A Menu for your laying hen’s retirement party

By Suzanne Lupien of Scio, OR

When that hard working hen comes to the end of her egg production once and for all and you are reflecting on what she has given – so many delicious eggs! And the arrival of every one of them announced so enthusiastically – not to mention that valuable manure which has made a world of difference to the rhubarb patch, and her enduring example of perpetual industriousness, she has one more gift to give: chicken pie.

Do not be deterred by her scrawny physique. What she lacks in flesh, she will make up for in flavor. (Breadth of life experience translates into richer flavor). A plump young roast chicken is a very popular dinner on my farm, but everyone crows the loudest for chicken pie. And a chicken pie requires less time and attention during evening chores than roasting a chicken, preparing green vegetables and the gravy and mashed potatoes to go with. Aside from making a batch of pie dough, assembling the chicken pie and baking it, the entire preparation can be done here and there during your busy farm day.

A hatchet, a stump, a heart filled with thanks and we’re ready.

The kindest and therefore quietest way to catch chickens is, of course, in the dark. So if you’re an early riser you might gently remove a couple of birds from their roost in the wee hours of the morning and put them in a ventilated box for a short time, until you’re ready. Or else the night before. Whatever you do, please be gentle and firm handling the old girls, careful to hold them close and compact so as not to risk injury to their legs and wings (and your face and hands).

Make sure your heart is calm and your hatchet or cleaver is sharp and heavy. One clear intentioned and accurate blow should suffice. Holding the chicken by her feet with her head and neck just barely resting on the block is a good way. Then immediately put down your blade and grasp the bird with both hands holding her wings firmly around her body until all movement ceases. This will prevent bruising the both of you and keep her feathers clean and dry.

I prefer to eviscerate cold birds as everything is firmer and neater so I would be inclined to dispatch them the night before, or early in the morning of the cooking day. Heads off, hang them by their feet with a piece of baling twine or strong string and dry pluck them immediately while the blood drains. Killing and plucking a couple of chickens need not take more than twenty minutes or so. They pluck easier warm, and they cool rapidly, especially on a frosty morning, so jump right in and get it done. And take just a few feathers at a time taking care not to tear the skin. The most likely place to tear is the strip of fat running through the breast. Plucking in an upward direction works better than a downward one at this spot.

Leave them where they are to cool for an hour or two, and take care that they’re hung high enough to be out of the reach of the dog, and out of the path of the rising sun. After morning chores and breakfast dishes are out of the way, check the chickens over for missed feathers, and if you’re lucky enough to have a cook stove you’ve got the perfect singeing device. Take the front lid off the firebox, toss in a fat strip of birch bark or such like and burn the feathers and hairs off. Scrub the chickens in cold running water with a stiff brush, select a sharp and narrow bladed knife and eviscerate. All you need to do is to lay open the newspaper on a good sized cutting board, set the chicken down legs facing you and make a neat horizontal rectangular cut around the vent, draw out the vent and entrails, then the organs and windpipe. I keep the feet on the bird until evisceration is complete in order to have something to hold onto. Cut the bloody end of the neck off, peel back the skin and remove the crop, and then cut off the feet by bending the joint backward which helps to reveal the gap in the joint. Chicken feet do make excellent stock but I don’t always save them, and today for expediency sake, I’ll just save out the heart and liver for lunch, wrap all the rest of it in the newspaper and push it into the firebox.

Wash your birds again thoroughly in cold water and set them to drain sitting up in a colander, while you fetch that big heavy wide stew pot from the depths of the pantry. If the wings have refused to relinquish all their feathers, you can simply cut away and discard the wings or wing tips, or go fetch the pliers, if there’s time.

Chicken Pie is more about golden, velvety gravy and flaky crust than it is about heaps of meat. And to achieve this gorgeous gravy we must start by browning the birds all over in a little fat prior to stewing. I prefer lard if it is homemade, carefully rendered and odorless and kept in the freezer, then it’s my all time favorite cooking fat, tolerating higher heat than butter without burning, and it even beats butter for the flakiest biscuits in my experience. Another thing about tasty gravy with good rich color is to keep the stewing liquid, which will become the gravy, to a minimum. Instead of drowning the birds in water, keep the liquid level to just under halfway, or knee deep so to speak. Add an onion, a bit of salt, a dash of apple cider vinegar for tenderizing and bring the chickens to a boil. Spoon off any foam which forms on the boiling liquid, reduce the heat to a simmer, turning the chickens occasionally and cook with the lid on, until the meat is so tender it’s nearly falling off the bone. Make sure the legs are indeed very tender, for they are the last to soften; after a chicken lifetime of trotting around the hen yard, it’s no wonder. So the cooking time could be anywhere from 2-4 hours depending on the age of the birds.

