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.

I would think they would still be feeding it, they won't forget there is still one in there. They do sometimes withold food though to try to get them to fledge. Last year however I did find one fully feathered TRES baby in the nestbox when I went to clean out the boxes. I think it just couldn't get up and out the hole and the adults must have given up on it. The box did not have kerfs (built by some boy scouts) but it never caused a problem before, hole isn't more than 5 inches from the floor. I suppose I should have added some kind of ladder to the inside to prevent this from happening again but I never did. Most of our boxes here have six nestlings each, only three with five, one has seven. Last checked that one on day 12 and they all looked fine, I am hoping all seven make it and fledge, they are on about day 15 today so later this week they should be fledging. I have one box on day 17 right now and they are majorly peeking. They are in Gilwood boxes so multiple babies can look out at the same time. Donna

Joanie, what brand of solid surface are you looking at? I have been looking at countertops for 4 months, and have definately found that at least in our area (northeast) granite and solid surface are priced very close. The budget solid surface colors are very limited as well. We actually had plan to go with an LG clor that was on special. I was really drawn to the seamless aspect of solid surface. When the price came in after templeting I was shocked. They charge an arm and a leg for integrated sink and backsplash. By the time it was all said and done it would have been more than a basic granite by about 25%, even more if I wanted everything completely seamless. So I'm back to the drawing board myself.

I finally found the picture. For some reason the last time I tried to find it the only picture I could see on that thread was the one with TX's drywall. That is along the line of what we're looking for, however I'm a little unsure about the size. I'll measure how big the space inside the drawer(s) are this afternoon and get back to you, just to make sure it would actually go in there. I was able to get the escrow thing fixed pretty easily. When I called the person was skeptical until she pulled up the file and noticed that the county returned the extra amount paid last week (their analysis was done on 1/30). They'll redo their analysis and get back to me by the middle of next week. They were shockingly pleasant about it! Congrats on selling the boards! These days our place feels cluttered; I'm looking forward to donating/selling after the next reno project that's scheduled. Not sure whether the cash or having fewer things is more appealing.