This Morning's Chores

I thought I'd share my morning with you so far. I tried to sleep in a bit, and managed to stay in bed until 7:15, which is a pretty big feat for someone usually up by 6.

Unfortunately, the addition of our second duck coop, right beneath our bedroom window beside the first coop, makes it pretty difficult to sleep in. The young ducks are used to sleeping all in one coop, and they're a little nervous about not being able to see each other at all times. I like to imagine the ducks in one coop whispering "I can't seeeee you!" and then the ducks in the other whisper back "I can't seeeeee you eeeeeither!" and of course then the first coop says it a little louder "Quack quack quaaaaaack quack!" and the next, and so on and so on until they break into full alert, panicking because they can't see each other. Inevitably one of the mama ducks will put an end to the ruckus with a very loud lady-duck call in her loud trumpeting voice and it becomes quiet for a few minutes... until... "I can't seeeeee you!"

Now, while this is going on, the sheep like to start chiming in. When the ducks get to their full volume, the sheep will run to the fence closest to the duck coops and Baaaa towards our bedroom window. They know that the ducks make a lot of noise when I come out to feed in the morning, so they want to express their need to be fed as well...

So the first thing I did this morning was let the ducks out of their coops (directly below the window of my sleeping husband - I'm sure he appreciates it.) They get a bit of organic, locally grown grain each morning more-so to shut them up than because they need it. This time of year they spend almost the entire rest of their day out in the orchard cleaning up windfall apples and eating various buzzing insects.


After the ducks, I let the chickens out of their coop. I have two coops for them, the large coop and the nursery coop. For now the Ameraucanas are the only ones laying, and they live in the large coop with the accidental Cochins. What's left of the Buckeyes and Welsummers (after the mink invasion) stay in the smaller nursery coop. I let everybody out together and normally if the big rooster seems like he's going to be quiet he gets to stay out. If he's trumpeting and being aggressive with the girls he gets to be out for a few minutes and then I chase him back into the large coop where he spends his morning attempting to crow through the barn window. Once the afternoon hits, he's a little less feisty and he can come out and be with the other chickens. Mind you, this rooster's name is Dinner. He's particularly rough with the too-young hens, so we're not on the best of terms these days. This morning he immediately jumped on three different hens and then paraded around screaming his head off so I chased him back into the barn. ... Boys..

I fed the chickens who also get a bit of organic, locally grown grain (I love our local grain mill!) and tossed the sheep some grain as well. I really don't like the idea of graining livestock, but I do like the idea of happy (quiet) animals in the morning, so everybody gets just enough to make them complacent. Ha.

There is always a little bit of a scramble between the sheep and some of the Ameraucanas because apparently fighting off animals 10 times their weight is more fun than crowding the chicken feeders. What weirdos. The sheep like to head-butt the chickens across the barn, too, so it's not like it's an easy breakfast!

After I fed the sheep some alfalfa and mixed grass hay I figured it was time to collect eggs. I'm getting 4-5 eggs a day now, and I hadn't pulled them in three days so I picked up fourteen eggs this morning! They're beautiful shades of olive green and pale blue, and they're organic which is obviously a bonus. Gosh, I keep thinking I could do some sort of fantastic sculpture or installation with these beautiful, natural colors. They're such calming and gentle colors. I could stare at them for hours.

The Buckeyes, Cochins and Welsummers will all have varying shades of brown eggs. Supposedly the Buckys will lay a chocolate brown egg, but that's one of those make-or-break breeding characteristics that doesn't always get passed along. My guess is that only one of my Buckeyes is a hen anyway, since the other two are getting green tail feathers. Ah well. They're supposed to be tasty little boogers anyway, so it's not a waste to raise them, I just wish the mink had taken out the young roosters rather than some of the hens.

After counting my eggs I came outside to check water levels and found two of the Ameraucanas having a discussion on the fence. They like to sit on the fence because that's the first place the sun lands in the morning. This is "Dracula" on the left and "Caliophelia"on the right. Dracula is the most spastic of all of our chickens. She (yes she - Jeremy named her) acts completely normal when you approach her, but as soon as you lift her off the ground she screams like she is being eaten alive. Ah well. She also has the creepiest face of all of the chickens. She looks like she's constantly glaring and plotting against you. Hence the fact that she got the name Dracula.

