Reduce

This works great for homesteaders as well as anyone wanting to go a little more 'green'.  It was a simple thought, but one that was completely foreign to me at first.  How to reduce the wasteful non-edible items that enter our home.  Think about what you spend for plastic trash bags?  You purposefully throw them away.  The same with paper towels.  How about toilet paper?  Put it into a bowl of water and flush it away.  Why not wipe with dollar bills?  Sometimes it almost feels as though that's what I'm throwing into the commode.  What about laundry & dish washing soaps?  Same thing, spend money on an item that will be excreted from the house with minimal internal impact.  There had to be a better, more economical way to accomplish basic and general hygiene without such a horrendous sense of waste.

Simple solutions: inexpensive bar towels instead of paper ones, cloth napkins, cloth wipes for the bathroom (why not?!  We use cloth diapers, the toilet cloth just goes in with those.  Add a simple sprayer/bidet and you can quickly reduce or even eliminate the need for paper to toss into your commode.  Too gross?  Then use them only for girls sans defecation.  For trash bags I've learned to toss anything organic out the door to the birds, or onto the compost pile.  That means that what little is left is dry.  No need for plastic bags.  Paper bags from the grocers work quite well.  Though honestly, no bag at is really needed.

As for cleaning, white vinegar is a great basic household cleaner and fairly inexpensive.  For laundry soap I make up a special batch of home-made soap (no frou-frou or superfatting), grate it after it's cured and add some borax and washing soda.  You could add fragrance to it as well.  This type of basic soap is also very good for using on dishes.  I usually just leave a bar flat by the kitchen sink and using the scrub brush, quickly brush up a bit of the soap and scrub each dish.  It works well on most foods.  I do keep some Dawn on the sink as well, but only for very greasy foods, as it still works better on that.

I saw this on a forum to which I belong

I don't have "hobbies'

I'm developing

a robust

Port-Apocalyptic

skill set

Basic Soap Making

Safety:
The very first chapter in every soap making book I have read, and I've read many, always talk about safety.  I will be no different.  The very first thing any person needs to understand about soap making is that it is a chemical reaction taking place that generates a great amount of heat.  The name of the process is called saponification, wherein an acid (oils) and a base (NaOH... the lye) chemically combine to form a salt (soap).  No person intending to undertake the making of soap should ever do so without the proper equipment and tools.  The main ones that cannot go without are rubber gloves and chemical safety glasses.  Lye (NaOH in water) is highly caustic, it WILL burn if you get it on your skin or in your eyes.  Most also recommend closed toe shoes, long sleeve shirt and pants.

Remember two things when planning to make soap; the lye water is caustic... and so is the raw soap.  In fact, the soap has the ability to burn until it has been fully cured, though is less likely to do so as time wears along.  It's a good idea to use only steel, glass, or plastic tools when making soap as wood will eventually deteriorate and aluminum can react.

Tools:
The basic tools needed for soap making, aside from safety gear of goggles and gloves, include the following:

• steel or glass bowls for weighing and mixing
• plastic or steel spoons for stirring
• two glass thermometers for measuring temps if you are going to be precise, candy thermometers work very well for these
• an electric hand mixer, or be prepared to stir for a really long time!
• rubber scaper
• steel measuring spoons
• large (4C) glass measuring cups
• soap molds (can be as simple as an old ice bin or as complex as you wish)
• freezer paper if your soap molds are wooden (to line it), Vaseline for plastic molds (it helps the raw soap to release from the mold
• steel blade knife or wire to cut the soap bars (I use a wire cake leveler and a miter box)
• an accurate scale, I prefer a digital one
• a soap calculator to aid in determining the best weight of the ingredients so as to avoid putting in too much lye.  You can find these online or purchase one
• oils (tallow or lard, vegetable oil, specialty oils, or any combination.  It's best to choose single oils to add, no combo oils like Crisco, avoid corn oil as it tends to go rancid quickly (known as DOS), also avoid peanut oil as it tends to not fully solidify and comes out with a fairly nasty result)
• Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH)

I also like to use the following, but these are all optional:

• Additives (coffee grounds, seeds, or salt for a scrub bar
• clays
• butters
• herbal or mineral colorants
• even silk (makes a very smooth bar, this is dissolved into the lye water

Homesteading Skills

I mentioned in my previous post that knowledge is the one thing that would separate people that could survive an apocalypse and those that wouldn't/couldn't.  But which skills, either modern or antiquated would provide the best opportunity for survival?  What interesting information is there for the modern individual to learn that could provide both a path to greener living, apocalyptic survival, or just plain fascinating hobby?  I have discovered that I personally have a fascination for many crafts.  I would include the following basic knowledge or skills:

Woodcutting
Animal husbandry
Beekeeping
Farming/gardening, soil, water knowledge
Spinning, weaving, knit, crochet
Basic blacksmithing (optional)
Candle and soap making
Herbology
Rug and basket weaving
Hunting, skinning, butchery techniques & tanning methods
Food storage and preservation including dehydrating, canning, & preserving
Basic carpentry
And several others

For me, I am very much taken with useful crafts such as candlemaking, soapmaking, spinning, crochet & knit, and more recently, rug braiding.

Think About It

Lately I've been watching a lot of post-apocalyptic television shows.  Yes I know I'm a little behind the ball, I've always been that way.  Who has time to sit around staring at a tube these days?!  Well recently, I have found a little time to check some of these out.  Now, barring an event that would completely obliterate the possibility of resuming a semi-normal lifestyle such as disease or warring zombies, I decided there were several items that would be a must-have to survive long-term.  I mean, let's face reality; food, fuel, and basic necessities can only be obtained from outside sources, and these would become extremely limited and scarce as time wore along.  As such, here are some of the items I would consider necessary in the long run:

- Spinning wheel, carders, and fiber (or keep a small flock of sheep), knitting needles and crochet hooks
- Canning equipment and jars with re-usable lids
- Root cellar, or something similar
- Hot box or greenhouse for growing fresh herbs/veggies indoors in winter (need that vitamin C!)
- Windmill or two
- Rain collection/water system (there's a creek nearby... through a neighbor's lot) or well
- Wood-burning stove or passive heat system (check these out, they are awesome!)
- Small livestock (rabbits, chicken or other fowl, goats, bees, and/or sheep... possibly a pig)
- Soap & candle-making equipment
- Basic farm tools/equipment that did not require fossil fuel (cultivator/harness for turning soil plus hand tools)
- Guns (hunting and defense)
- Land (probably the most vital) and quality seeds

With these, a family could be moderately self sustainable and likely trade for anything else needed.  See, what bothered me the most about some of these shows I saw was that they tended to consume items that they did not have the immediate ability to self-create.  Even whole towns could not do what they were depicted as having done.  The greatest aspect of survival is knowledge.  Knowing how to survive and how to keep surviving over the long haul will be the ultimate separation between those that do actually live beyond a few months, and those who do not.

