The Pierogie Peepers Vol. 2

Last year I wrote a little blog post chatting about the new chicks that had landed on our new homestead - Pierogie Peepers Vol. 1. I've been keeping chickens for about 3 years but Spring 2016 was my first batch of chicks. I went a little crazy (well, at the time I thought I was!) and got an assortment of 11 chicks and 3 broad breasted turkey poults.

Over the course of that summer, two of the chicks were lost to an overnight raccoon attack and I ended up with three roosters. Life and loss are something to be expected out in the country; it certainly wasn't easy dealing with their loss but you have to move on.

In November the turkeys were at their ideal butcher weight and we slaughtered them ourselves, along with one rooster that didn't end up getting rehomed. Some might ask if that was a hard thing to do, and initially I planned to not be a part of the slaughter process. At the last minute I decided that it was my responsibility to see it through; because it's not fair or responsible for me to continue to want to raise them for the future and not be fully aware of the entire process. You can read about our first year of raising turkeys (I did not include any graphic pictures, I promise), but I found that because of the equipment we had rented it made the process quiet, easy, not traumatic for anyone and the animals passed without incident.

That left me with a dozen hens for the winter and it took until past the Winter Solstice for most of those chicks that were hatched in May to begin to lay.

I am a part of several chicken keeping facebook groups and it was recommended to me to see about raising chicks in the winter. The idea is that those chicks are hatched from hens who have the hardy gene to continue laying through the winter and a big plus is that I'm done with the hard part of raising chicks before the summer! And for those of you following along... I am due with Baby #3 (a boy!) in June so that is really ideal for me this year.

So I set out with the idea that maybe I'd get 6-8 new chicks this winter. That doesn't really work out well when your good friend raises Black Copper Marans and hatches an incubator full of gorgeous dark chocolate colored eggs on New Years Day. So 6 peepers came from there. Naturally, one is always looking to add color to her egg basket so I also decided that this year would be my year to get some "olive egger" chicks, which are a mix of a blue laying hen and a dark brown gene rooster to create a stunning olive green colored egg. 6 Olive Egger babies came a couple weeks after my Marans.

When you attempt to do a #chicksinteacups photo shoot, but your darling #australianshepherd #photobombs. Follow my other account, @two_aussie_tales for more Aussie pics. #pierogiepeepers #twotirefirefarm #squirttheaussie #chickensofig #chickens #blackcoppermarans #boleslawiec #boleslawiecpottery #polishpottery

A photo posted by Bianca @ The Pierogie Mama (@thepierogiemama) on Jan 8, 2017 at 1:39pm PST

Phase two of this year's #pierogiepeepers have landed! This time I added some #oliveegger chicks. The black ones are a wheaten/blue wheaten Americauna X black copper marans, and my two little blues are Wheaten Americauna X BCM. One or two of the blacks are F2 olive eggers. Truly ... I have only dabbled a little bit into the science of creating Olive Eggers. These babies come from a local gal who hatches big batches a few times a year and her babies have been proven to lay gorgeous olive colored eggs. So without doing a whole ton of research myself, I took a breath, crossed my fingers and hope I get some new colors in my egg basket this summer! And I'm praying that at least my little blues are girls. #chickensofig #chicksofig #chickensofinstagram #babychicks

A photo posted by Bianca @ The Pierogie Mama (@thepierogiemama) on Jan 22, 2017 at 2:12pm PST

Then finally to round out this craziness, since I was already knee deep in it, I decided to order 6 Cinnamon Queens from Cackle Hatchery. I had added two Cinnamon Queens to my flock in 2015 who started laying at the tender age of 14 weeks, which is crazy in comparison to the Peepers from 2016, who started laying at around 28+ weeks! These girls were added as my power layers.

Those babies arrived after a perilous journey from Lebanon, MO all the way to Skagit Valley, WA on the one day that it has snowed in the past 5 weeks. Great! So we hurried those little peepers home, put them under the heat lamp with their first drink and meal since their birth. As it turned out, I got an additional production red baby to tag along too.

A photo posted by Bianca @ The Pierogie Mama (@thepierogiemama) on Feb 3, 2017 at 11:26am PST

Silly me, I thought I was done. After all, I had made myself promise that I would only do 3 rounds of my favorite and "must have" breeds for 2017. But chicken math does not work that way!

Around 5 weeks of age I had each of the phases moved to outside in a segregated run underneath my chicken coop and main chicken run. This gives the 2017 chicks the opportunity to see and interact with my existing flock of 12 laying hens but protects them from being pecked on.

