Beilefelders and first time in 30 years questions!

[janit]

So when I was a kid, we raised standard meat monsters. Flash forward a few decades, I am a single mom who decided to get beilefelders as a friendly dual purpose breed for my kids. Plus, as they are sexable as chicks, I figured I could cover some of my costs by selling on female chicks and keep the cockerels for meat. So far I just adore these birds! I keep them in large tractors, 5 hens to one roo. They are just marvelous birds, great for my climate, lay eggs with no light in the winter no trouble. So this spring I am thinking of putting ye old incubator to use and hatching some birds.

So question, at what age should I dispatch? As I don't want a bunch of screaming roosters bothering the neighbours (my current two are collared, I check them DAILY and they do well) but I can't do that with a whack of birds. Is 20 weeks too early?

Next mom and dad always did the processing part... I plucked a few feathers and caught the birds... thats about it. So as it is just me (and I work a good 65 hours a week) and two littles.. I am thinking 10 birds my first year is plenty to tackle? Is that even crazy? Should I just do them all by hand or is it worth investing in a kill cone and a drill pluck attachment? Do they work? Worth the hastle? No way I can afford a $1000 drum and there is no rental around here I can find. IF I completely wimp out, there is an abbatoir here who would process a small batch but then it makes for zero cost efficiency. I do quail fine, but I skin them and I do one in about 3 minutes. But they aren't a chicken! And I don't see the point of eating a skinned chicken. Sorry to all the cholesterol avoiding set in advance.

An old timer said skip the beils and just get cornish cross from the feed lot-either way I have time stress. One set drops dead of heart attacks, the other starts crowing and fighting.

So, if I want to get my feet wet, what should I do? The more research I do the more I can't make up my mind. How many birds, what age, what breed, what equipment, what set up for say a full 8 hour day as a beginner? TIA!

 

[Molpet]

How you want to cook them determines age in heritage chickens.

I don't have your breed but I start harvesting at 16 wks

 

[janit]

lol in my house i bake/roast everything save eggs! I traditionally roast a whole bird for Sunday supper, then we get 3-4 meals over the following week. Mine are show quality stock imported from germany at great time and expense. I figured if I was going to do it, I was going to do it right. Started with a trio... so now I am thinking of staying on original plan and trying them out at meat birds. Just want to dip my toe in, see if I can do it, if it is worth figuring out how to scale it. I will say these birds eat a LOT. As I said we raised the cornish when I was a kid, I remember they at a LOT too, though I am sure they crush the beils on feed conversion. I am thinking well if I get free birds, pasture them, ferment feed, and butcher myself.. well I will likely do a bit better then my organic free range roaster that costs about $45. By my calculations raising 2 lots of chicks so far, they eat about 3/4 a bag of feed each until they are lay age. My fancy soy free organic feed runs $42 a bag. I stretch it and give them better nutrition by fermenting it spring through fall when it won't freeze.

 

[Penpal]

Professional chicken butchers use a little electric thing to shock the birds into unconsciousness before killing them. That way, if you bungle the job, at least you aren't hurting them. We also would heat up a big pot of water to put the dead bird into so the feathers came out easily. Just pluck the easiest (smaller) feathers first, then re-dunk for the big ones. Possible one of your little ones could find a grown up job in pulling feathers- could maybe get half of the feathers out for you.

 

[janit]

Professional chicken butchers use a little electric thing to shock the birds into unconsciousness before killing them. That way, if you bungle the job, at least you aren't hurting them. We also would heat up a big pot of water to put the dead bird into so the feathers came out easily. Just pluck the easiest (smaller) feathers first, then re-dunk for the big ones. Possible one of your little ones could find a grown up job in pulling feathers- could maybe get half of the feathers out for you.

I do have a bolt gun to stun them before I cut their throats. I prefer to use a scalpel, I am comfortable with them. My dad used a sharp hatchet. Yes, I was thinking of using my giant stock pot and bbq side burner with digital meat thermometer to scald starting out. My youngest is too young, but my 6 year old may be able to pluck for about 10 minutes if she can get over herself! I was plucking at that age, but think I maybe made more trouble for my folks too then the help was worth. Then again, here I am today trying to figure out how to butcher a few chickens! So, is 10 a good number for my first time? less? more?

 

[Sally PB]

So, is 10 a good number for my first time? less? more?

You have some experience with quail, right? I have never butchered a chicken, but I'd guess they would be a lot more work than a quail, since they are bigger.

Do you have a place to store (age) your birds until rigor passes? Enough room for 10 carcasses? If you have room for 2, I'd start with 2.

Maybe do one bird, all the way through, and see how long that takes. You'll probably get more efficient, find some economies of scale. But if you have killed 10 birds and the rest takes longer than you planned, you could be in a time crunch.

 

[Sally PB]

I'd love to hear what you think of Bielefelders as a meat bird, BTW.

 

[Molpet]

I raised 6 CX my first time. They have a lot less feathers than heritage.

The most heritage I have done in one day is 6 chickens and 2 turkeys, but I'm old

Drill plucker throws feathers everywhere

 

[LaurenRitz]

I just did 2 Biel x Dominique cockerels, 10 months old. I used a kill cone, but you can easily make one or hang the bird by its feet. Same result in the long run.

The feathers came out far more easily than expected. Plucking both birds was probably a ten minute job. The whole process took me about 2 hours. Probably 30 to 45 minutes per bird if you don't run into snags. Skinning took longer when I did it that way.

Setup and cleanup time should be taken into consideration as well. It's a lot harder than the YT videos make it look!

I have no idea how they compare as far as meat flavor.

My suggestion would be to think about time and space. You don't want to process ten birds if you don't have room for them. If you have adult help ten is not out of reach, but by yourself I would stick to five at a time, especially the first time. Maybe do ten and plan to butcher them in separate sessions?

 

[janit]

You have some experience with quail, right? I have never butchered a chicken, but I'd guess they would be a lot more work than a quail, since they are bigger.

Do you have a place to store (age) your birds until rigor passes? Enough room for 10 carcasses? If you have room for 2, I'd start with 2.

Maybe do one bird, all the way through, and see how long that takes. You'll probably get more efficient, find some economies of scale. But if you have killed 10 birds and the rest takes longer than you planned, you could be in a time crunch.

yup, have a spare fridge! Yes, I did not even think of doing more then one at a time start to finish! I was kind of thinking of doing all the boys on one day before they started to get noisy and letting the girls get a bit bigger, doing them a few weeks later.