The last thing that I did this morning before I came inside to feed the dogs and cat was take a quick glance around the garden. I've been reeeeally slacking in the garden this past month. The mosquitoes are worse than I have ever seen them and I've been so busy with other things that I've let the weeds go completely mad. I don't really mind having a weedy garden though. By this time of year pretty much everything is established and the weeds don't stand much of a chance anywhere but in the walkways between beds.

Anyway, while walking back up to the house I happened to glance down at my Mara des Bois strawberry patch. They're covered in blossoms and half-ripe berries! I've been missing these little guys because I took the fence down earlier this year, after the first crop, to use elsewhere. Because there is no fence around them, the ducks have been helping themselves! As of today, however, the fencing goes back up and the ducks can just deal. Strawberry shortcake in October will be a fantastic treat. I just have to remember to mulch and put row covers before the nights get cold!

So my final task for this morning is to work my way through the thirteen pounds of peaches, six pounds of nectarines, four pounds of (California) figs, five pounds of plums and five pounds of blueberries currently hiding in my refrigerator. This doesn't even begin to encompass the massive amounts of ripening pears and apples outside my front door! I need to get this stuff prepped and frozen asap so that I can continue to experiment with local fruit based pastries this fall and winter!


I know what I'll be doing the rest of this busy late summer day, do you?

Friday Favorites: Ameracauna Egg Song

I know it's totally cheating to post a Friday Favorite on Saturday, but I just had to share this with you. Our ameraucana chickens have started laying! We are getting at least two eggs a day, beginning three days ago, and this morning I found three!

My Friday Favorite is really the ruckus that accompanies the egg laying. Each time a chicken lays an egg, she stands up and struts around, telling the whole world about her achievement. This is the sound they use so often for movies and television... the "Bok Bok Bok Buh-kawk!" sound we associate with chickens. It's such a sweet sound, despite the fact that it sends the dogs into a tizzy, convinced the farm is being invaded by coyotes or something.

I'll be using the eggs today to brush the tops of my hand held mini pies that I'm planning.


Do you have pets, poultry or livestock that have endearing routines?

The Cutest little Menace

*Siiiiiiigh*

We have had our defenses breached by a sly, devious menace. He slips in and out leaving no trace of his presence but the thick destruction of poultry. Mr Mink is a bastard. He first killed on Thursday night, making quick work of every single quail in the pen. He killed every bird, then lined them up and proceeded to decapitate one of them. Was he sending me a warning?

I couldn't help but think GEEZ what a jerk.

So I've been diligently trying to trap the little assassin for the past few nights. Last night he struck again, taking two buckeye chicks. He had the audacity to drag one off, right in front of my face!

I'm pretty irritated about the whole thing. I could handle a raccoon, or a opossum, or maybe even a fox just by beefing up security a bit... but this little guy can get through any defenses. They're small enough to squeeze through spaces that are less than 1" in diameter. How am I supposed to compete with that?! Ah well. Such is life on the farm. Mr. Mink probably has a family to provide for, and I respect that, but there are lots of critters he could bring home without decimating my poultry...


Have you ever had to deal with a devious predator? Did you ever trap/kill it, or does it still terrorize your barnyard?

Update July 16th: Alas, the mink struck again and took out two of our buckeye chicks. It's like he's systematically going one by one from rarest breed/species to least rare. Ugh.

Update July 17th: One of our chicks is a serious badass! After an entire 24 hours hiding god-knows-where, one of the chicks presumed dead actually turned up in the barn yard unscathed! I'm so happy to have her back, I just hope the mink doesn't strike again any time soon...

Update July 18th: This morning I first checked on the chicks at midnight, then again at three. When I went out at three one of the traps was moved like something had gotten caught but then dragged itself out of the trap. It gave me a flicker of hope...

I went out again after getting up around 8 AM to check on everybody. The mink has been mostly striking an hour after dawn or an hour before dusk so it seemed like a good time to check. Well, there wasn't a mink in any of my traps, but of the eight traps I set (I'm desperate, folks) I could only find seven of them! One of them was missing, and as all chickens are unharmed and accounted for I'm assuming it was some other critter that got caught. I'm hoping that the mink has dragged itself and the trap off to an undisclosed location to die, but at the same time it's almost worse now knowing whether it's alive or not than it is knowing I have to watch out for it.