Just as a quick explanation for my choices above: the spinning & knit/crochet is because eventually clothing will be needed.  Excess could be traded to others who lack this ability.  Canning equipment should be pretty self-explanatory, families have to put supplies away in order to survive winter.  Root cellar and hot box are for similar reasons.  The windmill is to supply basic power needs, water system/well for water needs.  Heat system for winters.  The livestock choices I made were small to fit my miniscule land's ability to support.  Rabbits for quick meat, fowl for eggs, bees for wax & honey, sheep for fiber & meat, pig for meat (nearly all of a pig is useful!  Lard for soap, meat, hair, bones...everything!!).  The soap is for cleaning needs, the candles should also be self-explanatory.  Basic farm tools for gardening and farming needs, I would choose goat harnessing since you would need to keep a buck to breed does for milk and meat production, he may as well earn his keep the rest of the year too!  Let him pull the plow or a cart.  Guns or weapons should also be a no-brainer, when there is not sufficient livestock, it may be able to be hunted, but also for defense against raiders who would likely steal rather than starve.  Finally land, the most essential of the entire list.  I would probably enlist the help of my 3 immediate neighbors.  I know I can trust them, and helping to feed them would probably go a long ways to acquiring their assistance.  One lot for growing hay, the other either farmed or portioned for livestock pens. 

Lighting Options

As we head into the shorter-day months of fall and winter, there are some various options to consider when it comes to lighting.  It really all depends on personal preference.  For those trying to go "off grid" as much as possible, your options are limited.  Now let me be as transparently clear as I can; I am not talking so much about how you light your home, but how you manage to go about your chores after the sun has gone down.  Yes, there will be times that you simply cannot possibly complete everything needed to be done in the handful of hours allotted to you by Nature.  In the old days, a person worked from sunup until sundown and no more.  Today, with many households requiring multiple incomes, it's not always practical to assume you can complete all your necessary chores by 5 or 6 in the evening, the earliest time the sun will begin to drop by midwinter.  Not to mention that in this modern age it would be complete folly to utterly disregard all possible methods of artificially lighting your surroundings.  Even cave-dwellers had the ability to beat the darkness back.

With that in mind, there are a few different options.  The easiest, most convenient, and most expensive would be electrical lighting.  You run (preferably) underground electrical wiring to the area you wish to have lit, a barn, a corral, a work area, and then add switches, outlets, and fixtures.  Again, this can be very expensive not only in the materials cost, but also installation.  It's always a good idea to have a qualified electrician install the system, reducing the risk of potential fire later.  This method would top out not only on expense, but also on convenience.  What luck!  Just walk over, flip a switch, and voila!  Instant light to wherever you needed it most.  However, while this type of lighting can be as strong or as light as you need, there is the unfortunate drawback of only being able to light the specific areas planned.  So you'll want to decide carefully before installing.

Another option is portable/handheld lighting using flashlights or electrical lamps.  These offer the greatest potential for flexibility.  The light goes wherever you need it to go.  There are some rather significant drawbacks though, the cost of batteries being one of the highest.  The crank-type lamps often lose their vitality after just a short while and can be expensive.  These types of lighting often need to be directed by the hand (flashlight) to be truly effective.  A battery powered lamp or floodlight would be a good alternative option for portable light.  The best benefit of this type of lighting is the initial start-up cost and availability.  You can obtain a flashlight or lamp almost anywhere!  Batteries can be obtained in almost any place you can name that sells small items.  Initially, this will always be the best option in the early days of homesteading.  It's a good idea to keep a few lamps or lights on hand regardless of your chosen lighting method.  You never know when you might need a spare light!

The final option, and my ultimately preferred method, is the use of an oil lantern.  I'm sure you can picture the kind I mean.  They were very popular about a hundred years ago.  The general unit is metal with a hurricane glass wrapped in wire over a wick that dips into the well of the base.  It generally also has a thick wire handle that swings a bit.  Yes, you can still purchase these for about $5 brand new.  No need to raid your local antique shops (unless you wish to do so).  The base can be filled with either lamp oil or kerosene, which tends to burn rather slowly, resulting in this method being the most cost effective.  Remember that when lighting a new lamp, you should fill the base with the oil and allow it to sit unburned overnight (or several hours) so that the wick absorbs the oil before you light it the first time.  I use plain matches to light my lanterns, no fancy lighters necessary.  It's best to keep your lantern below eye level, as it will have a tendency to affect vision acuity if held directly within the line of sight, I've found.  Also, when setting your lantern down, be sure there is no possible risk of it falling or being knocked over.  It won't explode like they show in the movies, but it might go out.  Keep the lantern glass clean for optimal lighting, but never when the glass is hot.  I prefer this method because it's quick, it's constant, it's portable, and it lights a considerable distance.  This is one method, however, I would not entrust to very small children.  My older kids though, have no trouble using the lanterns.  In fact, they get a kick out of using them!

Critter Bedding

One question that I see a lot for confined animals is: "what is the best type of bedding to use?" So I will address this for as many of the common livestock species as I can.  First, most of the large livestock: horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs; will require no bedding if they are pasture kept.  In barns or birth jugs, it's best to bed down with either pine shavings or sawdust as that is the easiest to keep clean. 

If you have an enclosure for your poultry that involves them being confined indoors on a concrete or wooden floor, I recommend using sand, as that is the easiest to keep clean for birds.  For cage-reared rabbits indoors, first I recommend keeping them on a metal wire floor, for sanitary reasons, and second I recommend using either wood pellets or wood shavings.  If outdoors, there's honestly no reason to use any bedding at all!  If you clean the pan out weekly, it will be sufficiently ventilated that you should never notice any odor.  Newspaper is absorbent, but it will do nothing beneficial for your garden, nor will it aid in odor reduction in any way.

Some alternatives, pros/cons:

Cat litter: (clay), absorbent, little odor control, VERY heavy!, hard to dispose.  (clumping), still heavy, hard to access, expensive!

