens are notoriously fragile birds and even the smallest things kill them...for example, a little rain and temps in the 50's, so stagnant freezing water was pretty much a death sentence. I'm so incredibly proud of my girls swift action jumping in and grabbing freezing birds and helping me move them. Without complaint or question, they just got to work. After moving them to safety, we added straw and a heat lamp running on a generator. Then we all prayed. Have you ever tried to convince yourself of something simply by saying it out loud? I did just that while walking home with the kids. I explained that homesteading and farming is full of challenges. If you can't emotionally weather the storms (in this case literally), this lifestyle isn't for you. It was an important life lesson that I think I used as a reminder more for myself than a lesson for my kids. Months of work could be completely wiped out in just 2 hours of inclement weather. That night, I couldn't decide if I was more upset that it happened, that it would be a huge financial loss or that our family's food for the next 6 months was in jeopardy. We didn't take the kids the next morning to check the chickens because we had no idea what we were going to find...I literally cried tears of joy to see only one loss. We did decide to put one poor chicken out of its misery because it had a broken leg and lost a toe to frost bite. In total, we only lost 3. It was truly a miracle.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/0430e8_95129f4a3c46407e91582cf2c0d37f56/360p/mp4/file.mp4

Smokey's Surrogacy

If you're following me on IG, you saw that one of our chickens has been broody for a few weeks. I needed a couple more colored layers for when we thin our flock in a few weeks, Rural King had chicks on sale, and I figured why not solve two problems at once.

We've done this successfully in the past but that was a different breed of chicken and let me tell you it did not go well this time. In fact, it went about as badly as it could have. Broody hens are typically pretty mean when they're sitting on eggs because it's their natural instinct to protect their babies. I wasn't surprised when she kept pecking me to pull the eggs out from under her. I was, however, quite surprised that she nearly killed a chick by relentlessly pecking it immediately upon me placing it underneath her. She had accepted two chicks quickly but by the third one she went full on crazy train. I scooped up the chicks that she wasn't sitting on and quickly moved them back into the brooder. By the time I got back to see how the others were doing she was attacking them too! She started ferociously pecking me through my gloves when I grabbed her and threw her out of the nesting box to save the remaining babies. I now have a deep understanding of what it means to be hen pecked.

Needless to say, Smokey's days are limited. We were going to keep her another year if she accepted these chicks but after what happened last night she is going into my crock pot... probably once Dave gets back. I promised Emily I would get her new "Freckles" chickens (ie Barred Plymouth Rock) and of course Smokey selectively chose Emily's chick to almost kill. And now I have a brooder full of chicks again 😭😭😭 Ya win some, ya lose some. Definitely lost on this one.

Raw milk...is it worth the hype?

Raw milk is SUPER controversial and there's no better way to get me to try something than to tell me I shouldn't. In Pennsylvania it is illegal to sell raw milk for human consumption so I bought some to make butter for "my dog" 😜 I had to see what it tasted like and if making homemade butter would be better than store bought. It was WAY different and in a good way. The cream from raw milk is thick, decadent, and luxurious. I let the milk stand in the fridge until the cream separated to the top, skimmed it off, and whipped it on medium speed in my KitchenAid stand mixer until the butter separated from the buttermilk. I drained the buttermilk into a mason jar for later use and squeezed the butter under cold running water until it ran clear.

It tastes incredible...and different than any butter I've ever eaten. It was fun watching it go from cream, to whipped cream, to eventually butter. If you ever get the chance, make butter for "your pets" from raw milk but definitely sample it just to make sure it's worthy of your 4 legged companions 😉

That's it for this week's edition of what's cluckin! See yinz next week for more farm fun...and hopefully less drama 🥴 Don't forget to like and share our journey with your friends!