Sadly a couple weeks ago I lost two cinnamon queens who got smooshed at the bottom of a cuddle puddle overnight. I was so sad, because the cinnamon queens breed is "sex linked" which means boys and girls are different color right when they hatch so you know immediately if you have pullets or roos. I tried to stay strong; every year chicken farmers experience a little bit of loss and I knew something was probably going to happen that is outside of my control. Then I found a stellar deal on free shipping + $5 off for 10 chicks through Tractor Supply; so a friend and I split an order of 10 cinnamon queens. This time I PROMISE, I am done for the season!

A post shared by Bianca @ The Pierogie Mama (@thepierogiemama) on Mar 16, 2017 at 4:32pm PDT

More sadness.. the shipment of 10 cinnamon queens (plus an extra, just in case) suffered major losses. 10/11 of the chicks died in less than 24 hours. Thankfully Tractor Supply gave me a full refund immediately, but it is a bit traumatizing to see so many chicks die for apparently no reason so quickly. The remaining chick will be going home to my friend's farm.

Where does that put me? 12 original hens and 17 Vol. 2 Pierogie Peepers = 30 chickens. I have gone off the deep end, haven't I? I do have to keep in mind that my 6 Marans and 6 Olive Eggers each have a 50% chance of being roosters, because they were purchased "straight run", and as a certain troll on my instagram feed learned this past week - roosters don't live for very long at my house. My primary goal for raising chickens is for pleasure and the second is because my family loves eggs and we sell our excess. In a free range or breeding program setting roosters are valuable members of a flock, but in my case our chickens are always kept in a protected area as we have many predators and I'm not breeding chickens, so roosters are unnecessary. I do my due diligence to try to rehome them if someone else has a breeding program.

Are we all entitled to differing opinions on where food should come from? Yes. Is raising animals for meat for everyone? No. So to put to rest any questions on what happens to roosters at my property - they get humanely and efficiently slaughtered and my family eats their meat. I don't do it heartlessly, I look back at pictures of my rooster, Babcia, fondly and remember how cute HE was when he was little. But the truth was, he wasn't able to be rehomed and he kind of became a jerk when he was the only rooster in the pen. I couldn't risk having him attack me, or my kids, whenever we go into the run. Which is every day. I've been trolled by several people and baited into arguments - and the fact of the matter is that all of my animals are given a loving life and I make sure that their last moments are not filled with fear. That's saying so much more that what the meat that we buy at the grocery store can say.

...End rant.

Anyways, that's the start (and end) of this year's fuzzy butt journey!

Our First Year Raising Turkeys for Thanksgiving

Disclaimer: This is a post about raising turkeys for Thanksgiving. Yes, we slaughtered our own turkeys. Due to the nature of this post, the very end will describe the process, but I did not include pictures of the process (mainly because I didn't really think to take any).

This year we moved to our dream home, a modern "homestead" of sorts, and so many of my husband's and my goals are coming to fruition. We have just over 5 1/2 acres of space that's a range of flat usable yard, terraced paths where we built our chicken coop and plan to grow a vegetable garden, an established apple and pear tree, trails to run our quad and dogs on, a creek, a separate mother in law building with garage space for the hubby and so much more. The house is beautiful, built as though someone had us in mind. I could literally go on about all of our plans for this piece of heaven, but today I'm going to write about our experience with raising turkeys for the first time.

For the last three years I've raised close to three dozen chickens of various stages (this year was my first with chicks - The Pierogie Peepers) and we decided that we also wanted to give turkeys a try. I had only tasted an all organic pastured Thanksgiving turkey once, though it was long before I even cared about what that truly meant, but both my husband and I knew that this was something that a lot of people raved about so we decided to give it a try and see if it was something for us.

For simplicity's sake, I decided to get turkey poults (the term for baby turkeys) from our local farm store, and they offered only one variety this year; broad breasted whites. Turkeys come in a huge variety of breeds and of the domesticated type you can divide them into two groups (just like chickens) - commercial and heritage breeds. A heritage breed bird is one that is considered old school; the breed was established prior to the 1950's (and hasn't been subject to the commercialized selective breeding), takes longer to mature and still mates naturally. A commercial breed is pretty much the opposite - a domesticated bird that has gone through the selective breeding process over generations, probably starting around the 1950's, to grow bigger, faster and easier. Broad breasted white turkeys fall into the commercial category. They mature in as little as 16 weeks! On the other hand, many heritage breed turkeys take well over a year to fully mature and reach their maximum size. Some people say that there is a marked difference between the taste of a commercial versus heritage bird, even those that are fed the exact same food and grew up side by side.