Wood or newspaper pellets: can be heavy (depending on type), excellent absorption, can be put in compost pile or directly on garden, little to no odor control

Equine fresh: very good odor control, expensive!!

Cedar shavings: NEVER use!  No good as a bedding type due to phenol content

Pine shavings: (regular) shouldn't be used other than as a barn additive for larger livestock (kiln dried) preferred bedding for smaller animals

Carefresh: this one is put here as a joke!  Homesteaders, save your money and steer away from this entirely!  There are much more cost effective beddings out there!

Cut up cardboard: I cannot recall the brand, but this is an excellent bedding material for small animals.  Somewhat hard to clean out, would be fine on the compost pile, cost effective and 'different', it works best laid over top a single layer of wood pellets.

Shredded/layered newspaper: Layers seem to work better in pans and carriers, nicely absorbent, no odor control at all, needs to be changed frequently.

Breeds: Rabbits for the Homesteader

The American Rabbit Breeders Association recognizes 47 pure breeds for showing purposes.  The homesteader will generally have little purpose for most of them.  Generally, most of these modern breeds were designed for the modern person: they are small and slightly ostentatious.  For the homesteader there are 3 general categories of interest: meat production, fur/skin production, and wool production.  There is another aspect of rabbits, pet production, though for most homesteaders this will be a rare and generally unnecessary aspect.  If you can sell a few extra youngsters as pets, great!  But don't expect much of a market for the breeds that work best on a homestead.  Many breeds can/will give you multiple purposes. 

For instance, you can eat any rabbit of any breed you raise, however certain breeds and breed combinations will give you the best tasting/quantity of meat for the lowest expense.  The 2 best known for meat production are the New Zealand (known best for it's maternal abilities) and the Californian (known for it's terminal abilities).  The cross of these breeds is often known as a Smut.  These 3 breeds will yield the highest meat quantity, at the youngest age, utilizing the least feed, with the best meat to bone ratio of any other breed in existence.  Don't be fooled, bigger is not always better.  The most common temptation is to find the largest breed, the Flemish Giant, and cross into the meat herd.  Resist the urge, Flemish are one of the slowest growing breeds with some of the worst meat to bone ratios of any other breed (they have very large and heavy bones)!  If you don't mind holding the growers to an older age (increasing the 'texture' of the meat), you could also utilize these rabbits for their furs.

Some of the more common breeds raised mainly for their furs are the Havana, a medium breed with a luxurious smooth coat, and the Rex, a larger breed with an extremely plush coat.  Rabbits raised primarily for their furs generally need to be kept until around 10 months of age, when the fur would be "prime" and full.  Compared to meat rabbits raised to around 2-4 months, this can feel like an eternity!  However, on a younger rabbit the skin would be too fragile and thin to work.  Conversely, rabbits kept for their furs until an older age will not have meat as tender as that of the younger animals.  It is truly a paradox!  You can certainly keep the skins of younger animals, though they will be much more fragile, but you will have tender meat.  You can certainly eat the meat of the older fur animals, but it will likely be 'tougher'.

The last aspect for a homesteader to consider would be to choose a breed for wool production.  The best part about raising rabbits for this is that the rabbit need not be killed to harvest the wool.  In truth, many of them seem to truly relish the attention lavished on them!  These rabbits do require a certain level of care that the other breeds do not, especially if you wish to harvest the maximum quantity of usable fiber from them.  The only breeds that can really be used for this purpose are the Angoras: Giant, Satin, French, German, and English.  Honestly choosing your Angora breed will come to a personal decision, as they all have the potential to give you beautiful fiber.  The Giant will yield the greatest amount, though these rabbits tend to be the most expensive and difficult to locate.  The Satin will yield a beautiful wool that has a shine to it, unique to that breed.  The English is the smallest of the Angoras, though it also tends to have some of the finest wool.  They are characterized by their general similarity to a "cotton ball".  I'll go into raising rabbits specifically for wool at a later time.

Of course there are several other breeds one could consider.  Rare heritage breeds such as the American or Beveren.  Marked breeds such as the Rhinelander, Dutch, or English Spot.  Giant breeds such as the Giant Chinchilla, moderate breeds such as the Lilac, or small breeds such as the Netherland Dwarf.  Exotic breeds like the Britannia Petite or Himalayan, new breeds such as the Thrianta, and fluffy breeds such as the Jersey Wooly.

Take care to choose the breed for your homestead carefully so as to maximize your benefits.

Cutting up Chicken into Fryer Pieces

This is a task that every person, regardless of homestead or home-maker should know how to do.  Especially given the ever increasing cost of food.  Cutting up a chicken really helps when you have birds that aren't quite "pretty" enough to be a roaster, and it increases the usefulness of your carcasses.  Starting with an entire cleaned bird, place the carcass with the legs facing you.  Using a flat-blade, well-sharpened knife, cut down through the skin beside the legs to free them up.  At this point you are only cutting skin.  Take both legs in your hand and push down flat against the back to 'pop' the joints loose, it makes it easier to remove the thigh bone later.  Look into the carcass and find the rib cage, cut down the ribs to the spine.  Then bend the carcass in half, bending at the back until the spine breaks.  Use your knife to cut through the soft tissue and separate the carcass into front and back halves.

Take the back half and bend it backwards at the point of the spine.  The bones should break, allowing you to separate the leg quarters from each other.  Bend the leg at the joint and cut around between the leg and thigh muscles, cutting through the joint to separate the leg from the thigh.  Wash and put these aside.

Next pull the front half of the bird to you.  Place breast side up and wing side towards you.  Start cutting around the ball of the wing, pulling the wing down as you go.  There is a joint that will separate and the wing come away from the rest of the carcass.  Repeat with the other wing.  Set these aside.  You have remaining the back and the breast.  You can leave this whole, or separate the back and de-bone the breast. 

To separate the back simply turn the carcass breast side down.  Using a pair of butcher scissors or pruning shears (well cleaned), insert the shears into the side of the bird and cut through the ribs.  Push in farther until all the ribs have been cut.  Repeat on the other side.  Turn the carcass around, insert the shears beside the neck, and cut through the clavicle bone on both sides.  Then use your knife to cut through the meat, releasing the back.  Set aside.

