Our Hatchery

Here is our hatchery. This little dwelling sits has been sitting on our property since we bought our home in 2005. I always thought we'd fix it up later (get the electricity running again, plumbing, fix the interior), and still do but for now it serves as a wonderful hatchery. I think some cute window panes on the outside, some hanging flowers and a sign just above that says "Our Little Hatchery" would be so cute.

Our New White Broadbreasted Turkeys

Matthew has his hands pretty full with the turkeys, chickens, incubation, customers, 3 kids and a pregnant wife. So, I will continue doing most of the posts here too unless he has some instructions or something he wants to share.

So, here are our turkeys just a day or two after Matthew picked them up at the Country Feed store in Montesano. They will get just as big as our regular broad breasted turkeys we had last year but will not have the dark pinfeathers that are noticeable in the meat or skin. These are the kind you buy in the store for Thanksgiving. We bought 15 of them but one was lame so now we have 14. You won't believe how quick they grow. They are over twice their size now and Matthew just picked them up on April 16th. They will grow to over 30 lbs for a tom and over 20 for a hen. Now I have to get to taking pictures again. Matthew just planted me a garden yesterday in front of our hatchery.

Butterball Anyone???

I think he looks more like a duck. They are so cute! I can't believe he won't be able to hold them for long.

Our New Incubator (30-40 years old)

We just received this incubator for free from a person we had never meet. We were getting an insurance quote for our new business and the agent came out to the house. She knew that we were opening a business for chickens and asked if we needed an incubator. We had no idea what was in store for us. She shared with us about how one of her relatives was in the profession of hatching parrots and that when he had pasted away that she was asked if she wanted anything, she took the incubator thinking it was a food processor. She later discovered that it was an incubator. She never used and asked if we would pick it up, she refused any money and simply just gave it to us, she won't even take any eggs. Likes the ones from the store.



These are two pictures of the front, it is made of redwood, tin, and brass. It amazed me that when I saw the craftsmanship that went into making this piece of art. The nails, glass, and metal. You could tell that the nails were put in by hand and something you just won't see any more. Everything had made in the U.S.A on it and the thermometer was even made in America and didn't come with a warning that it needed to be tested for accuracy.

There are four vents on the top for humidity and do they work perfectly.

Here is a picture of the thermometer that works and the wet-bulb thermometer that also works.

Here is a picture of the trays and water pan at the bottom. The water pan has three different compartments and none of them leak.

Here is the fan, a little wipe down two drops of three in one oil and it purrs like new.

We have set our first batch of eggs in our new incubator and we are so happy to have been blessed with such a gift from the Lord.

Our Delicious Exchange

What do you get....

When you exchange this....

For this....

Delicious fried oysters EVERY Monday evening at the Geraci household!

That's right, every Monday my husband Matthew drives down to Rays Oysters and gives the owner 2 dozen of our farm fresh eggs for a pint of fresh oysters. Now that's a livin'!

Turkey dinner again - by Matthew

This is one of our Blue Slate turkeys. We wanted to keep them because they can naturally reproduce but they kept flying away and coming back at night. We don't mean flying over a fence, we expected that but when they started to fly and land on the neighbors barn roof who lives about half a mile it was just to much and when the neighbor told us that they go down to the creek by old nelsons place we knew it was time. We gave away the three smaller turkeys to some nice people but this one saw the pot.



This is me down in front of the barn with the turkey, a new technique I use is to just walk up behind the turkey when he reaches for food, I grab him from behind and flip him upside down. I tie him up and off we go up the hill.


I always us a five pound double edge ax for the killing of the turkey. A lot harder to miss. This bird is now ready for the cone.

In the cone and ready for the plucking bucket.

We use a twenty gallon horse bucket to dunk the birds in - one hundred and forty five degree water and the feathers just come right off. We keep the water hot in the bucket. I am a little slow with plucking still about ten minutes. Have to duck him around three times slosh him around like milk in churner. We love raising our animals gathering from them and eating them.

The box is for the innards, head, feet, tips of wings and feathers. just throw in burn barrel and all is done time to eat in a couple of days.

A Turkey Dinner - by Matthew

A TURKEY DINNER

First a trip down to the barn. This was a Blue Slate turkey and his weight was about twelve pounds. We slaughtered him because we slaughtered our two Broad Breasted hens and didn't want to leave him alone.


In front of the barn and ready to go up the drive way. Take note of the chain saw helmet, turkeys can really beat you with their wings and I mean beat you.


To spare the details of the picture, one turkey, one man, one axe, and one axe.


