Quasimodo’s family

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Fritz Nordengren

I promised an update on Quasimodo, the White Chinese gosling who hatched with some difficulty and some human assistance at the beginning of the month.

Quasimodo, with POTUS and FLOTUS, the adult geese

I shared this family photo as one of the 3 6 5 from my daily photo project. So some back story is in order.

The last group of goose eggs i Incubated included one that pipped and did not progress much further. Pipping is the inside puncture of the membrane into the air sack so the bird ca begin breathing, then pipping the shell begins the visible hatching process. The strength necessary to break an egg aids in the gosling’s development and survivability. Conventional wisdom is not to interfere with the hatching process.

But as the gosling failed to progress — part out of sympathy and part out of curiosity, I helped it along. The inner membrane was trying to the wings and neck.limiting the mobility of the soon to be hatched goose, so with care I separate the hard shell and waited to see how it fared.

The hatch results I also shared as part of the 3 6 5 here.

The gosling did well and survived the fist 24 hours, so I moved him to a plastic brooder with some additional heat, food and water. It was clear from the beginning he has some deformity. I dont know what a goose veternarian would call it, but its a cross between scoliosis and torticollis, the right “shoulder” is carried higher and more anterior than normal, and what results is a goose with a hunch back, so by day 4 or 5, I gave him the name “Quasimodo”, who after all, is the protagonist of the story, right? If I manually straighten his neck, he has full range of movement, but short of finding a gosling sized neck collar, or a resident goose physical therapist, Quasi is what he is.

There is a small duck house / three sided shelter int he duck and goose pen. There is a larger shelter there, too. Most of the nesting and egg laying is done in the larger shelter, so after spending a few weeks inside, I decided to move Quasimodo out with the adults to have some socialization and to slowly integrate him into the flock. I put him in the small shelter, with food and water and then closed the front with chicken wire so he could be near the others, but protected if they became aggressive or tried to push him out of the shelter.

All was good the first afternoon and over night. Quasi was eating and drinking fine, and mostly ignored by the other birds.

The morning of the second night, I came out to discover Quasi has left the little shelter and was quite comfortable next to FLOTUS in the straw in the big shelter. He either wriggled under the chicken wire, or POTUS and FLOTUS gave some help and wiggled the wire free.

Since then, its quite clear that both adult geese take their protection of Quasi quite seriously.

Enjoy the video below as POTUS defines limits for me. As they get close to the pen, Quasi bumps into the door and ends up on the wrong side, and gets a bit of help.

Don’t Panic – a chicken tale

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Fritz Nordengren

In the summer of 1980, I read Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” and was first introduced to the phrase -now-Internet-meme “So long, and thanks for all the fish.” The phrase is uttered by Dolphins. Well actually, according to the Wikipedia summary (I don’t own a copy of the text anymore) says it like this:

For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons.
The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersault through a hoop whilst whistling the ‘Star Spangled Banner’, but in fact the message was this: So long and thanks for all the fish.

The last few days at Two Mile Ranch have been much like the summer I remember reading the Adams book. Bright, sunny and care free. Working a 10 month work contract at the University gives me June and July to work solely on farm chores. I thought of that book, the cover of the Hitchhiker’s Guide, and it’s famous words: Don’t Panic. Good advice for Small Farm Life.

So I didn’t panic on Saturday evening, around 11:00 or so. I heard the noise of racoons in the hen house. It’s a sound that is very unique. All the animals here have predicable sounds: I know when they are signaling to locate each other, the ducks often quack a round of

“marco”

“polo”

The roosters and hens call in various crows and cackles, and the geese honk and squeal. But the sound of a predator in the hen house is a sound that is unmistakable the first time you hear it, and every time after. It tells you there is every reason to panic….

I was slow, slower than usual. I opened the door and sent Chelsea, a visiting dog out and called for Zinger. Z was sleeping soundly and slower than normal, when I lit up the chicken pen with a flashlight, I was met by the raccoons eyes reflecting in the darkness so I yelled for both dogs.

They worked the outside of the fence while I tried to get to the hen house to be sure another raccoon wasn’t inside. The bandit predator frantically ran from pen fence to pen fence, to be met at each side by a dog. After a few unsuccessful escape runs, it vanished. In hind site, it’s clear to me now it climbed a tree to wait out the dogs.