At the point of doneness, remove the pot from the fire, and gently lift the chickens out of the beautiful golden stock with a couple of slotted spoons to a platter or an open bowl for rapid cooling. A half an hour should cool them down sufficiently for comfortably removing the skin from the meat and the meat from the bones.

So this is a good time to go milk the cow and collect the eggs if you haven’t already. Just slide a sheet of wax paper over the cooling birds and keep the stock warm on the side of the stove before heading out with the milk pail. And on your way back in you might nip off a bit of parsley and thyme from the kitchen garden to add to the gravy. And save out a couple of tablespoons of milk after the straining to brush the pie crust with on its way into the oven.

Now it’s time to get the oven as close to 400 degrees as possible and shift the stock back onto the heat. Take care to remove any wing bones or skin that may be lurking in the stock. When the stock boils you can add some chopped carrots, then chopped onion, then peas if you have them and cook the vegetables until just tender.

Try to resist the temptation to add potatoes. It’s just too much starch and tends to upstage the flaky crust and its perfect counterpoint to the gravy. A little over half an hour before suppertime should be enough time to assemble the pie, including making and rolling the crust and getting the table set while the pie’s in the oven, browning up. If the phone doesn’t ring, no one stops by for eggs, and the heifers don’t get out again you might even get to stew some frozen cranberries with some maple sugar for sauce and cut a few flowers for the table.

Choose a low, wide baking dish or basin for your pie and chop your skinless, boneless, lovely, tender chicken in smallish pieces and distribute the cut up chicken evenly in your baking dish. Then with a slotted spoon transfer the tender vegetables from the stockpot to cover the chicken. The ratio of vegetables to meat really doesn’t matter. The quality and quantity of gravy is much more important. So if the paltry amount of chicken in relation to the number of mouths to feed has you concerned, by all means add more vegetables.

Now it’s gravy time. Take a good look at the stock. Dredge the depths again for any feathers or bone bits or better yet pour the stock through a sieve and return it to the fire. Turn your attention to determining about how much stock you have. Personally I never measure; I just have an idea what volume I’m looking for to make a very generous amount of gravy so that the liquid level comes right up under the crust. You’ll want something like 3-4 cups anyway. So if there’s more than that in the pot why not take some out and save it for another day?

Before you thicken the stock, always make your crust. Why? So you can be thrifty with your flour left over from rolling your dough and use it to do the thickening.

My preference for snowy white lard for crusts and biscuits is on account of its excellent handling properties as well as its delectable flakiness in the finished product. We’ll talk about rendering lard at butchering time in a subsequent Journal. Suffice to say that cold lard is easier to incorporate than cold butter in a dough as it is a softer fat, and it holds together better as a richer dough than a butter dough does. The character of this perfect crowning crust we’re aiming for is extra rich and flaky, a bit saltier than for a fruit pie and quite a bit thicker. A rich, lightly worked, thicker dough nearly rises in a hot oven, and that’s a perfect match for the gravy.

I apologize for being little help in giving precise measurements; I will give you very general guidelines. So something like a cup and a half unbleached flour to ½ cup or a bit more lard and 2-3 dashes of salt. Remembering that a tender, flaky crust is a lightly worked one, blend the fat and flour and salt in a very few minutes, moisten with cold water, gather in a ball and roll out thickly on a very well floured surface. Especially with such a rich crust as this one, I tend to roll it out halfway, and then flip it over onto a newly floured surface to prevent sticking, and then finish the rolling out. Cut your decoration, roll up gently on the rolling pin, scrape up the flour left on your pastry board and mix it up with cold water in a tea cup with a fork to make a nice smooth thick paste. You’ll need a generous ½ cup or so to make a good thick gravy. Stir it well into your simmering, shimmering stock, add the chopped herbs if you will, correct the seasoning and keep stirring till it thickens. Then pour it into your pie, roll your crust out over it, then, using a teaspoon seal the crust to the rim of the basin to prevent the bubbling gravy from lifting the crust right off the pie. In the back of your mind, you may recall the original purpose of crusts is to act as a lid, protecting the contents and retaining moisture.

