Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[fisherlady]

I soaked it in bleach water...that'll kill anything growing there!    

I was surprised at how much he weighed also...a 1.5 lbs, which doesn't seem much but he was such a tiny bird that it was surprising that he wasn't all hair.  Good, dense meat that will taste much like any other kind of chicken, no doubt. 

I was shocked at the enormous amounts of fat in Bertha, though I knew she was heavy, she is seriously not my big eater and I've cut their rations in half for well over a month now, forcing them forage and move more.  I killed another of my flock and she was a pound less than Bertha at finishing wt, not as much fat but still pretty fatty.

No worms in any bowels, small or large, organs in good shape, everything looked very healthy. 

The last group of laying hens we did were also very fatty, especially for their appearance (they didn't seem 'fat' when you looked at them as live birds) I guess they were just very efficient at converting food. They weren't our birds, so don't know for sure how they were fed though. Most of the fat was internal on the hens we did, don't know if there is a difference in the fat which accumulates within the body cavity vs the fat that accumulates under the skin?

 

[wlhtx]

Do you open up the GI tract?  Someone else suggested that I take pictures of my butchering as a way of looking for health issues that I might have missed.  Thoughts?  Thanks.

This is a good question. Bee, you saw the pics of the innards of my boys and girls we processed a couple weeks ago. At the time, I was mostly focused on (and perplexed by) the differences in the amounts of fat on the innards of the boys vs girls. (I was also too busy trying to figure out which organ was which without irritating my husband too badly for slowing down the overall process...) I didn't even think about checking for worms! I guess we would have had to cut open the intestines to discover if they had them or not?

 

[ronott1]

The last group of laying hens we did were also very fatty, especially for their appearance (they didn't seem 'fat' when you looked at them as live birds) I guess they were just very efficient at converting food. They weren't our birds, so don't know for sure how they were fed though. Most of the fat was internal on the hens we did, don't know if there is a difference in the fat which accumulates within the body cavity vs the fat that accumulates under the skin?

The fat is common in layers. It goes along with using energy from the liver to make eggs. Sometimes the liver is damaged too.

 

[Beekissed]

Do you open up the GI tract? Someone else suggested that I take pictures of my butchering as a way of looking for health issues that I might have missed. Thoughts? Thanks.

Sure did! Wanted to see what dosing these new birds with castor oil and following up with fermented feeds would do to their GI health. Without knowing for sure if they had worms, it would be impossible to tell if it helped, but just by their overall appearance, feather condition, feces appearance and the conditions in which they were living, I'd be willing to bet these birds had internal parasites.

All birds checked, no intestinal worms noted in all sections of the bowel. Now, when you open those up you really have to look closely because there is a thick mucus layer in the small intestines, in particular, that can hide smaller worms.

It's always good to know what normal looks like inside a chicken so you can spot abnormal more quickly. Taking pics can give you some comparison shots so you get a good idea of differences between birds. I'm a nurse, so inspecting anatomy is just something I do and am interested in and I also know the appearance of healthy organs vs. unhealthy, so it's a tad easier for me but there are some very good places on line that show chicken organs, normal and abnormal and some will tell what the abnormal organs indicate.

 

[Beekissed]

The last group of laying hens we did were also very fatty, especially for their appearance (they didn't seem 'fat' when you looked at them as live birds) I guess they were just very efficient at converting food. They weren't our birds, so don't know for sure how they were fed though. Most of the fat was internal on the hens we did, don't know if there is a difference in the fat which accumulates within the body cavity vs the fat that accumulates under the skin?

I've seen more fat layers under the skin in the birds processed in the fall than I have in the spring and that is with lower fats and proteins in the feed in the summer to fall rations, typically, so it has very little to do with nutritional intake and more to do with the weather and possibly hormone fluctuations signalling where to deposit fat layers. Same with deer...colder the winter, the more fat is stored under the hide than layered into the meat. On years with plentiful acorns and very cold temps, you'll find huge fat layers in both places on deer, but in years with very little acorn crop you'll find more fat stored under the skin than inside the meat.

 

[BirdbyGavin1103]

Just finished processing the 6 birds and will post those vids when I get all the carcasses cleaned and resting in the fridge. Got a pic of Mr. Silkie Pants' organs...only a few were darker than normal. He had some black meat but I don't think he had the breeding to be a typical silkie and have their traits. Skinning him was as bothersome as skinning a squirrel with all that hair flying everywhere.

I tried poultry scissors today for the first time...not impressed. They were good for cutting off the head if you use extreme force but other than that they wouldn't cut through anything else except my knuckle, on which they did a good, deep cut that looks to be needing 3-4 sutures. That's the deepest cut I've ever sustained while processing an animal..and that's in the last 37 years and hundreds of animals of all types.

Moral of the story: Clumsy folks should not be using scissors on joints...especially their own.

Hopefully it heals up nicely. One of our roosters I did two weeks ago got a last stab in, literally and right on the joint too.

I only tried those silly shears once on a fresh rabbit, promptly took the very tip of my one finger off (just the skin) while working on the ribs and never used the darn things again for meat. Personally I prefer a nice sharp fillet knife over anything else I've used, fits nicely between all of the joints.

 

[3 NH reds]

New skin is a liquid bandage that works well. I hate the joint cuts because they take so long. Never thought of opening guts to check for worms. Just lost a 2year old Comet layer, not sure why. Other layers look fine. Got two more roos this week. Well they started crowing and big rooster won,t let them in the coop. I am getting really good at Roo and dumplings.

 

[BirdbyGavin1103]

New skin is a liquid bandage that works well. I hate the joint cuts because they take so long. Never thought of opening guts to check for worms. Just lost a 2year old Comet layer, not sure why. Other layers look fine. Got two more roos this week. Well they started crowing and big rooster won,t let them in the coop. I am getting really good at Roo and dumplings.

My favorite so far has been, Roo and waffles. Mostly because my son gobbles it up like he hasn't eaten for a month lol

 

[dutchbunny83]

Hi everyone!

Haven't been on in awhile, so I am way behind on posts. Today is the mass chicken execution at my house-- not looking forward to it. My husband wants to skin the 10 chickens so we don't have to pluck them, and I don't really want to help with much of the processing besides once the bird looks like that from a store so I think I will let him.

To save on freezer space I have been youtubing deboning chicken all morning and came across this link, which I've never seen before. I don't know if it would work without the skin since that kind of holds it together, but this looks pretty cool. They debone the chicken whole then you can wrap it up and stuff it or whatnot. They also said they do that for Thanksgiving turkeys which would be fun to try! The guy makes it look easy, I'm sure its not, especially as a newbie, but I will have to try it out sometime. Thought I'd share

 

[BCMaraniac]

Hi everyone!

Haven't been on in awhile, so I am way behind on posts. Today is the mass chicken execution at my house-- not looking forward to it. My husband wants to skin the 10 chickens so we don't have to pluck them, and I don't really want to help with much of the processing besides once the bird looks like that from a store so I think I will let him.

To save on freezer space I have been youtubing deboning chicken all morning and came across this link, which I've never seen before. I don't know if it would work without the skin since that kind of holds it together, but this looks pretty cool. They debone the chicken whole then you can wrap it up and stuff it or whatnot. They also said they do that for Thanksgiving turkeys which would be fun to try! The guy makes it look easy, I'm sure its not, especially as a newbie, but I will have to try it out sometime. Thought I'd share

That is how they make turducken: they put a deboned chicken inside a deboned duck inside a deboned turkey.