Finally you have the breast.  Turn the breast up and sharpen your knife, it will need to be very sharp to de-bone the breast meat.  I highly recommend de-boning the breast since it is very easy to do.  You'll see a demarcation line between the breasts, this is where the keel bone is located.  Make the first slice along this line, from top to bottom.  Remember there is a bone there, angle your knife in towards the bone so that you can be sure to shave away as much meat as possible from it.  Slice by slice, carefully deepen the cut down the keel bone and along the ribs until you have freed the meat from the bottom of the rib cage.  There is another small rib bone below the keel that you'll need to scrape along.  After freeing the bottom of the breast, work on removing the top with as much meat as possible.  Remember this is where the 'wishbone' is located, so you'll have to work around it.  Try to leave as little meat behind as possible.  After freeing up the first side, repeat the process on the other side.  When you are finished, you should have 2 large boneless breasts.

Wash the parts, separate as desired, and store or cook as you wish!

Raising Rabbits

Rabbits are a wonderful way of getting your feet wet raising your own meat on limited space and budget.  They tend to be less smelly than chickens and their reproductive methods are not only faster, but easier on the homesteader.  Of course, it's a good idea to actually keep both rabbits and chickens, and while they should not be kept together openly, there is nothing wrong with your chickens and rabbits sharing a barn.  Of course one of the biggest hurdles for many new homesteaders is actually killing and then eating your own rabbits.  A few tips I offer, first do not name any offspring you intend to butcher, naming tends to increase a bond with the animal.  Keep personal interaction with your grower rabbits to a minimum, lavish that attention on your brood rabbits instead.

A few things to keep in mind about rabbits: First, the meat is highly nutritious and lean.  The meat will have a texture and flavor similar to chicken and can be used in exactly the same recipes.  To make ground rabbit or rabbit sausage you will need to add some fat from other meat as it is too lean by itself, also it grinds easier if it is slightly frozen.  Meat is not the only product your rabbits can give to you!  Rabbit manure is very valuable as fertilizer in that it requires no composting, just add straight from the pan to the garden.  Some rabbits can produce fine wool that can be spun by itself or combined with other fiber for luxurious yarns.  Rabbit skins can be preserved and given a great number of uses, or sell them as green or tanned hides.  Worms can even be raised in manure beds. 

Rabbit feed can be supplemented by "green manure" from your garden: beet/carrot tops, melon rinds (in moderation), cut grass, radish greens, even honeysuckle, fresh green pine branches, and bamboo greens!  Be careful not to feed too much fresh foods to rabbits less than 6 months of age.  Overall, rabbits require very little input as compared to potential production of any livestock species in existence today.

There are two main methods and ideology for raising rabbits for production.  One allows you to minimize your space needs and also identify exact parentage, this is cage rearing.  The other will maximize overall production output by allowing the rabbits to "do what rabbits do" through colony rearing.  Both methods will need some planning and basic materials to get started.  Cage rearing you will need enough cages to comfortably house each brood rabbit individually.  Each cage should be twice the length of the rabbit, stretched out, though larger is always better.  Bucks should have ample space to mount a stretched out doe to breed.  Pregnant does and growing brood juniors (bucks and does after weaning, but less than 6 months of age) require less space.  Does with litters will need more space even than bucks.  And you will need to account for at least 1 very large cage per litter for rearing your growers to butchering weight.  You will also need enough feed and water bowls for each rabbit, and a large feed hopper for each grower pen/cage.  I recommend your cages have a wire floor, but be prepared to also add a plank, tile, board, or mat of some kind to give the rabbits' feet a rest from the wire.

Cage rearing is fairly simple, always take the doe to the buck's cage for breeding.  Rabbits do not have a 'heat cycle' they can breed anytime of the day or year, though they tend to be more receptive during the spring/summer than fall/winter.  Perseverance is key though, if you want off-season litters, keep at them!  The buck should mount the doe and attempt to breed.  If she is receptive, she should stretch and lift her hindquarter.  The buck should grunt and fall over, this is how you know the breeding was successful.  Allow the buck to breed her 2-3 times more, then remove the doe.  Take her back about 8 hours later to increase litter size.  Mark your calendar for 31 days hence.  Move the doe to a kindling (birth/litter) cage after about 2 weeks and offer her a nest with straw/shavings in it about 3-4 days prior to her due date.  Then watch carefully.  She should pull fur for the babies, if you see a pile of fur in the nest, you can carefully pull back to see if the babies are ok.  If so, leave them alone.  The doe may not even go back to the nest for up to 24 hours, this is perfectly normal.  Check them daily for the first few days to be sure their bellies are rounded out.  Well-fed babies should appear plump at all times, if they begin to appear slim and wrinkled she isn't feeding them.  We'll go into that later though.

Colony rearing is slightly less labor intensive, though a little more space consuming.  You would actually setup and prepare a large area fully fenced on all sides (don't forget the floor, rabbits can and will try to dig burrows!  If they are successful, you will not be able to control the population and might not even be able to have a handle on total number or catch the young for consumption!)  The rabbits would need to have sufficient feed and water available at all times.  They will also require nest boxes or a well kept area of straw/hay for rearing litters.  You will still need to check litters to be sure that any that die early are removed promptly.  In this method you may use one buck for several does.  You will know which is the sire of any given offspring, but will never know which is the dam.  This is a great way to let "rabbits be rabbits" in a controlled way.

Whichever method you choose to keep your rabbits, have fun with them!  Rabbits are a joy, and they're mighty tasty too!!

Butchering Chickens

If you're like me, then you should be getting close to the time to think about putting those plump birds in the freezer.  A good fryer size should take about 8-10 weeks, roaster to maybe 12-14 weeks.  Use your best judgment, but don't let those biddies get too large and tough!  Keep a check on the size of the breast meat, that's usually how I judge the best time for butchering.  While you're waiting, start getting the things you'll need together.  Basic bird butchering equipment should include the following:

• Killing cone (this can be as simple as a bleach bottle or milk jug washed out with the nozzle and bottom cut out, hang it bottom-up and lashed securely to a fence, board, or other surface)
• Non-serrated knife (keep it very sharp)
• Knife sharpener
• Butcher scissors or garden bypass pruning shears (to cut cartilage and bone)
• Very large pot (big enough to immerse the entire bird in it) filled with enough water to cover whole bird
• Plastic bag for feathers & offal
• Blowtorch, candle, lighter, etc
• Cooler filled with water & ice
• Bucket to catch blood
• Hose

Prepare the water bath for scalding, it should be as close to boiling as possible.  Start it early, large amounts of water can take awhile to boil!  If you have an outdoor boiler, so much the better!  It's best to try and keep things as serene as possible.  Cut feed at least 12-24 hours before butchering to reduce the risk of bacterial contamination, do not remove water availability.  Select your bird and hang them upside down by their legs until they calm.  Place them into the killing cone so their head is exposed out the bottom.  Open the beak and insert your knife into the mouth through the back and into the brain. Hold the head so the throat is exposed and slice evenly and deeply from one side to the other. 