Plucking a turkey only takes about ten to fifteen minutes for a beginner like me, the important thing is to have the water at about 145 degrees. The cone in the back ground is for bleeding and we let our turkeys bleed for about two to three minutes. The bucket is for dunking the turkey in and it is filled with the hot water, I dunked him about three times during the plucking. The box is for the; head, feathers, guts and anything else. I then throw the burn barrel and and all is taken care of but the cooking and eating.

Goose Dinner

Yes, that's right. Goose dinner! This is actually the leftovers from the night before. During hunting season, a couple of men hunt geese across the highway from us. Acres and acres of beautiful land... I wish I had a picture. I usually hear the first shots at about 7:00 in the morning. Anyways, on the second to the last day of the season one of the men came over to ask if we would mind if he shoots some geese in our backyard. We have 12 acres so they are usually filled with geese during this time of year. We said we'd be obliged to if we could get a goose for ourselves. He came back with a goose a couple of hours later. My husband cleaned it and we had it for dinner the next evening. I was a little nervous about trying a new meat and had my husband try it first. I asked him how it tasted and he said it was delicious. I knew him to have good taste so I figured it would be good. It WAS delicious! Wow, why don't more people eat goose dinner? I'm surprised they don't. It's like a rich, delicious and delicate beef. It even looks like beef. I cooked it in the crockpot and will probably do it again next year. They will be coming back to hunt in our backyard again next year. I'm excited for my husband as he will be able to do a little hunting and right here in our backyard.

A Day on the Farm

Here's a day we walked down to our barn for some fresh air.

Here I am with little Matthew.

Here's one of our blue slate turkeys. We had him for dinner last month!
The best turkey we ever did have.

Precious little Matthew. Isn't this such a precious picture?

Our darling Elisabeth. She's looking bigger every day!

Matthew and Hannah. She loves being in the carrier.

Which Came First The Baby or the Bird???

Our first baby chick was just hatched a few minutes ago. He is so cute!!! But, I was hoping to be wrong and that it would have been little Matthew to hatch first. But, I do have hope! He could be born on the same day as the baby birds. The night is not over yet. I only have 4 days left until my due date. We are both so excited. We can't wait to see his little face and I can't wait to hold him to me. I'm hoping to have him before my appointment on Friday. Otherwise, I will update on Friday to share if there's any progress.

Which Will Hatch First - The Chicks or the Baby?

I am due in 10 days so I could actually have our baby any day now. Our next batch of incubating chicks are due in 7 days. Which will come first - the chick or the baby???

Matthew thinks we will have our baby first. I on the other hand think it will be after my due date in November. I don't have anything really going on yet. My weekly appointments are on Friday so if there is a change, I will have to post it.

A Gift from God

I first need to thank my God for the breath of life that He gives that all creatures may have the breath of life. I also thank my patient wife who continued to support me even when I had a real bad time trying to raise some beef cattle. She continued to support me and is one-hundred percent with me in this great adventure. Here are our first eggs before going into the incubator, there is also another dozen that was included. They are so pretty and good tasting but we saved these ones for the incubator.


Here are the eggs in the incubator day eighteen. They are in the kitchen pantry (My wife is so special). We are so nervous if one will even hatch, we can't get over the idea that there are little chickens in those eggs.


We were in the kitchen on day twenty and we both heard a little chirp and neither one of us said anything because we just did not think that it was a chick. Tanya (my wife) then asked me if I heard a chirp and I said yes. We both waited and we heard it again. We were so excited. That night the first chick hatched and the next day (day 21) they just started to hatch. I went to check on the chicks and saw one ready to hatch so I took this picture and was just amazed by how the chicks peck their way around the shell and out of it.


This is the same little chick a little later, little guy is really at work. He just keeps pushing away. No free lunch here just hard work for such a little guy.


One more successful hatch. They are chirping the whole time and we are just amazed at the work of God. A chick does come out of the egg. It's one thing to know, it's another to experience.


Wait a minute where did that little guy go? He just hatched thirty seconds ago. Already walking and falling all over the place. Well time for him to dry off. It's hatching day and moving day.


Our first chick. We will forget most of the chicks that are hatched but we won't forget this one. The first one. What a cutie! Black with white tip wings. The drying bucket is right below the incubator in the pantry closet. A nice warm ninety-six Fahrenheit. A little food and water with a sprinkle of sugar in the water. Home sweet home, lots of room I can hear him now, "Where is everyone".


What a crowd, things are getting a little packed in the new home but everyone is cozy and quiet. It's still mid-day and we are thinking room should not be a problem.


Well time to rethink things over, (day 2) the house is getting a little crowed. It's time to move again!