A broad breasted white turkey (which is the exact same thing as a broad breasted bronze, they are just different colors) was developed to grow a huge amount of breast meat. Because that's what we Americans love. The white color was developed because it looks more sterile. Commercial birds were bred to grow big and fast, so interestingly enough most of them have no idea how to mate and due to their size are incapable of it (even if they were given a life long enough to act). It's my understanding that all commercially hatched turkeys are a product of artificial insemination.

There are many reasons why you would choose between a heritage and commercial breed for poultry, but mainly what it came down to for us was that this was our first year (so we took what we could easily get), these birds were intended for Thanksgiving dinner so they did need to mature in a relatively short amount of time, and we were curious to see how big it really would get.

So on June 2 this year our little gang of three turkeys arrived at Two Tire Fire Farm and they were raised in the brooder next to The Pierogie Peepers (the 11 chicks that we got a few weeks earlier). In comparison to raising chicks, the poults were a lot more slow to get up to speed. They were about twice the size of a chick of the same age, but didn't have the inherent knowledge of how to eat or drink. Truly, people who raise turkeys will tell you that either you put a chicken chick or two with poults to show them the ropes, or you have to dip their beak into the food and water for a few days to show them. The phrase that turkeys are dumber than a box of rocks tends to be true in my experience.

A photo posted by Bianca @ The Pierogie Mama (@thepierogiemama) on Jun 2, 2016 at 1:46pm PDT

We chose three turkeys because we wanted one for our Thanksgiving dinner, a friend asked us to raise one for them and I got a third one "just in case," because again.. turkeys aren't very smart and don't have the best resilience to disease and honestly, begin to look mighty tasty to predators once they get a bit of meat on them.

Before they were a month old it was pretty clear that we have one tom and two hens. I was really hoping that we had two toms so that the other family could have a nice big bird as well, because we had no clue on what to expect for how big they would get. They graduated from the brooder with a heat lamp by 5 weeks to living exclusively outside in a mobile turkey "tractor" (a pen that we can move around to give them free range of grasses, bugs and dirt but keep them protected).

I found that they really did not graze and forage on grass nearly as much as chickens would in that same space. It would take 2-3 days for them to eat all the grass in the footprint of their tractor whereas it would easily be done in a day with chickens. Turkeys, at least mine, were incredibly picky about their food. I had started to introduce leaves and fresh grass into their brooder at an early age, but they never cared for it. My chickens get tons of kitchen and veggie scraps in addition to their feed and getting to forage in their own tractor, but the turkeys really wouldn't touch it. On a really hot day I brought half a watermelon to them (a real treat!) and they cautiously circled it for hours. Had this been in the chicken pen - it wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes.  Finally I dumped some of their pellet food on top of it and they tried it. ???

I found that it was incredibly difficult to source organic turkey feed in my area. It was completely unheard of. Raising an organic pastured turkey was my highest priority because I'm well aware of the benefits of this standard of food, although the cost is higher. I am thankful that this financial cost is something that we can afford because it's important to my husband and I.

It is so hard to find organic feed for turkeys in my area! I've been getting by with 21% protein organic fryer feed, and was so happy to have discovered that @modesto_milling makes organic turkey feed and supplies it at the @eufgc in Olympia. We have used their layer feed and were so happy with it! We are upping our birds to 28% protein, adding cracked corn as a finisher and I am excited to see how these birds dress out in 7 weeks. #gobblegobble #organic #nongmo #nongmoturkey #organicturkey #pasturedturkey #twotirefirefarm #growyourown #modestomilling #thanksgiving #turkeysofig #turkeysofinstagram #eufgc

A photo posted by Bianca @ The Pierogie Mama (@thepierogiemama) on Sep 26, 2016 at 10:34am PDT

I was lucky enough to find some organic meat chicken food ("fryer ration") and fed that to them until I found a feed store about 3 hours away (luckily, in the town that my parents live). The reason why choosing your feed for your turkeys is important is because of the protein level. More protein = faster growth, just like any other animal. Turkeys are recommended to have between 19% to 30% protein in their feed. Meat chicken feed tends to be at about 18-21%. However, more protein is not always better. If you feed any animal too much protein too fast they won't be able to healthily support their own weight. The horror stories that you hear about chicken production farms can be true - chickens whose legs break at the end of their life cycle because they simply cannot support their own weight. They've been stuffed too much. That was my fear for the turkeys. So I decided that a gradual increase in protein would be a safe bet. They were fed an 21% protein diet (on CHS Payback Organic Fryer) until they were about 12 weeks old, when I found that Modesto Mills has an organic turkey ration that is at 28%. At 19 weeks (about 5 weeks before slaughter) I added organic cracked corn into their diet, which is a "finisher." The finisher feed, in addition to the regular feed, helps finish off the meat but giving it an extra bit of fat which will add to the flavor. They got about 40 pounds of cracked corn in the final 5 weeks. The three turkeys went through 160 lbs of feed and 40 lbs of cracked corn in their 24 weeks of life.