Alternatively you can also break the neck prior to placing in the killing cone: Hold the bird cradled in your left arm (if right-handed) facing your right side, place your right hand palm toward the beak in a V behind the bird's head, with your first and second fingers around the back of the head/neck.  Holding the head in your hand, stretch the neck down and the head back.  Do this quickly in a fast motion to break the neck cleanly. You should be able to feel the bones separate.  This can be difficult for people with small hands or if the bird is especially large or older.  You can then place the bird in the cone quickly and slice the throat to bleed out.

If you did not break the neck prior to bleeding, use the shears to break through the spine and the knife to remove the head.  Place the head in the refuse bag for disposal.  Wait until the bird has bled out and is no longer exhibiting large spasms (these are involuntary results of the spinal cord, the bird is NOT alive!)  Remove from the killing cone and immerse in the boiling water for a couple seconds.  Do not leave too long as you merely want to loosen the feather base, not cook the meat!  Check the large flight feathers frequently, these are the hardest to remove.  After dipping, immediately start pulling the feathers.  I recommend cutting the tip of the wings off, those feathers are VERY difficult to remove without causing damage to the skin.

When you have most (if not all) of the feathers removed, hang the bird by it's feet in a safe area.  Use the blowtorch or candle and run the flame over the carcass to remove the 'pinfeathers' or hair-like feathers that detract from the cleanliness of the bird.  That and they are kind of gross to see on your plate!  Pay special attention to the legs and groin area, they seem to be more common there.

You can now remove the feet of the bird, use the knife to cut around the hock joint, bending as you go to remove it cleanly.  Toss feet into the offal/refuse bag.  Place the bird on a clean, disinfected surface to prepare to remove the innards (offal).  On the top of the tail you'll find an oil gland, carefully cut the whole thing away from the bird (or remove the tail entirely).  Cut down the front of the neck and pull the skin away from the neck bone.  Pull the esophagus and trachea away from the neck itself and to the front.  Use your shears to cut through the bone and rinse the neck thoroughly.  Toss this part into the ice water or feed raw to dogs.  Hold the breastbone in your hand and make a horizontal cut into the lower body cavity, this ensures you don't cut the entrails.  Reach in with your hand and gently pull the intestines out of the body cavity, be careful not to rip any of the parts.  Set these aside for later.  Make sure you pull the trachea/esophagus out with it.  If you are careful, you should be able to remove all of it together.  You may have to pierce the diaphragm to get to the lungs/heart.  Cut down to the anus and cut it away from the body with the entrails still attached.  Double check the inside of the carcass to be sure you removed all of the lung tissue (this can sometimes be difficult to do), if not consider using a fork to scrape them out.  Wash the carcass inside and out with cold water and place carcass in the ice-water bath.

Before tossing the offal into the refuse bag, consider taking the liver, heart, and gizzard from them.  To prepare the gizzard, cut length-wise and remove the internal matter (if any), use a knife to also remove the white inner lining.  Wash well and chill.  For the heart, remove the valves close to it and the thin membrane encasing it.  Wash thoroughly to remove any blood clots and chill.  For the liver, flip the folds of it carefully until you locate the small, greenish, grape-like appendage, this is the gall bladder.  Using a sharp knife, remove the gall entirely without damaging it.  Wash the liver and chill.

If you have an older bird on your hands, or one that you have no intention of roasting, consider skinning as an alternative to plucking.  Be sure to clean up your work area thoroughly when finished and bury or dispose of any offal.  Make sure to store the meat in the fridge or freezer as soon as possible.

Preparing the Garden

Early spring is when you need to start thinking about getting your garden ready to plant.  This article will help you with choosing the area and preparing to plant your garden.  If you've never put in a garden before, prepare yourself, gardens are a lot of work.  There is a lot of personal satisfaction and ultimate reward, but definitely a lot of work!  And always the kind that will get you into a hard sweat and have you filthy and worn out at the end of the day.  The first thing to remember is that gardening has regional aspects that you need to investigate.  If you live in the north, you really need to wait until the danger of frost has passed and the ground has thawed enough to work.  Farther south will be best to work the ground as early as possible to take advantage of the cooler spring days .  Be careful in areas that have a specific wet season, planting too early could mean the death of your plants to drowning!

Some questions to ask yourself when getting ready to put in your garden should be: how large of a garden will I need to plant the crops I want to grow?  How large a garden can I physically install and maintain?  Where can I install my garden such that it will be exposed to the maximum amount of sunlight each day?  Don't rule out some of the alternate gardening concepts such as vertical gardening for running plants (using a trellis for cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, squash, and even melons), container gardening (great for a wide variety of plants), raised garden beds (best when your soil isn't the best to work with or grow crops in), or square-foot gardening (share-cropping, or planting compatible plants in small areas).  In truth, the best homesteader should consider employing all of these methods, especially if you are dealing with a restricted-space issue.

Once you have decided on the size and placement for your garden it's a good idea to mark off the corners.  This will give you a real-time idea of the amount of space in which you will be working.  If there is grass growing in the area, leave it long and uncut for a little while.  This seems to make it easier to remove later, especially if you'll be working the soil by hand.  Some essential tools you will need to have include a sharp shovel, garden rake, hoe, and hand-trowel.  It's nice if you know someone that has a tiller that will either help you or lend it to you.  Regardless you will still need to break up the soil.  Use your shovel and use your foot to push as far into the soil as you can, push forward and then back to loosen the chunk and then move to the next spot.  If you are not using a tiller, then you'll need to lift these chunks and turn then over.  When the entire garden is either loosened or turned you'll move onto the next step.  If you are using a tiller, now is the time to get it going and till the plot.  The loosened soil should till fairly easily.  If you are not using a tiller, get your hoe out and use it to break up the dirt.  If using a tiller, plan to turn the soil at least twice.  In between tilling use the garden rake to remove as much vegetation as possible, start in the center of the garden and flatten out the 'rows' that the tiller creates.  The more wild plant matter removed at this point, the less you will have to pull out later.  Turn the tiller the other direction and turn the soil again.  At this point it's a good idea to wait a week.  You can then walk through and pull out anything left wild that tries to grow.  Most of what was left should die off from the paired tilling.