Brush the crust with that bit of milk and carefully slide it into the hot oven. It should be ready in twenty minutes or so, golden brown.

You’ve got just enough time to clear up a bit, and set the places at the table with grandma’s soup plates. You’ll want to serve at the table tonight, so get out a hefty trivet for the blistering hot pie. During the short spell when all are seated, gathered together for this special meal (as all meals are) this climax of the toils of the day on the farm, all will admire your creation, express gratitude for the chickens, and give thanks to the creator.

Hogs have very few sweat glands, thus they need an abundance of water and shade to keep cool in hot weather. With access to a clean concrete wallow, hogs gain faster and require less feed per 100 lb. of gain than where a wallow is not available.

Size of wallow to build is readily determined from the table. The wallow should be located adjacent to the feed lot and for best results good shade should be provided nearby. Suggested construction of the wallow is shown below. Provision for clean-out should be made in some way as shown so that the wallow can be kept in a sanitary condition. A small piece of paving around the wallow helps in maintaining a clean condition and prevents undermining of the structure.

by Frederick Harper, Extension Horse Specialist

University of Tennessee

Also appeared in Volume 28 Issue 3 of Small Farmer’s Journal

In the fall, Broodmares are often relegated to the back 40 acres. At this time, foals have been weaned, and it is too late in the year to get non-pregnant mares bred again. An exception to this situation is the Tennessee Walking Horse breed that registers foals born in October, November and December as foals of the following year.

Mares are not the major emphasis in the fall since they have performed their task of foaling, lactating and being re-bred. They will not be center-stage again until foaling and re-breeding next spring.

After foals are weaned, most breeders tend to focus on weanlings and yearlings that are being prepared for shows, sales and/or performance in the case of long yearlings.

Fall management of broodmares is far more critical than some breeders realize and can directly impact foaling and re-breeding successes next year.

Weaning. Most foals are weaned between four and six months of age. Depending on foaling date, weaning can occur in late summer or early fall. If there are several foals, owners may wait until the younger foals are at least four months old to wean all foals at the same time. On large breeding farms, weaning may occur over several weeks to accommodate the difference in ages of the foals.

Weaning has been shown to be stressful to foals. Foals average daily gain decreases after weaning. Foals rebound from the stress of weaning in 10-14 days. Mares are also stressed at weaning but to a lesser extent than their foals.

A major management factor after weaning is getting lactating broodmares dried-up as rapidly as possible. Mastitis is not a big problem in mares, but a few mares do have mastitis.

It is not advisable to milk out mares after weaning. Milking out a mare only stimulates her udder to continue producing milk and prolongs the drying-up process. By not milking out mares, the natural process will result in mares drying up more rapidly and being less stressed.

Mares’ udders will be swollen, hot and feverish. If mares are uncomfortable, owners can use camphorated oil or udder balm, commonly applied to cows’ udders, to relieve their hot, swollen udders.

It is advisable not to feed grain to mares during the drying-up process. Eliminating grain feeding of mares a week before weaning may also be helpful. Even if mares are thin, (See: Body Condition Score), there is adequate time to properly condition these mares before they will foal and be re-bred next spring.

Exercise is also important in helping the mare dry-up properly and rapidly. Mares should not be kept in stalls after their foals are weaned. Mares can be placed on lower quality pasture that requires more time to graze. Mares not fed grain or hay will spend more time grazing, thus exercising more, which aids in the drying-up process.

Pregnancy Checking. Owners can more properly manage mares by pregnancy checking them in the fall. Even mares that were pregnant at 14-18 days and at 40 days post-breeding should be reexamined now. If mares were not pregnancy tested previously, it is imperative that they are checked in the fall. Fall pregnancy checking is a wise investment and pays extra dividends in saving feed and labor cost and results in healthier foals next year. While fall pregnancy testing is always important, it is critical when fall pasture is poor, there is a shortage of good quality hay for winter feeding or feed prices are higher than normal.

Classification of mares as pregnant and non-pregnant allows owners to fine-tune their management. Pregnant and non-pregnant mares need to be managed differently in the fall and winter. Feeding is one key area. There often is a tendency to feed all mares the same type and amount of feed. Barren mares require only a maintenance ration; whereas, pregnant mares need precision-managed feeding during their second and third trimesters.

