Hi Audrey, I'd have posted sooner but we had the loveliest weather today (above freezing, sunny and NO WIND) so I've been outdoors a fair bit, playing with my geese and giving Marilla (our cat) an airing. First my congrats on being ready to take the plunge. I was pretty sure you'd get there soon and I was right! Pat yourself on the back, first for undertaking it and second for being concerned to do it well. I have every confidence that you will do fine. A few questions... How many broilers do you have? Will you have any help or support for the killing and cleaning or are you entirely on your own? Do you know anyone with experience who can help you out with the first batch? And now a few comments on my own experiences. My friend and partner, Brian, who shares this venture with me, is actually the one who pulls the birds' necks to kill them. My hands are small and I am not confident I could do it efficiently. If you use the broomstick method, strength is less of an issue. Do you have Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow? There is a good chapter on different methods of "doing the deed." I quote: "If you have trouble snapping a chicken's neck by hand, as I do, use your feet. Grasp the bird by the shanks and lay its neck on the ground. Place a broom or rake handle across the neck. With one foot on either side of the neck, stand on the handle and firmly pull the bird upward. After the neck has snapped, hang the bird by its legs with a piece of twin, cut the neck on both sides and let it bleed." A killing cone is an excellent idea... it will keep the bird from flapping when the neck is cut. The bird is already dead but the reflex action of the nerves can be very unsettling, especially at first. The cone will prevent this. Cut the neck on both sides just behind the head... the more it bleeds the better. When I was in France, the year before I started with chickens, my sister and I stayed overnight with a good friend of hers who has a "ferme auberge" (upscale guest-house with supporting farm) in a mini-chateau. She routinely culls hens for the table... rabbits too. One was needed for the kitchen that day, so she allowed us to be present at the killing, since I wanted to determine if I would have the stomach for it BEFORE I got chickens. The proprietor caught a hen, took it into the processing shed and put it in the cone. She applied an electric current to the cone to stun the bird - it went instantly limp - and then cut the bird's throat. No struggling or sign of distress... and the whole thing over in less than half a minute. This would be my preferred method if I had very many birds to process. All we have are the year's cockerels and any old or nasty hens. Never more than a dozen birds for the season. So Brian pulls their necks and bleeds them out and I skin, eviscerate and cut up the carcasses. Personally, I don't like to do more than three in a morning, since I get a back-ache from too much standing. You might want to consider a "practice session" where you do only two or three. Nothing worse than having a dozen birds dead and not enough energy to get them cleaned. You will find, of course, that as you get accustomed to the job you will be able to do more, in less time; but there is a learning curve. If you want details of how I skin and eviscerate, please let me know. This particular post is already too long... but I hope some of it, at least, is helpful.

tisha - i have tried healthy choice, wasnt too happy with them but i never had the lean cuisine. stouffers and hungry man are okay tho. thanks for the link to hormel. i will have to give those a shot. susy - i dont know how you do it. you are the busiest person i know and still have time to look so good! it is plain not fair! LOL, i have tried those "just meats" your talking about and that is exactly what i got, too. 4 slices of turkey and tons of greasy, yuky gravy. have you tried the prepared meats in the meat section? now they arent too bad. i got a rolled pork honey mustard roast already that was pretty tasty. that was an easy meal. just shove it in the oven with some potatoes and a pot of corn. i made it so much we sort of got sick of it... i do cook larger roasts and than freeze some for another meal, meldy. trouble is that doesnt happen to often in this house. i like making stews and pot pies in the winter, but i am not a fan of left overs. hub likes them, so nothing goes to waste but like you said, who wants to eat stew all week? mj, i bet you are like me in that you could make a meal out of raw veggies and fruit? when hub works late i just love it. i dont have to cook ( even frozen meals) and i can make a meal out of a piece of cheese, some crackers and a bowl of blueberries. there is certainly a lot of votes for lean cuisine. i must try some. we arent talking diet meals here now are we? because i surely am not on one nor do i worry too much about my salt intake ( maybe i should?) so the meals dont have to be 'special diet" meals. i agree tho, that the portions arent big enough for me in any meal that is in the frozen section. i have to laugh at those 'family' size meals that say serves 4 or so. ha! that just about feeds hub! the deli chicken at wally world is tops and we get one of those about 2 a month. it is lovely with rice and a veggie. marie calendar is one of our favs too, gabriell. it sounds as tho you have the same problems i have. there are days when my back plain up and refuses to allow me to cook. those days hub has to fend for himself. geez, dare i say i dont iron either? g

Mich........they come in a good two months before the snows stop and ask if they can buy them when they are tiny seedlings. They want to take them home and keep them in their garages until spring. You get calls late at night in March, with questions about whether garbage bags over them will keep them from freezing. When you flat - out refuse to sell them just because you are ethical, then they get mad and go find somebody who will. I lost a fairly large wholsale account because I kept trying to hold off the first delivery until they had a chance of survival. as per the real estate prices.....yeah..........I see it on HGTV. Even a burger flipper here could buy a comperable two bedroom house you guys get half a million for. I can handle a lot of snow for that.

I don't have a list of foods NOT to feed worms, but would guess that anything poisonous to humans would not be a good idea for worm bins.[if not for worms, at least for the worm keeper, handling both the feedstock and the VC] In the wild, might be a different story. I wonder if there are composting worms in the fallen leaves under poison ivy or oleander? If you are wondering about mango peels ... they are related to poison ivy and the peels contain the toxic material. I've seen posts in the compost forum saying never to compost poison ivy or poison sumac, as the toxic material will remain in the compost. Because I am dangerously allergic to poison ivy and mango peels, I avoid any contact with ANYTHING connected to them ... including compost.