Roman - Modern Settlers

Building a Whizbang Tub-Style Chicken Plucker

Posted on April 29, 2016April 30, 2016 by Roman

If you've ever processed a bird at home, I'm sure you agree: the de-feathering process can be time-consuming, messy pain in the ass. Even though at time of writing, I've processed a relatively small number of birds, I still cringe at the thought of plucking one more chicken by hand. Or, almost as bad, having to clean up the feather storm from our "Power Plucker" ...

Keeping Bourbon Red Turkeys

Posted on April 22, 2016April 22, 2016 by Roman

When planning our farm, the thought of sitting down to lunch with a fresh roast heritage turkey sandwich or celebrating a holiday feast with a tasty home-raised bird was too good to pass up. In addition to keeping chickens on our little homestead, we decided to raise turkey. There are many breeds of turkey to choose from, so picking the type we wanted was a lot of fun...

How To Grow HOTTER Jalepeños This Year

Posted on April 15, 2016April 15, 2016 by Roman

Genetics plays the biggest part of how a pepper will taste, but did you know that the way you grow your plants also effects how they taste? We didn't. Last year we grew jalepeño peppers because, well, we love spicy food. We grew them with compost, plenty of water, everything a plant could want. They grew huge! Of course, I was thrilled... that is until we tasted them. Th...

Raising the Cornish Rock Meat Chicken (There, we did it – won’t do it again)

Posted on April 8, 2016April 20, 2016 by Roman

We started keeping chickens after one of those quick trips to TSC during their "Chick Days" a couple years back. Typical, I know, but it wasn't without research. Before we bought our first chicks I did tons of research. I devoured every "Complete Chicken Guide" and "Top 10 Chicken Tips" article I could find - watched every chicken how-to on YouTube. I read a...

Get rid of ants overnight – Pinterest FTW!

Posted on March 21, 2016March 21, 2016 by Roman

Trying to make things you see on Pinterest can be pretty hit or miss. There are lots of interesting ideas for pest control, and most of them look really good - take a look at our 'Pest Control' board for yourself. .gallery-slider { overflow: hidden; width: 800px; height: 450px; } #gallery-1 { overflow: visible } #gallery-1 .gallery-thumbs ul, #gallery-1 .gallery-thumbs ul ...

Keeping The ‘American Bresse’ (a.k.a. Bresse Gauloise)

Posted on March 9, 2016March 11, 2016 by Roman

The Bresse Gauloise is a French heritage breed of chicken, world-renowned for it's flavor. Described as "the queen of chicken and the chicken of kings". The finishing method practiced by it's producers is said to create a fat-marbled muscle, similar to wagyu beef. Although known for their meat, hens are highly productive layers of large cream colored eggs. For tho...

Growing protein: keeping chickens for meat

Posted on December 23, 2015March 9, 2016 by Roman

Reality check time! When we started to think about raising poultry, I had the misconception that a chicken is a chicken is a chicken. They come in different colors but it's the same bird, right? LOL. There are many many breeds of chicken each with different traits. I've since learned that the modern meat chicken, sometimes called a "broiler" or "cornish x", is...

Fodder Update: Adding clover sprouts

Posted on November 17, 2015November 17, 2015 by Roman

We recently started growing fodder, or sprouted seeds, to supplement the feed for our chickens and turkeys. Its been going well so far, and the results have been very rewarding. Every morning I pull out 6 lbs of fresh sprouted grains to feed our birds, and in return egg quality has gotten noticeably better. Yolks seem to be richer in color, and the whites are denser and les...

How we keep our home rodent free

Posted on November 5, 2015November 5, 2015 by Roman

Rodents can be cute, but it's no secret that they carry and transmit some pretty bad stuff. That's why we're serious about keeping them out of our home, and keeping their numbers down around the property. There's no shortage of barn cats, foxes, owls, and snakes in our neighborhood, which all should help in controlling rodent population, but every year in the fall we g...

Coturnix Revolution

Posted on October 14, 2015October 14, 2015 by Roman

If I only wanted to buy one book about keeping quail, this would be it. The Coturnix will hatch in 18 days, reaches maturity in 7 weeks, and will lay almost an egg per day. Quail eggs contain 6x Vitamin B1, 15x Vitamin B2 than chicken eggs, and contain good cholesterols call high-density lipoproteins, which actually reduce the risk of heart attack. A single quail can be s...