One of the major advantages of fall pregnancy checking is the identification of mares that were previously pregnant and are now barren. Barren mares are often not given proper attention until late winter or spring just before being bred. This is too late to correct some problems and get mares pregnant in the breeding season. Fall is the time to make specific management decisions and actions regarding barren mares.

Barren mares selected to remain in the breeding herd may benefit from a uterine biopsy. A uterine biopsy of the mare’s endometrium, lining of the uterus, will indicate the probability of her conceiving and maintaining a pregnancy. Mares with a Grade III biopsy are not likely to maintain a pregnancy. The best time for a uterine biopsy is in the fall after the breeding season and before mares begin transition into winter anestrus. Do not biopsy pregnant mares.

Breeders must decide whether they are going to keep or cull barren mares. Mares, 16 years of age and older decline in their ability to maintain a pregnancy. Older mares become pregnant at about the same rate as younger mares, but fewer will be pregnant at 40 days post-breeding and in the fall.

Two key factors help breeders make this decision. Is the mare an economical producer; in other words, are her foals profitable, and is she a genetically superior producer? Any mare that is not an economical producer certainly must be considered for culling. Those that produce below-average-quality foals will not contribute to a breeder’s success.

Fall pregnancy checking is important in mares that grazed endophyte-infected fescue pastures during breeding and were not pregnancy tested earlier. Mares grazing endophyte-infected fescue pastures in the breeding season have a tendency for early embryonic death.

Artificial Lights. Barren mares with high probability of maintaining a pregnancy need to be managed to have the greater possibility of becoming pregnant next year. This includes proper nutrition, body condition, health and reproductive management. It is advisable to place these mares under artificial lights in November or at least by the first of December. Artificial lights will cause these mares to come into estrus and ovulate about six to eight weeks after being placed under them. The advantage of this process is the barren mare can be mated earlier and more often during the breeding season which enhances her chance of becoming pregnant. Mares placed under light in November have one or two estrous cycles to combat infections and eliminate difficult problems before being bred.

Placing pregnant mares due to foal in March and April under artificial lights will shorten the length of their gestation by 10 days. By foaling earlier, they can be re-bred sooner in the breeding season.

Body Condition Score. Another management tool is to body condition score all broodmares in the fall. Owners cannot only separate mares into pregnant and non-pregnant groups, but also place them into groups based on their body condition score. For example, pregnant mares could be grouped as thin (BCS 4 or below), moderate (5-7) or fat (8 & 9) for proper management.

Body condition is stored body fat. Stored body fat is used later by the broodmare as an energy source for the rapidly growing fetus in late pregnancy and for milk production in early lactation. Because of the large size of the fetus, it is difficult for pregnant mares to consume adequate feed to meet both the nutritional needs of the fetus and the mare herself. The fetus has first priority over feed nutrients. The fetus makes 75 percent of its growth in the last trimester. Early lactation has a greater nutritional demand than late pregnancy.

Mares will store body fat until about 270 days of pregnancy. After which, their BCS will decline slightly as the stored fat is used for fetal growth. This decline continues into lactation, especially if the mare is a good milker. Lactating mares tend to lose body condition during the first 120 days of milk production.

Pregnant mares with a BCS of 4 should be managed differently from those with a BCS of 8 or above.

It is possible to add one BCS unit to a mare in 30-45 days. Heavy grain feeding increases the risk of colic and laminitis. Caution and good judgment are required in this process. Mares need to be in the proper body condition desired at foaling (5.5-7.5) at the start of their third trimester. Mares that have a BCS of 4 or less and are late in their second trimester may need to accumulate body condition faster, which will require feeding more grain. It is normally safe to feed 0.5 pounds of grain per 100 pounds of body weight. A 1200 pound mare would be fed six pounds of grain daily. If more than six pounds of grain are fed daily, mares should be fed twice per day. These same mares (BCS 4) early in their second trimester have longer to reach a desired body condition, so they can be fed less grain.

Pregnant broodmares make about 70 percent of their weight gain of pregnancy in the second trimester between 111 and 222 days. Mares in their second trimester should be fed to reach a BCS of 5.5 to 7.5 by the start of their third trimester at 220 days of pregnancy.

Mares with a BCS of 5.5 to 7.5 foal without problems and are easier to get pregnant than mares that are thin with a BCS of 4 or below. There is no reason for broodmares to have a BCS of 8(fat) or 9 (obese). These fat mares do not milk as well, and their foals do not grow as rapidly as mares in a moderate BCS range of 5-7.5.