As I moved the beam of the light around the pen, the first chicken I found was “Buffy”, the Buff Orpington hen, crouched in the grass. I reached to touch her and she exploded in a self-protective fury and disappeared into the grass. I looked in the coop to find the nameless Barred Rock and “Rosy”, the original Ameraucana, sitting on the floor. There was a broken egg, but no evidence of a raccoon still inside.

I walked around the pen, carefully searching in the dark and found the sad news I had anticipated. The Rhode Island Red was dead…and near by, “Girlie” the Ameraucana I wrote about here, was taking her final breaths.

Frank Perdue used to advertise that “It takes a tough man to raise a tender chicken.” I’ve shared this story and quote that you don’t “just grow a chicken, you form a relationship.” In that spirit, I’ll leave you to conclude what you will about those final moments in the grassy pen on that moonless night.

I give thanks when I send each meat bird to be slaughtered and prepared for someone’s meal. And so, I thanked each bird for their life and how they had helped to feed me and many of my friends with their eggs. I said, “So long, and thanks for all the eggs”

And with the dogs in the house, and the remaining hens locked in the coop, the story ends and life goes on…

Today, while doing chores, I was feeding the roosters and watering the turkeys when, out of habit, I peeked into the brooder room where “Girlie” would to sneak off to leave her eggs. In the corner, I found one final, small, perfect egg, the last one she laid, as if to say, “Thank you” to me for all her care.

Thank you.

Broody ducks and forlorn love birds

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Fritz Nordengren

The secret nest of eggs, hidden in the crook of a tree.

I can’t speak for all poultry growers, but from my experience, free range poultry can offer some fun challenges in egg collection.

Poultry, like most living things, are creatures of habit. The chickens tend to lay in the nesting box, and go about their daily business or scratching and foraging for bugs and dusting themselves. The ducks, who sometimes lay anywhere the egg drops, for the most part find a corner of the duck house and lay before 8 am, then go about their day foraging in the ponds.

But with 6 fairly prolific ducks, I’m only finding 3 – 4 eggs a day which suggests either some flock stress, or someone has a secret egg stash.

When duck :30 came Thursday night, when one of the ducks failed to return to the pen, I guessed she has gone broody and is sitting on her secret nest.

So let me introduce the cast of characters so you can keep the layers straight:

There are 10 ducks and 2 geese in the lineup:

Two cayugas are part of my original four. Both are ducks (not drakes) and lay very well almost year around.

A brown runner (now with white spots) duck and the white crested drake with the biggest crest are gifts from my friends Lori and Ev, who needed to give them a new home. We did a meet-you-half-way drive to Missouri to exchange them in a ferocious rain storm.

Two cayugas, (one drake, one duck) arrived last summer, along with

Two black runners (one drake, one duck) who sometimes I call DIB or “Ducks in Black” because during the winter, they would run along side the goose and gander almost like secret service agents protecting POTUS and FLOTUS.

POTUS and FLOTUS are the goose and gander.

Finally, two new crested, one duck and one drake, round out the 10.

During winter, all 12 were fairly tight, moving as a flock together. With spring, they have divided into tribes. The brown runner and crested keep to themselves on the far end of the big pond and are often the last back at night.

The new cayuga drake, the crested duck, the two DIB runners and a cayuga duck from the original ducks now form the group I call “the gang of five”.

The other three tend to hang with POTUS and FLOTUS the geese.

During Friday’s photo for my 365 project, I noticed the gang of five was a gang of four… and it was the oldest cayuga who remained out over night.

Seven eggs all in a row. From either one week or over several days.

Friday, after I finished my University work and some follow up to a day long meeting, I decided to go seek her nest. What I found, in the nook of a tree at the top of the little pond dam, was this secret stash of eggs. There are 7 eggs, but its impossible to guess their age. They may have all been laid this week or they could be daily eggs over the last few weeks.

She is no where to be found, and so I’m not certain this is her nest…it may belong to one of the others.

I suspect their is another nest in a wood pile where I see the gang of five hanging out during parts of the day. I’ve searched there, but cant find anything….yet.

But not to be outdone, is the young Amerucana hen who leaves the coop each day, sneaks out of the fence and into the barn to hang out with the two roosters. The roosters are in “detention” for being a little rough in their breeding habits. I have two roosters and 5 hens, that’s a bad ratio and it shows. 3 of the hens have have their back and neck feathers plucked by the roosters (named El Senor and Colonel Sanders).

