ChickenCam

Take a beer can, drink half the contents, stuff the can (and its remaining contents) in the body cavity of a whole chicken and grill.
Outstanding!

» How to make Beer Can Chicken (via Ask.com)

I can always tell when people are way too disconnected from reality. Last week we had a couple of friends from the city over for dinner and I took them on a small tour of the property, including a trip through the chicken & duck yard. Here is the actual conversation:

Friend: What are all the chickens for? Do you eat them?

Me: No, we have them mostly for the eggs.

Friend: You get eggs from chickens?

Me: Uh, yeah… where did you think they came from?

Friend: I dunno, the store?

Upon departure, I gave him and his wife a dozen fresh eggs to take home even though I’m pretty sure he’s afraid to eat them. You know they do come from “real, live” chickens…

Well, nothing is hatching just yet. But I did notice a couple of our ducks are now sitting on nests. Every year we get a couple of new members of out “feathered” family.

Here’s a photo of last year’s additions. The two yellow ones grew up to be gray just like mother duck. If you watch the Chicken Cam often enough, no doubt you’ll see the black one as well — she’s pretty hard to miss.

Over the years I’ve had a number of friends and acquaintances ask me how it is I learned so much about raising poultry. (I grew up in the suburbs of Orange County, Calif. where the closest thing we ever saw to a real chicken was on TV.) The truth is, there isn’t that much to raising chickens, ducks, etc. You provide them a safe area, food and water, and they pretty much take care of themselves. Of course, you don’t know this when you’re first starting out, so it’s nice to have some sort of guide.

When I got my first batch of chicks from the feed store 15-odd years ago, I also picked up a copy of Raising Poultry The Modern Way by Leonard S. Mercia. The book is designed for those interested in raising small flocks (backyard, free range or otherwise) of chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese both for egg and meat production. It’s a comprehensive book that takes you through everything step-by-step beginning with building proper housing, selecting your breeds, brooding and rearing all the way through egg production, slaughter and meat preparation (if that’s your intent).

Chapters are well laid out, and the specific needs of each type of poultry such as food supplements, disease prevention, etc., are all throughly discussed. There’s also plenty of illustrations and diagrams — making it very easy to thumb through and get a visual answer to your question.

My copy of the book is the ninth edition, released in 1992, which seems to be the last update (how much has poultry changed in 15 years anyway? It’s not like they’re Internet-enabled now or something). It’s still an excellent guide, and I find myself referring to it even to this very day. So if you’re looking for one book to tell you most everything you need to know, this is the one.

You can pick up copy of Raising Poultry The Modern Way at most any feed store that carries Storey Publishing’s books, as well as most online bookstores. I’ve include a link to the book on Amazon.com below, as well as the publication details in case you’d like to order it from your local feed store or bookseller.

Raising Poultry the Modern Way (on Amazon.com)

Book Details:

• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC; Revsd/Updt edition (January 4, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882665774
• ISBN-13: 978-0882665771