BSC of non-pregnant mares is also a helpful tool, but not as critical as with pregnant mares. An owner has several months to get non-pregnant mares in the desired body condition (5.5-7.5) before the next breeding season.

No detrimental breeding problems occur in mares with a BCS higher than 7.5; however, these fat mares are at greater risk of colic and laminitis, and it is not economically good management to have them above a BCS of 7.5 Many non-pregnant mares will have a BCS of 5-7.5. They must be managed in the fall and winter to maintain this level of body condition without getting fatter. Non-pregnant mares with a BCS of 8-9 in the fall should be placed on a diet to reduce their BCS to at least a 7.5. Owners have several months before the breeding season to accomplish this feat. These mares should be on lower-quality fall pasture without grain. In winter, they should be fed an average or slightly lower-quality hay without grain.

Foaling Date. Pregnant mares can be further subdivided depending on when they will foal. Mares that foal early in the year, especially if they have a BCS of 4 or less, need immediate intense management to increase their body condition before foaling. Likewise, overfat mares (BCS 8 and 9) need critical management. If they foal early in the year, they should be managed so as not to gain any more body condition. It is not advisable to have mares lose body condition in their last trimester. If such mares (BCS 8 or 9) are early in their pregnancy, owners have time and options to better manage them. Use of pasture and forage with little or no grain could result in these mares having a BCS score of 7.5 or less when they foal. These mares can graze on lower-quality fall pasture without grain so they will be nearer a body BCS of 7.5 at the start of their last trimester.

Feeding. As noted, feeding of broodmares is important in the fall and winter. The general tendency is for broodmares to be overfed. Allowing mares to get too fat in early pregnancy is especially a problem. Mares that do not milk well and those that are not pregnant have a tendency to be too fat.

Fall pasture should be the basis of the feeding program for all broodmares. Pregnant mares with BCS of 5.5-7.5 need to be maintained at this level. Normally, high-quality fall pasture will be sufficient. Pregnant mares may even improve their BCS on good-quality fall pasture. Pregnant mares are more efficient than non-pregnant mares.

This may not be the case if pasture is limited or of poor-quality. Mares may require some grain to maintain their body condition. Always feed the smallest amount of grain to accomplish the nutrition level required.

Thin mares or those on lower-quality fall pasture may require an increase of 10-15 percent in grain fed above their nutrient needs. Non-pregnant mares can be well maintained on good-quality pasture alone. Different nutrient needs are the reason that pregnant and non-pregnant mares should be managed separately. The best-quality pasture should be reserved for weanlings.

Astute mare owners know the reproductive and lactational histories of their mares. Mares that are known to be heavy milkers can be preconditioned in the fall and winter. These mares can have a BCS of about 7.5, since heavy lactation will reduce their body condition.

While the mare can store body fat for later use, she has little reserves of protein that can be used for fetal growth and/or milk production. In the second and last trimester, from 111 days to foaling, protein intake is important. The total ration should contain 10-12 percent protein, especially in the 9th, 10th and 11th months of pregnancy. If legume forages are fed, a 10-12 percent protein grain mix is adequate. One should feed a 12-14 percent protein grain mix with grass hays. Since the mare cannot store much protein, feeding a 16 percent protein ration is not recommended during pregnancy. Proteins are made up of a series of amino acids. Protein quality is having the correct amounts of essential amino acids in proper rations to each other. Research indicated that protein quality may be more important in early pregnancy than was previously thought. A high quality protein such as soybean meal, alfalfa hay or milk by-product sources should be fed in the last three months of pregnancy as well as in early lactation.

It is important that all mares have an adequate source of clean, fresh water and trace mineralized salt at all times.

Deworming. Deworming is important in broodmares. In the Southeastern states, it is recommended that mares be dewormed from September to March. The major internal parasite of horses is the small strongyles. The infective stage of the small strongyles is not active in hot, dry summers. Since there is no need to deworm broodmares in summer, broodmares should be placed on a strategic deworming program in the fall.

Vaccination. Mares are normally vaccinated in the spring for the common horse diseases. Equine herpesvirus Type 1 causes virus abortion, which is the single most important infectious cause of abortion. Pregnant mares should be vaccinated for Rhinopneumonitis (virus abortion) in their 5th, 7th and 9th months of pregnancy. Depending when a mare became pregnant, possibly the 5th, probably the 7th and certainly the 9th month of pregnancy will occur in the fall or winter.