If your garden is on an incline, it's best to setup your rows perpendicular to the incline, so that water and soil will be retained and not permitted to run downhill.  If you are using a tiller, till the garden into even rows all the way across.  If no tiller, use your hoe to accomplish the same thing.  Even running crops can be planted into the rows, you do NOT have to create fancy dirt mounds as the seed packets claim.  Just be careful of your spacing.  At this point, try to avoid stepping on top of a row mound.  Use your hand trowel or the corner of your hoe to create a furrow in the top of the rows you plan to put seeds into.  You can then sprinkle your seeds carefully and evenly across the row and use both hands to cover them with dirt.  Plant any seedlings purchased spaced carefully apart and well into the soil.  Put up any necessary trellises.  Set up your watering system to insure that all of the garden will benefit from the extra water.

Keep an eye on your garden over the next week.  Your seedlings should sprout in even rows.  Anything growing out of place can be pulled carefully out.  Careful weeding, watering, and pest control will give you the most abundant yields.  Above all, enjoy!

Baby Goat/Sheep Castrating

In the spirit of what I've been doing recently, I'll talk about the best way to castrate your baby goats & sheep.  I class these two together because the process is the same.  It's different for pigs and cattle, so I'll talk about those later.  And yes I have experience with all, including chickens (to make capons).  For ease of explanation, I'll stick to goats for now, just know that everything here can be used identically for sheep.

The very first thing you'll want to do is make sure your baby(ies) are actually boys or bucklings (rams).  Sounds simple, right?  In fact it really is.  When your baby is born you can either lift the tail or feel between the legs for the scrotum.  Once you have your boy identified, next thing you will want to do is make sure he has both testicles descended.  Palpate the scrotum between your thumb and other fingers and feel for two semi-elongated firm testicles.  If they are both present, you are good to proceed.  The absence of one or both is a uni- or bi-lateral cryptochid and should never be kept for breeding under any circumstances!  You'll want to send that one out of the herd altogether as they can rarely be successfully castrated without veterinary intervention.  Sometimes waiting a little while to see if they will drop is okay, but plan to send him along if they don't after a few weeks.

Next you'll need to gather your supplies together.  I recommend the following:

1. Scalpel, new disposable or make sure to have new blades if you have a re-usable handle, if you are going to be doing a lot of boys, you'll want to change the blade after every 10 or so as it does tend to get dull after awhile
 2. Chlorhexadine (also called Nolvasan) is a disinfectant that you mix with water.  The water should be a light to medium blue.  You can put this in a spray bottle, it's used to disinfect the area you'll be working on the animal.
3. Alcohol and a small bowl/jar, this is used to put the scalpel in between babies to keep it completely clean
4. Paper towels
5. Scarlet oil in a spray bottle to spray on and around the affected area.
6. Notepad and pen/pencil to keep track of the babies that have been done.
7. Helper, someone to wrangle the babies and hold them for castrating.
8. Chair for the helper to sit and hold the babies.
9. Box or container for the discarded 'parts'
10. Hand sanitizer, for you to sanitize your hands in between babies.  If it's warm enough a bucket of water, soap, and a clean towel work well also.
11. A clean stall or jug with fresh bedding for the new little wethers to go into after the procedure so you can watch them awhile for signs of shock.
12. Penicillin is optional, but you certainly can dose them with a quick shot if you are feeling nervous or if the babies will be in an unusually filthy area after they are done.  If your goats are in a clean pasture, this is not absolutely necessary

Never castrate any baby older than a few weeks to a month of age.  While an older goat can be castrated, I honestly do not recommend it as the blood flow will have been established by around 2-3 months of age.  So if you plan on keeping those boys with does/ewes without worrying about them breeding, pull their boy parts out early!  Also bear in mind that the older the baby is at castrating, the bigger they will be and the harder to hold down.  Additionally remember if you plan to sell, that castrated goats and sheep (wethers) have a lot more salable uses than do their intact counterparts.

Now then, you have everything set out and ready to go, the scalpel should be in the alcohol and the Novalsan mixed up.  Make sure your hands are clean.  Go fetch your first little boy and have your helper sit in the chair.  The helper should hold the baby on its back/butt with feet up and facing you.  Have your helper put the left knee and hock in one hand and the right knee and hock in the other.  It works best with the foreleg to the outside of the rear leg.  The helper should then gently spread the legs apart.  The belly and especially the scrotum should be well exposed by using this holding technique.  The helper needs to be expecting the baby to struggle and hold on tightly no matter what.

Spray the scrotum with the Nolvasan solution, soaking the entire area thoroughly, be generous in the dousing including near portion of the legs and even the tail if it gets in the way.  Take up the scalpel and pinch out the bottom of the scrotum.  You'll want to apply some pressure to minimize the number of times you need to cut.  In a clean stroke remove the bottom 1/3 of the scrotum.  The baby will scream, this is normal!  I promise the baby will forget all about it in no time!  Toss the piece of scrotum in the offal container and then pinch the top of what's remaining of the scrotum above the testicles with one hand, with the other hand grab the testicle and slowly pull it from the scrotum.  The pinching hand is there to aid in preventing pulling anything else out with the testicle, so be aware of what you're feeling there!  You want a slow even pressure until the testicle comes free, never yank or jerk as you could pull something else out with it.  Make sure the entire testicle comes out, including any cord that might break early.  Repeat with the other testicle, never releasing the pinching hand the entire time (or you could risk the other testicle being pulled into the body!).  Before you release the pinching hand, make sure to pull off anything that could hang down below the opening, fat or anything.  If you leave anything hanging out, you risk it becoming an entrance for bacteria into the wound.  Then your helper can release the rear legs and you should spray the entire area thoroughly with scarlet oil.  Place the baby on it's feet in the clean stall/jug/pen and stand back and watch for a few minutes.  The baby may go lay down for awhile, this is perfectly normal.  After awhile the baby can be returned to it's mother for affection and comfort.

Now, some people ask me why I am not an advocate for banding.  I have several reasons, not the least of which is that it requires specialized equipment to do it!  You have to have a bander and bands.  Then there is the increased risk of infection and gangrene.  Plus if improperly placed, you can actually inadvertently miss a testicle!  Then you are no better off than before.  I simply much prefer to slice and pull.  There is no way with this method that you will ever miss a testicle...ever.  Not if you are certain that you pulled both of them in entirety.

Good luck!