Much better into the mini coop we go. I constructed this out of pallets that the cranberry factory throws away. Just for safety we have two lights; a two-fifty (I.R) and a one-hundred.



An above picture of the chicks (all twenty-three) the two waters, feeder and one of the lights. Will be adding a trough feeder next week.


We're so happy in our new home, look at us how vibrant we are. We're so fortunate to be here for the rest of our days instead of some factory.

We're into Eggs!

Here is a picture of our first egg. We got it on July 21st and we are already up to 28 a week! We gave some away already but now have a customer as well. Usually by 2:30 or so there are 3 eggs down there already. Add another 1 or 2 by 8:00 that evening.

The hens are not broody.... meaning, you won't find them laying on their eggs. We've seen them laying in their nest box many times but that is to lay an egg. So, it makes it easy on us to just go down, throw some bread out to them so they all come outside and go check for eggs. It's fun, I wish I had grown up like this. I can't wait for our children to gather eggs one day.

Now how do they look? How do they taste? The yolk is actually orange... how it's supposed to look. Yellow is aged. Being able to peel an egg easily after hard boiling it means it's a few weeks old because there is an air pocket in there from the membrane separating from the wall of the inner shell. So, it's really hard to peel our eggs. We will start storing some so we can have some hard boiled eggs though. We've had 2 eggs so far that were double yolkers. The eggs are HUGE when they have 2 yolks in them. They would make a great rich bread like a challah.

How do they taste? Wonderful! They actually have a flavor to them. They are delicious! The white is actually pretty firm so a fried egg sandwich isn't really flat as I am used to. They look so healthy too.

Some of Our Eggs

Here are some of our lovely eggs. I think they look pretty. We would like to buy some Maran chickens this spring. They produce a beautiful, dark chocolate brown egg.

Colorful Eggs

Here's some of the variety of colors of eggs we have. Matthew just picked these up out of the barn a week ago.

New Baby Chicks!

They aren't so new anymore as they are about a month old now. But, here they are! We're going to add them to our other bunch in about a month. We'll put them behind some chicken wire fencing for a few days to get used to one another. We just love getting the eggs and already have a customer. We have the land, barn and everything else so why not?

The following 3 posts were written by my husband Matthew.

The Finished Product

What we have here is one good tasty bird, cooked then carved. If you think you could never kill and clean and turkey don't worry this was my first time also. Everything will turn out just fine and you won't believe how good it tastes.

Killing, Bleeding, and Plucking

The first thing you want to do before you kill a turkey is to feed it only water for a day. The next is to go in to where you have the turkey, put a pair of thick leather gloves on and put some food in front of him. When he reaches for the food grab him by the legs from behind and pull him to the upside down position put him back to the ground put one knee on one of his wings (or it will smack the day lights out of you). Take the twine that you have at the ready and begin to wrap it around his legs tightly. Secure the turkey and hold him upside down as you carry him to the chopping block. He will be flapping his wings JUST HOLD ON!!! Get him to the chopping block and whack his head off with one good swing of the ax that you have leaned against the chopping block. Take notice I used a five pound double edged ax. By doing so you will eliminate the chances of a miss. I chop five cords of wood a year and can place an ax well into anything and when I chopped at the neck of the turkey he moved a bit, yet I still chopped the neck off ninety-five percent. If I was using a small ax, I may have missed or had to take one or two more swings.

The next thing that will happen is that the turkey will go nuts for about one minute. Just hold on to the legs and keep the neck about two inches away from the ground. This will help to keep the blood from getting all over you. When the turkey stops wiggling somewhat place it in the killing cone, go ahead and feel free to help him in there. He will bleed out for about three more minutes. Then dunk him in the bucket of water that you have prepared for him. (one-hundred and forty degrees works well) Turn on your your hot water and fill the tub two thirds the way up, put in about one two two gallons of boiling water to obtain the extra heat needed. Keep him in the tub for about one minute shushing him around so that the water gets to the skin in all the places it needs to get. Pull the turkey out of the bucket within one minute you don't want to cook it you just want to get the feathers lose. Begin plucking, it is so easy the feathers just came out in about thirty minutes I was done. I dumped out the hot water from the tub and placed cold water in it with some ice packs. I removed the guts and wind-pipe by enlarging the rear off the bird with a vertical cut about four inches long. I stuck my hand in and removed the whole mess with one swipe of the hand. You will feel the guts and lungs which are close to the rib cage just place your hand between them and the rib cage and use your hand as a knife. I then placed a cardboard box next to the turkey and threw the head, guts and feet in it with the feathers and just threw the whole thing in the burn barrel and was done with it.