So like an abused lover from COPS or the Jerry Springer show who can’t give up her man, she runs over to visit the boys in their detention. She’s made a cozy nest there, and each day, lays her egg there. So rather than fight nature, I just collect her egg there during chores as I water the turkeys and once or twice a day, pick her up and carry her back to the other hens.

20 Ways to Cook a Whole Chicken – Saveur.com

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Fritz Nordengren

A split whole chicken ready to smoke. Foil covered drip pan is on lower grid.

Over at Saveur.com, they have a page devoted to recipes to cook whole chicken. They range in complexity and style and also in cuisine and origin. If you are thinking of adding Two Mile Ranch or other whole chickens to your freezer this year, the Saveur site is a good collection of meal ideas.

20 Ways to Cook a Whole Chicken – Saveur.com.

Time to talk turkey

Posted on May 15, 2011 by Fritz Nordengren

I need to take care of a little business

I’m pleased to say this year’s turkeys are all growing and looking well, there is a mix of Bourbon Reds, Narragansett, and Royal Palms. These will be processed as an state inspected facility and available approximately November 20.

Air Chilled

The turkeys will be air chilled — not cooled in a water bath — these will be outstanding turkeys this year, unlike any store-bought Thanksgiving you have tasted.

Your reservation lets me know how many birds to plan for and who is interested. An order secures your delivery date and quantity. Final prices are based on dressed weight. I’ll try to guide nature to come as close to your desired weight as possible. But this is natural growing process, not factory controlled.

About our growing season

I’m not a commercial grower, I don’t have stock year around, but instead, raise a small number of birds each year and let their pasture and pens “rest” during the balance of the year. This helps keep diseases in check and gives their foraging pasture time to recover.

Chickens

The chickens are a Freedom Ranger chicken from French breeding stock, originally bred for France’s Label Rouge qualities. These chickens grow well, have nice white meat and dark meat to please all. A few each year top 7 pounds and a few finish closer to 3.5. If you have a preference, let me know

Raised free-range, in closed pen at night to protect from predation, birds fed supplemental feed from all plant (non animal) sources

Reservations accepted Beginning January 1, 2011
Delivery: October – November 2011
Payment (Balance due on delivery)
Sold Fresh (pick up only) or frozen (limited delivery area and times)

Chicken : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : $3.00 per pound (Approximately 5 pounds each) (some smaller, some larger)

At the request of some customers, I am sizing a few more birds this year in the 3 – 3..5 pound range, its the same great chicken, just less of it.

Dates Available:
October 4 (limited), 11 (SOLD OUT), 18, 25
November 1, 8, 15 (limited)

Turkeys

These are heritage breed birds, not the hybridized, broad-breasted sold in the grocery store. Typically these are Royal Palm, Narragansett, and Bourbon Red breed. Hens run smaller, toms dress under 20 pounds.

Raised free-range, in closed pen at night to protect from predation, birds fed supplemental feed from all plant (non animal) sources

Reservations accepted Beginning January 1, 2011
Delivery: November (Thanksgiving week) or December 20, 2011
Payment (Half due in June, balance due on delivery)
Sold Fresh (pick up only) or frozen (limited delivery area and times)

Turkey : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : $4.00 per pound (Approximately 9 – 20 pounds each)

Available:
November 2o 5 remain
December 20

Ducks (Ducks are sold out for 2011) contact me

These are Pekin (white feathered) ducks, raised for meat. This duck cleans easily and presents well if serving whole. Necks removed unless requested otherwise

Raised free-range, typically spend most of day on two ponds during day and in closed pen at night to protect from predation, birds fed supplemental feed.

Reservations accepted Beginning January 1, 2011
Delivery: November (Thanksgiving week) or December 20, 2011
Payment (Half due in June, balance due on delivery)
Sold Fresh (pick up only) or frozen (limited delivery area and times)

Duck : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : $4.00 per pound (Approximately 5 pounds each)

Available:
~~November 2o (Very limited)~~
~~December 20~~

Please let me know about the poultry you would like to buy for this season.

White Chinese Geese for Sale

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Fritz Nordengren

These goslings were hatched Easter Sunday. Here’s shot of a pair of them and another photo of a full grown White Chinese Goose. These are great weeders for the garden, good “alarms” or watchdogs, they alert when someone visits or there is a threat.

I have a few remaining for sale, contact me if interested, local pick up only, I’m not set up to ship them. fritz.nordengren AT smallfarmlife.com.