Ah well... hopefully that's the last we've seen of him for a while. I'm a little bummed I can't taxidermy him for a little warning plaque to go on the barn wall... (or, as my brother suggested, a fancy Victorian-style hat!) Mwahaha.

Poultry Photo Shoot, Spring 2011

Sooooo... I did a photo shoot with my baby chickens and quail. I know it's hokey, but they're so cute!

 

Sleepy buckeye chick

Another adorable buckeye chick

 A welsummer chick!

A white Cochin (with adorable feathered feet)! Of course, I didn't order white Cochins. They sent them to me on accident, intending to send me Cornish. Ugh. They'd better be cute!

I can't get over how cute young Coturnix quail are! (Yes, that's poo.)

The breeder made us try a young Texas A & M quail too.

Here's our single cinnamon coturnix quail chick. I'm hoping this one's a female.

Brighid the Troublemaker

As if I needed a lamb sired by Herb-the-mischievous, mothered by Ingrid-the-skeptical and chaperoned by Gertrude-the-devious.

Brighid is a trouble make through and through. She is often seen kicking up her heels at Gertrude - even going as far as butting heads with her. She tries to climb through fences, loves to sleep on the ant hills and funniest of all she loves to chase the chickens! If they won't run, she'll charge them and baa repeatedly until they flutter away. They have even gone as far as trying to hide from her in the barn but Brighid is too smart for that!

The best thing is that this morning I saw Gertrude call the chickens. She was at the other side of the field and saw them come out of the coop. She let out a mighty baa and the chickens all picked their heads up and raced toward her! I've never seen anything like it. WOW. My sheep have interesting relationships with the poultry, that's for sure!

(Maybe she won't find us here!)

 

Comeer Cheekins!

Whaaaat? I wasn't doing anything!

(Sorry for the poor quality; I was totally unprepared for this hilarity!)

Chicken Coop 1.0

Until now, our chick(en)s have been living inside a small cage on our enclosed front porch. They spend their nights in there and their days in their run outside and it has worked surprisingly well, but for the clean up. Chickens scratch. Ducks dabble. I guess all poultry have their "thing"... and scratching chickens makes for a very littered porch!

 

So this week I decided it was time for them to move to the barn. Of course then I got slammed with flumageddon so it didn't happen as soon as I wanted, but today I finally finished the indoor chicken coop, but for the hinges on the door (which are currently in the trunk of our station wagon, a couple of towns over... boo).This will look a lot nicer when (if) I get around to white washing the interior of the barn this summer. Please excuse the mess, as well. I tend to keep my barn tidier than my house, usually... I put the pallet in there for the chickens to roost on for now. I'll be building perches (as well as another little project I intend to reveal in the next couple of weeks) just as soon as I get around to it. That little chicken-sized door is the door that Gertrude (my ~80 pound ewe) leaped straight through the other day. What a weirdo.

 

This is a shot of what will be the outdoor chicken run. It looks pretty ridiculous right now (and will probably continue to do so, honestly) but it'll work! I'll be putting in a door at the close end, and then screening the whole thing with deer netting and zip ties. These little pvc-pipe enclosures work well, and we've had our one for the ducks for over two years now with little wear. This run will be the more "permanent" run for the meat birds. It'll house the birds that have little interest in hunting/foraging. I have another run that I'll be putting on wheels that I'll move around for the egg ladies.

Do you have any improvised livestock runs or pens? How did you build yours?

Taking it "Easy"

This week has been difficult for me. I've had a really nasty bug and have had no energy or balance all week. Poor Jeremy has had it even worse than I do, and developed a whopper of a cough and sore throat on top of it all. We blame it on some poor unsuspecting nerd at the last comic book convention he visited. Heh.

Anyway, despite being sick in bed for several hours of each day, I can't seem to stay away from work. I can't sleep, for obsessing over what I should be doing outside. I shouldn't be lying there; I should be planting strawberries, planting rhubarb, starting seeds, building a chicken coop, installing new electric fence in the orchard for the sheep, picking violets, weeding everything, hauling hoses, building shelves in the pop-up greenhouse, handling sheep, teaching riding lessons, making cheese... etc. And you know what I did? All of those tasks. I'm sure I'm paying for it by exhausting my body, but come on, man! It's SPRING!