Breeds: Chickens for the Homesteader

When you are browsing around the internet, trying to locate the perfect breed for your personal situation, you really need to take a few things into consideration.  The first should be one of the most important, are you permitted to have poultry in your area?  If you live in an agricultural area, you probably have no restrictions.  If you are residential, you will certainly want to check into the regulations before bringing in any poultry to your homestead.  Then subsequent questions should be: how will you house your birds?  For what purpose will your birds be used?  Do you want to purchase new replacements every other/every year or raise from within your own flock?  Are you content to watch your birds from a distance, or want something that will be more friendly & personable?  Answering these questions before you start to look will help you narrow down your search dramatically. 

For instance, if you only have a small area to house your birds, you will be best off looking at bantam breeds rather than the larger ones.  Many of the smaller bantam breeds are just as hardy as larger breeds.  Several of them make excellent laying birds and the best of the setting birds are bantams (Silkies).  Bantam birds make excellent lawn birds as there are several ornamental breeds (Old English Game Birds - OEGB and Japanese to name a couple) that would look charming strutting across the garden.  Bantams do an excellent job at keeping unwanted insects at bay.  They also often do very well in a caged bird situation, making them ideal for folk that want birds but cannot risk allowing them free range around the home.  They can sometimes be a little more on the aggressive side, though not all the bantam breeds are so.  Their eggs are a little on the smaller end, coming more in the small to medium range, though just as nutritious as any other home-grown egg.  If you are considering a bantam breed, try to start with some of the more common varieties, as some of the more rare ones do tend to be slightly more difficult to raise from chick. 

If you are looking for birds strictly to raise for meat, keep in mind that you really should not be considering raising any of them to breeding age.  These birds are often crossbreds, the most common of them being the Cornish Rock, though there are several other crossbreds that will grow quickly to a suitable weight/size and convert their feed efficiently to muscle mass.  These birds can also have other potential problems because they are bred specifically to grow as fast as possible with as much musculature as possible, sometimes the bone structure cannot keep up.  This is another reason to grow them out only for the table.  Also remember that crossbreds do not breed true in most cases.  So bred together, these birds may not give you the same fast-growing offspring that you can easily purchase.  Expect to feed these birds as much as they will possibly eat for between 6-8 weeks for fryer sized carcasses, 10-12 weeks for broiler sized, and 14-16 weeks for roaster sized (this can vary though).

If you are looking for birds strictly to raise for eggs, expect the birds to be smaller in overall size and 'hotter' in temperament.  The most famous of these breeds is the Leghorn, which is traditionally the only breed that lays white eggs (crossbreeding has changed this somewhat).  Another breed, which is an offshoot of the Leghorn is the Californian, which basically looks like a Leghorn with black spots.  These breeds are very lean in appearance, you can expect to see your birds starting to lay early, and usually give an egg every day.  They also tend to have prolonged laying periods, some laying an egg a day for a few years or more!  However, these breeds also tend to have very lean carcasses and as such excess roosters don't serve that great a purpose.  When I say 'hot' I mean don't expect your layer-only birds to come running for attention when you open the door!

Many homesteaders are looking for the ideal combination of meat and eggs in their chicken flock.  And why not throw in some fancy plumage or coloration while you're at it to give yourself something pretty to watch every day?  A good dual or multi-purpose breed should have a large overall size, good egg-laying skills, good meat accumulation, and ease of raising/care.  For a beginner hardiness should also be important.  Probably the single most common dual-purpose breed that exists is the Rhode Island Red or RIR.  The roosters are large with a suitable amount of meat on a well-fed carcass.  The hens often start laying early, have a fair laying period (couple years or more), and lay often, usually an egg a day.  They are easy to locate, easy to raise, and very forgiving of the novice raiser.  Other breeds such as the Orpington are a good multi-purpose breed, being useful for meat, eggs and also as setters, reproducing the next generation without the need of an incubator.

Then there are breeds that could be construed as being mainly ornamental.  Their plumage or appendages are such that they are primarily raised for their beauty alone.  Of course they still lay eggs, though perhaps not as well as the egg-only or even the dual-purpose breeds.  And their body conformation relegates them as far from the meat breeds as can be.  Though they could still be put on the table.  Breeds such as Polish (sometimes affectionately called 'Tophats' because of the extra puff of feathers on the top of their heads), Phoenix (known for excessively long tail feathers) and others.

Of course there are also breeds that cross all of these categories or don't fit into any of them.  For instance, the standard Cochin tends to lay well, has a large meaty body, and fancy plumage.  It has been said the hens often appear to be wearing bloomers because of their excessive feet feathering.  The Turken (also known as the Naked Neck) is the precise opposite having no feathers at all on their necks and reduced feathering overall.  These are large birds that are moderate layers with an unusual appearance.  In the bantams there is the Silkie, which fits into no other category only because they are known not for their meat or as layers, but for their naturally high inclination to set eggs. 

Whatever breed(s) you choose, just make sure to have fun doing it!

Planning a Garden

It's spring!  I don't know about you, but the slowly or sometimes rapidly warming weather puts me into the mood to start getting seeds/plants into the ground.  Depending on where you live will dictate when you would be able to start actual gardening.  In truth, by the time spring comes, you should already have your garden planned for the spring.  Some crops are best planted in the fall rather than spring, so beware of buying this time of year!  Onion sets, garlic, bulbs, and most of your bearing trees should be planted in fall, not spring.  So hold off until later in the year for these!  Even if that means buying them now and babying them along through the summer in their pots.

Ideally, if you are wanting to start some of the slower growing plants such as tomatoes and peppers, they ought to be started indoors around February with a good potting soil.  Avoid using peat pellets as there is very little nutrition to be had with it.  For the plants to thrive in it, you will need to add fertilizer of some kind.  Cow manure is a good source of nutrition to add, as is rabbit manure.  Avoid using poultry litter as fertilizer unless it's been composted as it tends to be too high in nitrogen and can 'burn' the seedlings.

When choosing which seeds/seedlings you want to use, you should take several criteria into consideration.  First, and most importantly, how large a plot do you plan to use?  What do you plan to do with the produce (eat/cook, preserve, sell)?  Will you be planting any perennials (meaning plants that will come back year after year without having to re-plant)?  Do you know when to plant each type of plant and how/when to harvest?  If not, do you know how to learn this information?  Unfortunately, while I can give general guidelines, the specifics will vary from area to area.  So what works well for me won't necessarily work well for you.  You should check with your local Cooperative Extension office to find out which crops do well for your area.  Many have websites that you can browse to learn about when to plant, how to plant, how much to water, and when the best time would be to harvest. 