Free Range Poultry for sale (Chickens, Turkeys, Ducks)

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Fritz Nordengren

Updated3-11-11: I’m busy planning our growing schedule for 2011 and am taking early reservations for pasture raised, hormone and antibiotic free chicken, turkey, duck.

A reservation lets me know how many birds to plan for and who is interested. An order secures your delivery date and quantity. Final prices are based on dressed weight. I’ll try to guide nature to come as close to your desired weight as possible. But this is natural growing process, not factory controlled.

About our growing season

Chickens

Raised free-range, in closed pen at night to protect from predation, birds fed supplemental feed from all plant (non animal) sources

Reservations accepted Beginning January 1, 2011
Delivery: October – November 2011
Payment (Balance due on delivery)
Sold Fresh (pick up only) or frozen (limited delivery area and times)

Chicken : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : $3.00 per pound (Approximately 5 pounds each) (some smaller, some larger)

Available:
October 4 (limited), 11 (SOLD OUT), 18, 25
November 1, 8, 15 (limited)

Turkeys

Raised free-range, in closed pen at night to protect from predation, birds fed supplemental feed from all plant (non animal) sources

Turkey : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : $4.00 per pound (Approximately 9 – 20 pounds each)

Available:
November 22 5 remain
December 20

Ducks

These are Pekin (white feathered) ducks, raised for meat. This duck cleans easily and presents well if serving whole. Necks removed unless requested otherwise

Raised free-range, typically spend most of day on two ponds during day and in closed pen at night to protect from predation, birds fed supplemental feed.

Duck : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : $4.00 per pound (Approximately 5 pounds each)

Available:
November 22 (Very limited)
December 20

Super Bowl Sunday Wings – Not Wyngz

Posted on February 6, 2011 by Fritz Nordengren

(This is an expansion of a 2009 post )

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, so I understand if you don’t read this until later in the week. But it’s a great chance to make some examples of what a feeding a nation looks like.

In 2009, I picked up on a press release from the chicken producers about chicken wings…one of many Super Bowl favorite foods.

You may have seen some blog posts and other news stories about a possible buffalo chicken wing shortage for the Super Bowl earlier this year.

But the National Chicken Council released this press release, assuring consumers that there was a large enough supply.

The National Chicken Council estimates that more than one billion wing portions will be served during the last football weekend.

One billion wing portions.

For 2011, the National Chicken Council new numbers say:

The Super Bowl weekend is unquestionably the biggest time of the year for wings. The National Chicken Council projects that more than 1.25 billion wing portions will be consumed during Super Bowl weekend in 2011. That is more than 100 million pounds of wings.

In my 2009 post, I did the math on the billion wings:

Assuming you can get two wings from a chicken, that’s 500 million chickens just for Super Bowl weekend.

In other words, to meet this supply, every man, woman and child in a city the size of Detroit, would need to raise 500 chickens.

Each.

Allowing each bird 8 square feet of space would cover 143 square miles. (500 million x 8 = 4 billion square feet, divided by 27,878,400 square feet in a square mile. Detroit itself is 138.8 square miles and isn’t quite big enough.

So back to 2011′s Super Bowl. The estimtes are 1.25 billion, so, after you done the math on the 1 billion wings, there are still 250 million wings (from 125 million chickens) to account for. And at 500 chickens each, they are *easily* raised by all the folks in any US city of 250,000 with a little room to spare….

As I wrote this blog update, the Cobert report broke a story about “Wyngz”, which has created some buzz in the twitter verse and blogosphere. If you want to know what the USDA FSIS says about wyngs,

FSIS has a standard of identity in Title 9 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Section 381.170(b)(7) that defines a poultry “wing.” The use of the term “wing” cannot be used on any poultry product unless it complies with this standard of identity. In comparison, FSIS allows the use of the term “wyngz” to denote a product that is in the shape of a wing or a bite-size appetizer type product under the following conditions in which the Agency considers its use fanciful and not misleading:

The statement may only reference the term “wyngz” (no other misspellings are permitted). All labels bearing the term “wyngz” need to be submitted to the Labeling and Program Delivery Division (LPDD) for sketch approval because it is considered a special statement that cannot be generically approved;

the poultry used is white chicken (with or without skin);

“wyngz” is placed contiguous to a prominent, conspicuous, and legible descriptive name (e.g., “white chicken fritters”) in the same color font;

the smallest letter in the descriptive name is no smaller than 1/3 the size of the largest letter used in “wyngz;” and

a statement that further clarifies that the product does not contain any wing meat or is not derived only from wing meat (e.g., “contains no wing meat,” “with no wing meat,” “contains breast meat and wing meat”) is placed in close proximity to the descriptive name and linked to “wyngz” by use of an asterisk. “Wyngz” referenced elsewhere on the package, e.g., on the front riser panel, would also need to be displayed with an asterisk linking it to this statement on the principal display panel.

