Friday, March 11, 2011

Spring snow, Name that Chicken and Where's the Beef!

I had heard the predictions earlier in the week for snow, but honestly had dismissed them. Not enough to really cover the ground or stick to pavement, it just reminded us that spring is not quite here yet. Here's some of our poor daffodils with bits of snow weighing the blooms down.
The temperature is already in th 40s so what snow we had is melted.

Here's another perspective of the chickens. I think we should call them pullets now instead of chicks. Still at least 10 weeks away from any egg production, so I believe they would be considered juveniles - just not babies!
About half of the Red Stars are more brown than white, but the plumage is still very spotty.
About half of the chickens will allow us to pick them up with no fuss and some seem to welcome 'petting'.

The dark 'bonus' chicken is not one of the friendliest birds. We have labeled it as a 'him' due to the likely odds of a hatchery shipping a 'free' male rather than a 'free' female. The boys have nomered him 'Bawk Sqwauk', but we're looking for help in identifying the breed and gender. He's beginning to look like a Silver Laced Wyandotte, which is a good egg laying breed - but not roosters, of course!


If anyone out there knows something about the gender or breed of this bird - please let us know! Curiosity is getting the best of us!

On a side note, we just stocked up on beef - a side of beef to be exact. In case you ever wondered how much freezer space is needed, we can tell you that this side of beef completely filled our 9.8 c.f. chest freezer. The butcher told us this particular side was on the larger end of average (between 250 and 300 lbs). Why would we do this? The cost of the beef was between $2 and $2.50 per pound - much less than grocer prices for the various cuts.


1 comment:

  1. wow those chicks are sure growing up fast.

    yes that is the way to go with meat. you will see your grocery bill going down now.

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