Quite Simply, Chook Chat

[Bramble-Poultry]

here you go - gratuitus piggy picture

[Glutton4...]

That's lovely BP, won't stay that size for long!

[RichmondHens]

OMG!!!...I've just finished dry plucking our Marans male.

windy??...yup!...what a day to choose my first dry plucking!

I wanted to keep his lovely soft fluffy feathers and I read somewhere that wetting them in warm/hot water damages them. ...is that correct and have I just spent an hour fiddling about for nothing when a quick dunk would have made things so much easier????

Er, probably! I wet pluck, and although usually do it outside, have a designated stable for doing it in when windy. Don't sweep it out very often so there are quite a few feathers left on the floor that miss the bucket. They dry out and (mostly) look good as new. As long as you don't handle the shaft of the feather or separate the filaments they stay in reasonable shape for quite a long time.

So, do you prefer wet or dry plucking?

[RichmondHens]

Sweeeeet piggy, BP!

[Bramble-Poultry]

Thanks sally - i do hope he pulls through and makes it as i really could do with a tame saddleback boar to go with my tame saddleback girl..... i really hope he fits the bill as i couldnt bring myself to turning him into sausage after spending all this time hand rearing him!!

<--------- me a soft sod really

[Nicos]

So, do you prefer wet or dry plucking?

Wet!

BP- one lovely piglet!!

[petal]

i always skin the cockerels now - takes a couple of minutes! They are dead first of course... I love that piglet picture!

[Glutton4...]

I talked of skinning ours, but himself likes a Roast, and would rather they were plucked. He can do one then, I reckon! We're planning on doing the biggest two this coming weekend, and the other two the following week.

[Hilary B]

I talked of skinning ours, but himself likes a Roast, and would rather they were plucked. He can do one then, I reckon! We're planning on doing the biggest two this coming weekend, and the other two the following week.

Have you considered plucking the breast and skinning the remainder? Should still roast, if you protect the 'drumsticks', and the breast is the bit which has really nice roast skin!
I only tried wet plucking a couple of times, got feathers sticking to my fingers!
How do you pluck without handling the shaft of the feather (thinking we must be slightly at cross purposes)?
Boars can be very tame (we had a total of 4 over several years, all really nice natured), but do you want to breed from one whose mother rejected him?

[Glutton4...]

Well, I made a paste containing half a bottle of Encona Hot Sauce (it's all we had - we don't 'do' real hot. ), filled a load of eggs and put them in the nest-boxes yesterday. All gone - scoffed! So, sorry to the Venerable Unca Snadge, the egg-eater was culled yesterday.

Today my egg count went up from 3 to 11.

I worked it out, and considering I sell eggs at £1 for six, she was eating more in a week than it costs me to feed them all!

[RichmondHens]

Commiserations, but TBH I would have done the same thing, and I wouldn't have bothered with the hot egg thing, just culled her straightaway. When just one hen is the culprit it makes sense to get rid of her. If you have several, then it's sometimes worth trying other methods first.

[petal]

one of my ex batts keeps doing this, tabasco sauce is coming out this weekend, bet she won't like that!!

[OverWyreGrower]

Well, my Vorwerk cockerel is coming next week... now just got to find some girls to go with him!

[petal]

Vorwerk are really handsome birds. Lucky you. I have been told - no more breeds.....Our chicks have started hatching in the new chicktec incubator - its great as the top is like a space age dome so my little girl can sit and watch! 23 all fertile(only dubious about one maran egg which is such dark brown you just can't tell) 2 hatched so far. Sooty and Fluffy.

[petal]

I talked of skinning ours, but himself likes a Roast, and would rather they were plucked. He can do one then, I reckon! We're planning on doing the biggest two this coming weekend, and the other two the following week.

You can still roast them - you wrap the body in bacon and secure with string. I find the skin too tough anyway on a 6 month old bird.