I have not done the math to know how many chickens it takes to make a pair of “wyngz”, nor do I know if the Super Bowl half time show will ever be performed by Paul McCartney and “Wyngz”.

City Chickens – ala The Splendid Table

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Fritz Nordengren

So my friend emailed me to ask if I was listening to Lynne Rossetto Kasper and The Splendid Table® this morning. I was not, but found the clip on line.

Testing the roosts

Lynne is talking with a backyard chicken guru, Jenna Woginrich, about getting started with raising egg-laying chickens in the city.

The opening question is priceless: “Do you have to have a rooster if you’re gonna have chickens… if you wanna get chickens for eggs?”

Answer: “Chickens are just like us they in the fact that we will cycle through our own eggs whether or not we are dating someone.”

How to build your own smoker

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Fritz Nordengren

The finished chicken, fresh out of the smoker. Hormone and antibiotic free, pasture raised, home smoked.

It started with the simple idea for Thanksgiving dinner: a smoked, heritage breed, free range turkey. Adding fuel to the fire, the New York Times featured a well known, Texas turkey smoker in early November, showcasing Greenberg Smoked Turkey.

So I looked at buying a simple smoker, or making one. The original inspiration for a DIY smoker came from the late Jeff Smith, known to most as The Frugal Gourmet:

And multiple people have documented their own adaptation of the trash can smoker on websites. Searching “trash can smoker” on Google will lead you to several plans as well as passionate discussion and debate on BBQ BBS’s.

So I set out to build a simple, adaptable, back yard smoker. Older web sites suggest you can build one of these for $30 or less than $50. Perhaps. Off the shelf, retail prices for all the parts will be closer to $100, but if you have some parts, your final cost may be less. Or more.

The idea is simple: you need a container for the meat and smoke, you need a heat source, a smoke source, and some accessories, depending on your finesse and style.

The container

This is a 30 gallon, off-the-shelf galvanized trash can. If you are concerned about zinc off gassing from the galvanized metal, do some research and make your own scientifically informed decision. Smoking is done at a much lower temperature than BarBQ or grilling. The internal temperature of a smoker is 225 degrees or less, some culinary writers suggest 180 degrees.

Some online designs cut a small hole to snake the power cord from an electric hot plate out the side Jeff Smith’s original Frugal Gourmet design had a small side access door and I’ve made a similar one in my smoker. The access door is a sliding piece of metal, I cut one from an old cookie sheet, but you may have scrap metal you can use. I wrapped the edge of the door and the door opening with duct tape to reduce the chance of cuts from the rough metal, since this would be a frequent access point to add more wood during the smoke.

The racks

I visited the local hardware, big-box store and found replacement grill grates for a large Weber grill. This is the off season in the Midwest, so supplies are limited. At this store, the meat grill was to large in diameter for the trash can, but the replacement charcoal grate was slightly smaller than the diameter, so I bought two, one to support the water pan or drip pan just above the heat source, and a second to support the meat. For placement, I measured the height of the electric burner with the smoke box for the wood chips and placed the rack supports about an inch above that.

For the meat rack, I measured small turkey, and then set the rack so that a future turkey could fit inside.

The Jeff Smith design uses metal rods across the diameter of the can. I borrowed from online designers and instead, use 4-3 inch bolts to support the racks. The racks can be taken out and replaced before, during, or after a smoke.

The heat source

The easiest heat source, especially for long smokes, is electric heat in the form of a single burner hot plate. I left the access door large enough so that this smoker can also be used with charcoal, or a propane burner. I found my hot plate at a local hardware store, a few dollars more than online, but buying local is important when ever possible.

The accessories

I added a replacement grill thermometer to the lid to monitor inside temperature. It’s placed in a hole drilled hear the handle. I also drilled a side hole above the level of the top rack, and fed the probe of a remote thermometer through a rolled , small diameter tube of duct tape to protect the probe cord. The sensing unit goes into the meat to tell the internal temperature without having to open the lid.