Besides, I was totally taking it easy. I should've spent my week hauling a few yards of compost, mucking the sheep stall, pruning apple trees, tilling and double digging new beds and biking, but I kept myself to the simple, less strenuous jobs. Often I would just let the sheep out on their grass and sit under the apple tree, watching them munch quietly.

If your options were stay in bed and force yourself to sleep, or head outside to see this adorable face, which would you choose? Look at those amazing little face markings! They get more prominent as her coat comes in. I have to get a photo of the back of her ears, too! They have little black eye spots, like a wild animal!

Brighid is definitely growing. She has gone from a waif-y little fuzzball to a thick little spitfire in just the past few days. She's starting to be more independent from Ingrid, but still panics occasionally if she wakes up and mom has gone from her sight. Ingrid is doing well, despite battling with bottlejaw (a condition accompanying anemia from internal parasites). Gertrude is loud and obnoxious as ever, especially now that she thinks she gets to demand to go out on the grass whenever she likes. Yeesh!

The chicks are definitely chickens, and unfortunately they're not all the lady-pullets I was told they would be. I caught my favorite pullet crowing the other morning! Uh Oh. I hate to say this (especially since I know not everyone digs the whole farming chicken thing) but her/his name has become dinner. Bummer. I've accepted it though, and this means that we'll have home-grown, organic chicken several weeks before we anticipated, so that's a bonus. I figured we'd get at least one roo in our first batch, but never thought it would be the one chicken I'd grown attached to! Ah well.

I'm going to try to get some more photos in, here. I have a whole slew that I took while I was wandering around delirious with fever (jk?) earlier this week, but my computer seems to be incapable of opening my editing software this morning. Alas, to own a geriatric Mac is to develop patience for such things. This puppy is going on 5 years old, and computers are supposedly obsolete after just 3! (Can you hear the thick irritation in my voice?) I'll see what I can do. *mutter mutter mutter*

Chicks vs Chickens

When do baby chickens stop being chicks and start being chickens? Hmm...

Our little ladies spent the entire day outside in the sunshine today. They really seemed to enjoy being able to run around like crazy, flying three feet in the air and having little squabbles here and there.

It was especially fun to watch the chickens interact with Fleur, our most adventurous and friendly duck. She would walk up and try to check them out and the chickens would absolutely flip out, torn between terror and territorial rage. It was pretty hilarious. 

As a quick aside, while my father (who is visiting from NH) was doing laundry yesterday he discovered Fleur had come into the house (we have to run the washer hose into the yard through the back door). Apparently while I was out tending sheep he was chasing Fleur all over the house! Hahaha. I wish I'd been in here to see it. It wasn't until later we discovered she left us a present behind one of the chairs in the living room. LOL. Never a dull moment!

What happens when the lights go out?

Our chicks were a whomping six days old yesterday. What do you get for your sixth day in the world? A power outage! Unbeknownst to us at the time, it was a scheduled outage. I know they usually send out  a letter if the power will be off for any maintenance, but apparently this time we didn't get one (or we did and tossed it by mistake.)

Normally I would embrace a power outage. It's a time to move activities out of doors, and a time to listen to the quiet world around you. The problem with an outage this time of year is that it's chick season and so our little ladies, who are supposed to be kept at 90º, became very cold, very quickly. Here's a run down of how yesterday's activities went. It was kind of rotten that it happened on the one super sunny day we've had in a while, and I got literally nothing accomplished yesterday because of it, but such is life when you keep livestok.

The power went out and with it went the heat lamp that had essentially been keeping the chicks alive. After a pause of shock, I ran to cover the chicks' brooder with a woolen blanket to hold in as much heat as I could. I then grabbed the chainsaw and dashed from the house out into the orchard to seek a dead-fall branch we could use for firewood. Of course yesterday would be the day we decide not to worry about being out of firewood. After cutting some wood, hauling it up the house and splitting it while Jeremy worked on warming the wood stove with what kindling he could, I realized it was going to take at least an hour to get the wood stove warm enough to produce the kind of heat we needed for the chicks!

I was struck with a harebrained idea and quickly gathered a nest of blankets. I then wrapped the chickies up in a piece of fleece that I wouldn't mind getting chickie poo on, sat down on the couch with them in my lap, and covered us all with the blankets. It was a quick decision and I probably could've spared an extra minute to plan what I should have within reach while acting as surrogate brooder, but I couldn't help myself. The little ladies were shivering and two had begun sneezing (a reaction to stress).