Armed with all this information, you are ready to plan out your garden.  Some crops need to be arranged in certain ways in order to best provide for pollination.  For example, corn should be planted in a square configuration so as to encourage self-pollination.  Some crops will run along the ground while others will need to be planted in rows and thinned out later.  Some plants will produce better with hand pollination, such as your melons.  Some crops can be planted together.  For instance, cucumbers and corn can often be planted together, though you may have to wade through your corn to find the cucumbers.  You could also plant cucumbers and some squash varieties together as the two will produce at different times of the season.  I would recommend keeping your running crops and low crops separate otherwise you might find yourself struggling to keep vines out of your leaf crops!

Tomatoes are a very dominant plant and have a tendency of taking over a garden.  It's a good idea to keep them together and keep them tied up and away from the other plants.  Tieing up your tomato vines will make it much easier to keep varmints from eating your crop and easier to find the fruits.  Also, tomatoes ripen better when exposed to sunlight, so make the extra effort to keep the weeds at bay!

Try and avoid planting crops that you are unlikely to be interested in eating.  For instance, if you really don't care much for beets, it would not be a good choice to add to your garden unless you have another outlet for the produce.  Perennial plants such as strawberries, rhubarb, asparagus, and the larger vine/cane plants (blueberry/raspberry/blackberry) should be planted separate from your annuals garden so as to avoid accidentally killing them in subsequent years when turning the soil.  Herbs likewise are often kept separate.  If you would like an herb garden, plan it similarly, but separately.  Herbs have both perennial and annual species as well, but I will get into herb gardens at a later time.

Finally, pay attention to the planting time for the various plants.  Some plants will sprout and thrive better in colder weather, such as broccoli, radishes, chard, and lettuces.  In fact, often you can get multiple crops with careful planning and timing your plantings for multiple crop yields.

Have fun planning your garden, marking out the boundaries, turning the soil, choosing your plants and seeds, caring for your plants, and harvesting the bounty!  While it is work to put in and maintain, the reward is great in the end.  Nothing can compare to fresh from the vine tomatoes and cucumbers.  Growing your own pumpkins for fall decorating.  Stuffed fresh green peppers, home-made spaghetti sauce, an all-home-grown fresh salad, freshly steamed home-grown beans, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, corn, carrots, and so much more!

Raising Chicks - Part 2

So now you have your chicks in the brooder.  One thing you need to do every day before disturbing them is to stand back and observe.  The chicks will tell you if the heat is comfortable for them.  If they are crowded directly under the beam, the chicks are cold and you should lower the lamp.  If the chicks are crowded as far from the beam as they can get, then they are too warm and you should move the lamp higher.  If the chicks are relatively evenly spaced around the brooder, then the temperature is just right.  Expect to move it higher by increments as the chicks mature and remove it entirely after they are around 4-6 weeks.  At this point mostly what you will be doing is checking them, adding feed/water, and cleaning the litter as it becomes soiled.  You can handle your chicks after they've warmed up and settled into the brooder.  Though I would limit handling at first to about 5 minutes, extending it as they get older.

Chickens feather in a very specific pattern, you'll notice their wing feathers will come in first, then their back, belly, and head last.  However, because the wings come in first, it creates a potential difficulty for the homesteader.  Because your chicks may try out their new wings before they are ready to leave the brooder.  If you aren't careful, you could end up chasing chicks all over!  Your brooder will need to have some kind of screen over the top.  It will need to be heat resistant, because the lamp will be above it.  I usually use wire, chicken wire will work fine, placed over the top and tucked around the edges of the tub.  That will keep your chicks inside where they need to stay.

After about 4-6 weeks (age will vary), your chicks will be ready to start decreasing the temperature to prep them to move to the chicken yard.  You will know they are ready when most of their feathers are in on their body.  Never move the chicks away from the heat all at once, it could shock them.  Instead, raise the lamp every few days or so until it's really not contributing to their warmth.  Then move the chicks to their new area.  You also could put them out for a couple hours a day, taking them in at night if it's chilly, for awhile longer.  The more special care they receive at this age, the better the likelihood they will thrive once older.

Your chicken yard should be enclosed with chicken wire or small width wire fencing to keep your chicks in, and predators out.  You should have somewhere for your juvenile/adult birds to get in out of the weather if they wish and also to roost at night.  Take aerial predators into account when planning your setup.  If hawks are a problem in your area, you might want to consider wire over the top.  Make sure the sides of the enclosure are high enough to keep your birds inside.  Chickens can't fly exactly, but they can hop with the assistance of their wings several feet in the air.  Three feet isn't high enough for most adult birds!  Now is a good time to think about where and what kind of nest boxes you will provide your soon-to-be hens.  Wooden is fine, so are metal and even wire.  You can keep them down low or mount them up higher.  Regardless, I would put shavings and/or straw inside to invite the hens to lay their eggs in it.

Your chicken pen also needs to have water and a feeder.  If they can, chickens will gladly scratch and scavenge all over.  They'll eat all different kinds of things: bugs, worms, fallen fruits, grains, even bread!  You'll soon discover that chickens provide a valuable receptacle for your leftover supper scraps.  However, even with all of this they still need a small amount of feed in order to meet their nutritional needs.  At this point though, you can switch them over from starter crumbs to either layer crumbs/pellets or scratch grains.  The grains would be fine for non-laying birds, but plan to change to layer feed when they get closer to laying age.

Now is a good time to start trying to determine which gender the birds are.  Some breeds are easier to determine than others.  Unless you specifically purchased pullets (young hens), you can expect a certain number of roosters in your chicks.  Even sexed chicks usually only have about a 95% accuracy, so even buying pullets you might still get a rooster by mistake.  Usually (but not always) the size of the comb is an indicator.  Rooster's combs tend to grow more quickly.  However, keep in mind that a dominant hen will also have a larger comb.  So the best idea is to make a note of the larger comb birds and then just wait.  More than likely the big comb youngsters are male though.  If you have more than 1 rooster and only a few hens, you'll have to make a choice whether to sell the extra male(s) or put them in the freezer.  That, however, is a conversation for a different article.

At this point your chicks are thriving and doing well.  You've got everything ready to go.  Some of your hens may start laying as early as the next fall after their hatch (depends on breed).  Others you will have to over-winter to the following spring before you'll start seeing eggs.  It will be worth the wait though!