4 year old: "look how proud he is!! He says "stay away, these are MY ladies!" #twotirefirefarm #thanksgiving #broadbreastedwhite #turkeysofig #turkeysofinstagram #pasturedturkey

A photo posted by Bianca @ The Pierogie Mama (@thepierogiemama) on Sep 21, 2016 at 2:46pm PDT

We slaughtered them the Saturday before Thanksgiving. A friend who has several years of farming experience came to help out, as well as the husband of the family that we grew one of the turkeys for. Our local feed store rents a "poultry processing kit," which includes a stand, kill cones and basin, a scalder and a plucker.  My husband had slaughtered turkeys and chickens "by hand" in the past and it was a time consuming process. The kit cut it down to processing 3 turkeys and 6 roosters in under 3 hours. Because of the ease of this process, the whole experience was quiet, humble, humane and respectful. I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch the process because I was worried that it would be too hard to watch, but it really wasn't that bad. I was the primary caretaker for the turkeys and was reminded every day that their lives have an expiration and that their sacrifice would be respected. At the last minute I decided that because I had taken on the responsibility of raising them I should see it through to the end. I watched; I don't think I will ever want to participate, but I'm glad that I know have an understanding of the process.

There are several ways to kill a bird, but the way that we did it was by placing the bird head first into the kill done and slitting the jugular and allowing the bird to bleed out. It only takes a few minutes and the bird does not struggle. After it is gone, you place it into the scalder to get the feathers to come off easily. Scalding the bird loosens the pores and regardless if you have to pluck by hand or have a machine that does it - it's easier. A plucker essentially looks like an open washing machine that spins the body around with some rubberized nubs that pull the feathers off for you.  We placed two roosters at a time into the scalder and plucker but the turkeys were way too big.

After the feathers are removed you remove the head, then the neck, feet (we saved them for our dogs!) and internal organs. Because I was only watching, I can't give you a tutorial on what exactly to do. You then cool the body and you're good to go!

So what did our birds weigh in at? That was my most anticipated surprise!!

Our tom - 31 1/2 lb and the two hens were 21 and 22 lbs.

Our tom came out to 31 lbs 8 oz. Feeling pretty accomplished! And he was cooked in about 6 1/2 hrs at 325 deg F. We kept him fresh and I was told pastured birds cook faster, but I was calculating about 8 hours. Is this normal? #broadbreastedwhite #turkeysofig #turkeysofinstagram #organic #pasturedpoultry #pastured #nongmo #growyourown #twotirefirefarm #gobblegobble #thanksgiving #thanksgivingcooking

A photo posted by Bianca @ The Pierogie Mama (@thepierogiemama) on Nov 25, 2016 at 5:18pm PST

I brined it in a Costco brine mix (it had apples, cranberries, vanilla bean and other spices) for about 48 hours and I made an herbed garlic butter to slather on top and under the skin. It was stuffed with my mom's stuffing. For a bird that size we expected it to take just over 7 hours to cook at 350 degrees. So I prepped it the night before Thanksgiving and got up at 5am to put it in the oven. It ended up being ready (165 degrees at the thickest part of the thigh) almost an hour and a half early. THAT was a surprise! I read that pastured turkeys take a little bit less time but I wasn't expecting that big of a difference. The other two turkeys also took less time than expected.

And the verdict on the flavor? Even the most skeptical of family members (we invited almost 20 adults to get this bird eaten, after all!) agreed that this was much better than store bought. We still had a ton of left overs that were used for turkey sandwiches, pot pie and a few other things. I simmered the carcass to make broth that I pressure canned with a Black Friday purchase.

It's very likely that we'll grow a turkey or two every year from now on. They didn't take any more work than my chickens do and the pay off was worth it for us. It was very personally satisfying to see 6 months of work bring so much of our family together for a great meal and wonderful memories.

Blackberry Limoncello Lemonade

Don't forget to check out this month's Pierogie Mama sponsor -
shedding some light on one of the biggest early parenting challenges we all face!

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So...I have roughly 5 acres of blackberries.

