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.

Hi Susan, might you have any suckers of Dr. Huey sprouting from under any of your roses? Or, might you have some long whips of any other climbing or bush rose you're going to prune off anyway? The two things you want to practice before tackling the "good stuff" are lifting the bark from the cambium layer without going through it into the pith and removing the growth buds with cambium on them without a slice of pith. If you grab your budding knife, razor blade or whatever you're going to use and then start performing surgery on rubbish to practice, it'll help you determine when the sap is sufficiently flowing so the bark slips (separates) from the pith easily and how to do the operations without destroying the cambium. That's the bright green, juicy layer between the bark and the pith. It's the circulatory system of the plant and the tissue that differentiates, calluses and either becomes roots when rooting or knits the bud to the stock. I don't know of any which are more successful being budded, but if you start with larger buds, they're generally easier to hold on to. You want to match the width of the bud to the width of the stock. Putting a large HT bud on an eyebrow pencil gauge stock won't work. The curve of the bud has to fit the curve of the stock for best results. With practice, you'll find you can do all the things everyone tells you won't work, but to start out, doing those which are most likely to succeed will feed your confidence until you feel comfortable experimenting. I always try to stack the deck in favor of success first so you'll gain that confidence quickly and begin doing all the "Dr. Moreau" stuff when you feel ready. If your cuttings are thinner, look around for canes of those you might want to replicate and see what you can find that pretty much matches the same gauge or thickness. You'll be surprised how small a bud you can use and have it work. You can also try grafting pieces of stem to them as that also works. That's how mini trees are made as they have such small buds, using a piece of stem with buds is much faster, easier and has greater chances of success. Sequoia used to graft the stem pieces to the stocks then root them under mist so all the operations were accomplished at one time and all growth and knitting occurred simultaneously. It was fascinating to a newbie as I was when Ralph showed that to me. Feel free to play with Purple Buttons if you'd like. I'm glad she's working for you. I love the scent and color of that one. Thanks. Kim

Wow - Lisa - if you want some Black Swallowtails I have several I can bring you. They are showing up in record numbers in my garden this year. I'm more than happy to share some babies with you. Send me an e-mail and I can bring you some this evening if you want! I have spotted very, very few Monarchs this year. I did spot one mamma laying eggs and I found 4 of them. None of them hatched. I am hoping to have better luck in fall. Do you grow passion vine? I gave Sandy 4 babies yesterday. I am hoping to get more soon. It's just that my PV is good for eating, but not for cutting and holding up for any length of time (wilts so fast it's not worth cutting), that I have to leave the cats on the vine. I was hoping my P. ceurulea would grow back this year but I accidentally cut down the new growth. I planted another one, but this one is not growing at all like the one last year did. I have tons of milkweed for the Monarchs, though. All of it I winter sowed two years ago, one I bought, which is the A. incarnata 'Ice Ballet', and another I purchased from Marilyn - the "family jewels'. The FJ is trying to make seed - gotta be vigilant with those darned milkweed beetles, though. If I get some seed I'll share. I have tons of seed of the A. curassavica from last year if you want any. It may grow some this year so you can feed a few lil Monarchs. If you grow it in pots and overwinter inside, you'd have some ready to go in spring, too. We are just not seeing the numbers (except for BSTs) of butterflies we saw last year. I still remember your photo of the Red Spotted Purple which I have NEVER seen in my yard. I saw a lot of Red Admirals earlier in the summer, but haven't seen but one or two here lately. The Cabbage Whites are here, the SSS is here, a few skippers, and that's about it for Susan's garden. Susan

flyleft, I never wear heals. I usually wear some type of comfort shoe. I also had orthotics made and just started wearing them. sjerin, My pain is close to the kidneys. Sorry to hijack your post Bill. I appreciate all of you trying to help me. I have had back pain for many years and have tried just about everything except medication. I also have very bad TMJ and just this past year I went for weekly treatments. (that's another long story). The TMJ got worse from the treatments and now I have both back pain and jaw pain. Bill, I know you said the hypnosis didn't work for your smoking but I read that back pain is easier to help with hypnosis. When I am relaxed the pain is a lot less pronounced. Don't worry about me, so many other people on this forum have a lot worse health issues than me. thanks for the concern, Donna