For nearly the next three hours I sat... and I sat... and I couldn't read because it was too dark, and I could only use the computer for the first little while because it had low battery, and I became antsy, and stir crazy, and nearly lost my mind. Jeremy ran out to get lunch (a power outage is a great excuse to get food from our favorite greek place!) and when he returned the wood stove was just warm enough that I could set up a brooder box by the fire for them.

Of course within fifteen minutes of getting the brooder box set up and tucking them into it, the power was back, the chicks were reintroduced to their old brooder, and I was running out the door to the horse farm to work.

Raising livestock is never a dull moment. I know before I'm old and grey I will have had all sorts of critters snuggled against me for warmth. It's an amazing experience to realize that it's truly you keeping a critter alive, and not some machine or apparatus designed for such.

Anyway, the chickies are all safe and sound, and after they returned home from their wonderful stay on my lap they made such a ruckus! I couldn't help but think it sounded like they were recounting their adventure, their amazing brush with death (I like to think they exaggerate), to one another.

The Two Headed Chick

Okay, they aren't really mutant baby chicks. They're COLD chicks! Check out the next post (What happens when the lights go out?) to see why these poor dears were so chilled.

Update on Updates

After reading other blogs and becoming nice and comfy cozy over at Not Dabbling in Normal, I have decided I really need to post more often over here. From this point on I'm going to try to post at the very least a daily photo here on A Pinch of Something Nice, if not a regular post. Let's see how long this lasts...

And so, without further adieu...

I snapped a few other photos this morning, this time trying to get two chicks together. They're difficult to photograph! The one chick immediately started to fall asleep while her sister decided to wander under the apron I had sitting on the table.

Spring Peepers! (No, not chorus frogs!)

Look at what I brought home yesterday! I still haven't finished collecting "Okays" from neighbors, but if anybody strongly opposes these cute little ladies, I'll just send them off to live at our friends' poultry farm. 

They were listed as "Araucana Pullets" but I'm really a purist when it comes to breeds, be it sheep, poultry or horses. These are not Araucanas, nor are they even Ameraucanas. They're just run-of-the-mill Easter Eggers... but dang they're cute! I was careful to get some in different colors so they wouldn't all look the same.

 

Some are chocolate colored,

some are "wild-type" marked like little chipmunks,

 

and one is even mouse-grey!

You'll be reading much more about these little ladies as they grow. I wasn't able to get many photos of them today because they're so itty bitty they start shivering as soon as I take them out of the brooder. They're only 3-4 days old! They've been started on 100% local and organic feed and will continue on this feed for the rest of their days.

I'll have to write a post later about our local feed mill and their wonderful efforts to buy local and organic components for their mixes. They're really great!

Chicken Planning - Breeds

If you've talked to me about chickens you know I'm pretty obsessed. After researching for weeks now, I can rattle of facts about heritage breeds like a pro but I still can't tell you which breeds I want to try! I keep narrowing it down to three breeds or so, and then I discover another one I like.

My favorite for now is the Buckeye. Developed by Nettie Metcalf in the late 19th century, it is the only APA recognized breed to be developed exclusively by a female. Unfortunately it was being developed simultaneously with the Rhode Island Red, and which of the two birds have you heard of? Exactly. The Buckeye is a dual purpose chicken that isn't a spectacular layer or meat bird, but is good for both, and everything that I've read says their personality and mousing ability makes up for that. Yes, I said mousing ability. These birds are known for catching and eating mice!

Another breed I'm determined to try is the Wyandotte. They're another dual purpose heritage breed and they come in so many color varieties it makes my head spin! I was set on the blue-laced-red wyandottes, but they are proving difficult to obtain, so now I'm considering the blue wyandottes which are a beautiful dark slate grey color.

The last breed I'm pretty sure I'm set on is the Buff Cornish. I want to have chickens for meat, and while I really would like to raise dual purpose heritage birds, I'd also like to have meat before Christmas, haha. The Buff Cornish is a heritage meat breed, derived from the Dark Cornish, which is the ancestor of the modern Cornish X meat birds that everybody grows. The Buff Cornish is pretty much the same as the Dark Cornish, they're just a prettier color.