When we moved to our new home in April we knew we had a big job ahead of us in clearing out the overgrown blackberry bushes. My husband quickly convinced me that we need a tractor to mow all of this and I'm really glad I listened to him. I usually do, he has good ideas, even though it's tough to admit sometimes!

We've mowed strategically and have a few areas around the house that are providing prolific amounts of blackberries. I'm talking about easily picking over a pound of blackberries each day. The kids have been happy eating them plain for now, but I'm starting to become creative with the uses. That's where Blackberry Limoncello Lemonade came from.

Serves: 4
You'll need:
2 cups of washed blackberries (reserve a berry per serving for garnish)
1 cup of sugar
2 lemons, juiced (reserve a thin slice of lemon per glass for garnish)
Limoncello
5 cups of cold water
ice cubes

*Omit Limoncello for a virgin drink, increase recipe to the juice of 3 lemons.
*My tall glasses hold 2 cups of liquid, and I used one shot of Limoncello per glass for a light alcoholic drink or two for a stronger drink.

Directions:
1. In a medium sauce pan heat the blackberries and sugar until boiling. Using a spatula start to mash the berries to help release their juice. Remove from heat and allow to cool. I pour it into a shallow dish and place in the freezer for a few minutes to speed up the cooling process.
2. In a large pitcher mix the lemon juice, water and blackberry mixture.
3. Prepare each glass by filling with ice cubes, pouring the Limoncello over the ice and filling with the blackberry lemonade. Garnish with a slice of lemon and a blackberry.

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The Pierogie Peepers vol 1.

Thanks to this month's Pierogie Mama sponsor,
here's a fun way to sneak high protein navy beans 

into your active toddler's diet!
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Almost 2 months ago, my husband and I moved our family about an hour north to beautiful Skagit County (Washington) where we get to live in the home of our dreams. It was the house we had prayed for and now we get to realize our dream!

As many of you know, I am also a chicken mama and have had a small flock of backyard hens for almost 3 years. Once we moved to our new house and were no longer constrained by city regulations, I went a little chicken crazy. Just a little. We went from 7 hens to double that in a very short amount of time. That term is called "chicken math."

Say hello to the 11 + 3 Pierogie Peepers! We call them 11 + 3 because I've got 11 chicks and 3 turkey poults (the word for baby turkeys).

These guys are quickly growing and the super cute chick phase was short lived. But I had some fun while they were cute and fuzzy!

Big Sister Babcia, my 2 week old white crested Polish says "I'm too big for this baby stuff, mom." #pierogiepeepers #polishchicken #chicksinteacups #chickinateacup #chicksofig #chicksofinstagram

A photo posted by Bianca @ The Pierogie Mama (@thepierogiemama) on May 28, 2016 at 4:13pm PDT

May your Friday be fluffy. #pierogiepeepers #fluffybuttfriday #blackcoppermarans #backyardchickens

A photo posted by Bianca @ The Pierogie Mama (@thepierogiemama) on May 27, 2016 at 4:25pm PDT

But adolescence is rarely cute on any creature and that's kind of where we are at right now.  Almost immediately baby chicks start to lose their fuzzy baby down and grow in their feathers. We are in a middle stage where just a little bit of down remains.

Out of all of the Peepers, Babcia the Polish chicken is kind of my favorite. She's been the most fun to watch as she feathers out. Polish chickens are bred to have a huge 'fro, and are one of the most fabulous in the chicken world. You might wonder where this name came from. "Babcia" in Polish means "Grandmother," which is what my daughters call my mom. My mom, bless her heart, I love her so, but the 'fro on Polish chickens reminds me of my mom on a bad hair day.

Most of the time when you buy chicks from your local Co Op or farm store they come "sexed," meaning you have about a 90% chance of knowing that the chicks you've selected are girls. Some breeds (specialty, mostly) come "straight run," meaning they were not sexed and you have a 50/50 chance of pullet vs roo. Babcia came as a straight run and I go between wondering if she is a girl or a boy. I am really hoping she's a girl. I also got my four black copper marans from a friend who breeds them as straight run and so far I think I've found that two out of the four are roos. It's still too early to tell at 4 weeks, but there are sometimes indicators (comb size, usually) that may indicate boys. My guess is that #1 and #4 are boys.

And that's pretty much where we are at! To answer the elephant in the room - yes, the turkeys are for us to eat. My husband will be butchering them sometime between September and November, depending on their size. It's not an aspect that I look forward to with excitement, but having the personal satisfaction of growing our own meat, giving the turkey a good life and an honorable death will be a part of our life here on our new "farm."