My first meatie experience

In WV when a farmer sells livestock, he is supposed to charge sales tax. Livestock includes chickens, rabbits, cows, goats, sheep, horses and the Australian shepherds I sold.

I don't know what my brother is going to do with the commercial rejects every 8 weeks, I'm just speculating. It's really none of my business. I just know that if I want any, I can have it. I don't know how the IRS would calculate a handful of imperfect chickens for something like having a field bush hogged with his own equipment and fuel but I don't want this thread to turn to legal jargon. I started this thread to find out if anyone else here dealt with growing out commercial rejects in case I missed something that would make the process and the meat easier or better.

Speaking of the meat, 5 extra weeks of growing did make the meat a tad more firm then I'm used to with commercial chicken but the flavor is definitely better. I think now that I have all the equipment, if I take more of these birds (and I am leaning towards it now,) I think I will try 3 weeks of extra growing in a tractor instead of a pen. My brother was a carpenter so throwing together a chicken tractor shouldn't be much a chore for him and I'll grow out some birds for him in return.

I slow roasted one small chicken. It was one of the first that I scalded too much and the wings tore up in the plucker. That may have contributed to the extra stringiness. After roasting, I deboned and made chicken and dumplings. I must say, that was probably the best broth/gravy I've ever made. I do skim the fat and make a roux but this little bird barely had any fat so I added butter. I noticed better aroma, flavor and texture of the gravy even when reheating.

OK, I did it again. Money's a little too tight to get my heritage project off the ground and my freezer needed chicken. Another load went out of my brother's commercial farm so I took some more rejects. This time I have my trusty chicken plucker on hand and since I now know what I'm doing, I can process a few at a time at my leisure. He did a batch of non medicated chickens which grew a bit slower and there were more rejects for size. This time I got there first to cherry pick. I chose mostly smaller birds that had the spunk and ability to run from me when I came after them. But they're still lazy... and stinky... I got a few that look healthy and ready to process, and some tiny little things that are going to take a little while to grow out. They'll probably end up as broth.

Here they are. I made the old shed available to them but I hope they don't use it. Last time they wreaked havoc on my floor in no time so the food and water stays outside.



I put plenty of food out for them since they have been without for several hours. Once it is gone, I'll probably go back to broadcasting it so everyone can get to it at once. Surprisingly, more chickens seemed interested in a dust bath than food. It's OK, it's not suppose to rain until Thursday night. (10 bucks says it rains tonight.)



Once the feeders at my brothers place are shut off, the lines have to be purged as in dumped and tossed. This is the "clean" feed so I couldn't see letting it go to waste. I filled up as many 5 gallon buckets as I could find. Has anyone ever used this stuff before? Supposedly it has no medication, antibiotics or anything else they wouldn't tell us about.

Glad to hear you are having at least a little better experience this time around. I raise cx's as well and they can be nasty if certain regiments aren't followed. My buddy is actually in watkinsville Georgia and his family ran a commercial operation. I know that yours are in rough shape when you get them so I won't lash out or talk down from my soap box like I saw the other guy do in this thread. Your birds will definitely benefit from you having them in fresh air, greens and sunlight leading up to slaughter. If broken legs are happening take food away for twelve hours. Trim feathers below the vent to avoid build up. I have to do that in my area. The flies are so bad if you allow any build up the flies will lay eggs even without a wound and the maggots will create one. I trim feathers and if I see any sign of nastiness and wash them and put a quick spray of permethrin on them. It works, at least for me. Good luck and to be honest I'm jealous that you're ending up with birds 3/4 of the way finished when you get them!

Do you have any commercial broiler houses in your area? You could ask them what they do with their rejects. I think they all have to deal with them and it's usually more than one family can eat. Especially since this has to happen every 8 weeks or sooner. Even if they're selling them, I think they sell them pretty cheap. My brother gives away as many as he can and still has to compost a bunch of them.

I wouldn't suggest this to anyone who hasn't been in a commercial house before. Knowing what the they are like, you know it wouldn't be for the feint of heart to collect them.