Those are the three I'm set on, as of this morning. Give me two hours and I'll be all over the place again. Also, I have two mature Black Marans hens reserved at a local farm to provide quick eggs for us this spring.

Some of the other breeds I have considered are: Speckled Sussex, Ameraucana, Dorket, Brahma and even Welsummer. They all have their perks. I'll have to keep you all posted about my final decisions.

I've been putting off getting chicks so far since Jeremy and I are heading out to a couple comic book conventions and we don't want to have little chicks for our farm-sitters to have to worry about in addition to ducks, dogs, cat and sheep.

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Do you raise chickens for meat and eggs? Are they heritage breed, or more conventional, modern breeds?

Counting my Eggs

After a particularly verbose email (in which I tried to make myself sound pleasant, and not pleading), I have received the green light from our landlady to get chickens this spring. She sent me a very quick email while she was out of town and used the phrase "No Problem" which made my giddy farm-girl heart leap. Of course I love to count my eggs before they are hatched. I'm sure I have to get the O-Kay from our neighbors before really pursuing my latest poultry plot, and while we have a good relationship with them, I do know that they are concerned with the possibility of my farming endeavors becoming a smelly nuisance.

Being particularly disgusted by strong smells and not adverse to hard work, I don't think this will be a problem at all. Mucking the ducks and the sheep is a simple task and I keep up with it well enough to keep smells down. The only time the ducks get smelly at all is when it's spring and their winter waste has seeped into the ground, and even then you can't smell it from more than twenty feet away.

Anyway, if you've followed this blog at all, you've probably picked up on the fact that I love to plan things. Prior to my landlady's decision I had started hazily planning how I would set things up if I could have chickens. The moment I read her response, those hazy plans snapped into clarity and I knew exactly how I was going to build the coop. Months ago, while pulling off some old corrugated metal siding on the barn I discovered a small poultry door that was built into the original structure. It was this discovery that led me to daydream about chickens in the first place. If you look in my first sketch, the little black square indicates where the cute little poultry door is. Obviously my multiple-point perspective skills have waned since graduating from college. Haha.

My plans are here on the right. I am going to create a long, narrow run for the chickens to go into during the day. The run will have a door in the end, probably around six feet tall, and the poultry door will have a ramp and door (or perhaps a hinged ramp that doubles as a door?). I'll also have several perches and probably an external nesting box in the run. Inside the barn I will fix up that end of the barn (it's currently a ridiculously disorganized storage area) and build a similar run to keep out the predators. The barn has amazing ventilation so it's perfect for poultry! Then, in addition to all of this, I plan to have one or two lightweight tractors so that the chickens can graze around the property but snugly contained in their movable grazing quarters so they aren't a nuisance to the neighbors. That pretty much takes care of the housing plans. I do have a vague idea in the back of my head for rotating veggie beds to graze the chickens on either weed seedlings or the bugs living on mature plants (can we say cucumber beetles!? mwahaha.)

Now that the housing plans are fairly complete, I get to think about breeds! Oh geez. Michigan has some spectacular rare heritage breeders. I've already contacted a woman about Copper Marans, which produce the most amazing and beautiful dark, dark brown eggs. I'm such a sucker for pretty colored eggs. I'll probably get Marans and Ameraucanas (Araucanas bred specifically to be killing-gene free) since they produce such uniquely colored eggs.


Then again, I also discovered there is a local breeder of Blue-laced Red Wyandottes and after seeing photographs of these amazingly beautiful birds I can't help but want to have some in my flock! I have no idea what breeds I'll end up with. There are so many beautiful birds out there that I can't even begin to decide here.

There's even a breed called Buckeye that is the only recognized breed that developed by a woman. In addition to that, Buckeyes are known for being amazing mousers, and supposedly they can rival any seasoned feline.

So many choices... Hmm... All I know is that I'm going to get heritage breeds, and by restricting myself to heritage breeds I'm really not cutting down my options much at all... haha, back to planning I go!

YouTube - TriGirl123 - How we process backyard meat chickens

Borrowed from YouTube - This is super informative!

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Home video demonstrates raising and processing chickens from start to finish for meat. Starting with day old chicks, using chicken "tractors/stagecoaches", mixing their own chicken ration and sharing their unique processing methods.

PLEASE NOTE: Entire chicken raising, killing and processing is demonstrated. Yes, you'll see guts and blood.