Survival Food

Keeping chickens is so much a part of a self-reliant lifestyle, that most cities now have ordinances to allow chickens in small quantities as a nod to sustainability. And a few hens are not hard to accommodate.

This old outhouse has been with me now for almost 30 years. But I no longer had a use for it as originally intended. Re-purposing was in order! With just a few modifications it has become an adequate chicken house.

1. I covered the open hole seat area with a new sheet of plywood
2. Cut a hole in the side about 10”x10” for the chickens to go in and out
3. Tacked the fence wire around the hole with 2×4 to frame the opening
4. Since the door had long ago fallen off, I replaced it with a full view used storm door from a used center for $8
5. I installed two dowel rods for roosting areas
6. I attached an old wooden crate for a nest box onto the wall

The chicken pen is away from the barn, so I ran an electric drop cord to it for supplemental lighting and to power the water font heater. That is working just fine and I am using a timer that I got for my Christmas lights to control the lighting.

Their chicken pen is a metal pergola I got on clearance at the end of the season a couple of years ago and covered with chicken wire, including the bottom—predator control! I used cable ties to secure the wire. In the summer they have outside roosts. Added bonus, last summer the squash crawled up and over it providing shade for the chickens and a vertical trellis for the squash!

This was a last minute, just before winter hit, project. Adjustments I hope to make this spring include:

• Add tin under the roosts in order to funnel the manure into plastic gutters run along the bottom of the tin for ease of cleaning and to catch the manure for the compost pile
• Construct roll away nest boxes with outside access so that I don’t have to enter the 4’x4′ building—and the little devils don’t eat their eggs
• Add a secure clip to the light hanger
• Tin the outside of the building
• Hinge the seat area and line the rectangular box under it with tin to keep their feed in
• I might do some stencils on the glass door

Except for the obvious form of the building the function has been completely altered! 

Related: Chicken Doctoring

Back in the 1980s when we lived on the land, we had very little money. We used to purchase “end of lay” hens for $1 each and would slaughter and dress them so we could afford to eat chicken twice weekly. These old chooks were tough, so they needed long cooking as a stew or cooking in a pressure cooker. Still, they were a valuable source of protein for our hard-up family of six, and the price was about a third of what they would have cost already dressed.

In the first season, killing and dressing the chickens was a long, drawn-out affair over weeks. In the second and subsequent years, we set up an assembly/disassembly line.

How to Kill and Process Chickens in 5 Steps

1. First we had the chickens in boxes ready to kill. These were alongside a scaffold which had 10 cones in two rows of five. When my husband wrung their necks, he put them upside down in the cones with the heads through the bottom until they stopped moving.
2. From there I picked them out and dunked them into boiling water in the old copper that our forebears used to heat water and wash clothes in. I held on to their feet as I dipped them in the water.
3. Then onto the plucking table, where I started on their wings, down their legs onto the chests, and worked around to the back. The hot water loosened the feathers. Sometimes they needed an extra dunk in the boiling water, but I was careful not to start it cooking. That would tear the skin as I pulled the feathers out. We swept the feathers into a bucket and buried it deep in the compost.
4. After de-feathering, the animal went to the gutting table, where my husband cut off the head and feet and took out the guts and any half-developed eggs.
5. A quick wash and the chook went into a plastic bag and into the fridge.

We set things up so we could deal with 25 chickens before breakfast, 25 before morning tea, 25 before lunch and 25 before afternoon tea. Then we cleaned up before dinner. 100 killed, plucked, gutted and into the freezer before nightfall, with all the tidying up done.

Ideally, we would have hung the chickens for a couple of days to tenderize them. We didn’t have the facilities for that, though, and with the heavy fly population around, it was better to refrigerate them first and freeze them as fast as possible. By the time we’d done the first 25, the amount of time they’d spent in the refrigerator was minimal. Both fridge and freezer worked overtime that day and night.

We ate egg yolks for the next three days and chicken twice a week for the next year. Backyard farming is a big part of self-sufficiency, and just a plain smart idea.

Related: Chicken Doctoring

The summer is finally here, and with it, warm weather, longer days, beaming sunshine, and trees and plants that are full of life.

But the warm weather also poses a few problems, particularly when it comes to food. We all know the importance of storing food (many of us working feverishly to check everything off our survival food list), but when it is hard to keep food fresh for just a couple of days in the summer, how are we supposed to keep it fresh for years at a time?

Here are some useful tips to keeping your food storage safe in the summer.

How To Keep Your Food Safe From Pests

Because there are so many more pests in the summertime, it can be difficult to keep them out of your food storage. Especially when it is out of sight, and you don’t check it regularly.

Luckily, there are steps that you can take to make sure that those creepy crawlies don’t make it into your food storage. One of the easiest is to make sure that everything is sealed in an airtight container. Even if the items already have secure packaging, it is still a good idea to put it in another container to minimize the risk.

Location is also very important. Choose a cool, dark place to store your food, where pests are less likely to get in. If you have a severe pest problem, it might be worth spraying.

How To Keep Your Food Safe From the Heat

You are probably already aware that for any long term food storage, you must only stock non-perishable items. What many people don’t realize, is that some items that may be otherwise nonperishable do not last long in the heat.

If you have any items that may melt or otherwise be affected by high temperatures, you may want to consider different ways to store them. If you do not have space for your food storage in an insulated room, try putting items in coolers. Alternatively, there are solar-powered fridges that, although expensive, can really help you out in a grind.

How To Keep Your Food Safe From Spoiling

Bacteria grows much faster in warm temperatures, and as a result, some food doesn’t last as long in the summer.

There are ways to preserve food however, and they can be useful techniques for saving money as well as preserving food storage. Canning is one such technique. You can start canning using a canner, but there are also ways to keep and preserve food without expensive equipment. One such way is to take vegetables and pickle them in vinegar.

How To Keep Your Food Safe From Harm

It is important to remember that your food storage needs to include a separate supply of medication that you can use if and when disaster strikes. This includes basic things like painkillers, but also a first aid kit and especially any prescriptions that you may need (remember you can stock alternatives like fish antibiotics without a prescription).

If you take these valuable steps, you can rest easy in the knowledge that all of your bases are covered in case of an emergency.