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

[Beekissed]

I remember as little girls, my sister and I keeping the legs from the deer Dad had killed and using them to make tracks in the mud...we had a lot of fun with animal parts back then. I bet a lot of folks nowadays would be horrified by that. Deer legs, squirrel tails, turkey wings...you name it, we played with it, saved it, and was fascinated by it. We used to help Mom butcher chickens and ask to see the contents of the crop and gizzard...always so interesting!

 

[kwhit]

I just started to read this thread about processing chickens.

Lately, I have a very strong urge to learn how to do this. I feel that raising, butchering, and processing our own animals is a trade going by the wayside. I have never seen it, but I want to learn. It is in the blood, I think. Hard to explain, but there is a strong desire to learn.

The only thing I will say is if something drastic were to change in our environment, we could not live with out a supermarket.
I have a small garden that I have harvested and processed via freezing or canning (a minimum amount of bounty), but I feel I am learning
how to be self-sustaining. Key word: Sustainable Farming, which includes learning how to raise, butcher our animals. No one needs acres and acres of land to learn. I have .69 acres. I have 6 layers so far. I want to raise two dozen meat birds and some turkeys. I want to learn to raise dairy or meat goats.

I saw an email from GRIT about International Homesteading Education Month. In the email there was a highlight to a link called Homesteading events in your town. There was an event offered called 'Raising your own Roasting Chickens'. The work shop was being offered today, 9/14/13 at a farm in Freeport, ME. I was very interested, so I called and was disappointed when I was told the work shop was cancelled due to low registration. I was ready to drop everything for today just to go and learn.

Unfortunately, in Mass. this sort of work shop is not offered, at least not in a public advertising kind of way. I will keep the rest of my comments to myself. I guess I will just 'jump in and do it'. I will do my research, of course.

 

[Beekissed]

I had to cancel a processing workshop at my place last year for the same reason. None of the ad publications would even run the ad for fear of offending the large animal lover population here, but I put up flyers all around and advertised on CL. Nothing.... and I'm in a rural, used to be farm country. No one farms anymore here now, though.

 

[Beekissed]

Here is a pic of the kill cone I made yesterday. I fashioned it out of a piece of black stove pipe. I folded/twisted it into a cone shape the drilled holes and pop riveted it in place. I then mounted it to a steel stake.

Dave, have you tried this cone out yet? I can see where you might have some difficulty with the design and was wondering how it worked for you?

 

[dutchbunny83]

I just started to read this thread about processing chickens.

Lately, I have a very strong urge to learn how to do this. I feel that raising, butchering, and processing our own animals is a trade going by the wayside. I have never seen it, but I want to learn. It is in the blood, I think. Hard to explain, but there is a strong desire to learn.

The only thing I will say is if something drastic were to change in our environment, we could not live with out a supermarket.
I have a small garden that I have harvested and processed via freezing or canning (a minimum amount of bounty), but I feel I am learning
how to be self-sustaining. Key word: Sustainable Farming, which includes learning how to raise, butcher our animals. No one needs acres and acres of land to learn. I have .69 acres. I have 6 layers so far. I want to raise two dozen meat birds and some turkeys. I want to learn to raise dairy or meat goats.

I saw an email from GRIT about International Homesteading Education Month. In the email there was a highlight to a link called Homesteading events in your town. There was an event offered called 'Raising your own Roasting Chickens'. The work shop was being offered today, 9/14/13 at a farm in Freeport, ME. I was very interested, so I called and was disappointed when I was told the work shop was cancelled due to low registration. I was ready to drop everything for today just to go and learn.

Unfortunately, in Mass. this sort of work shop is not offered, at least not in a public advertising kind of way. I will keep the rest of my comments to myself. I guess I will just 'jump in and do it'. I will do my research, of course.

Sorry the class didn't work for you, it seems very interesting!
You are making the right decision to raise your own meat.
Commercial meat in America is SCARY!!!
This thread (and site for that matter) is a great resource!

 

[dutchbunny83]

Two of our freedom ranger roosters are getting mean, bullying other chickens over food, & started crowing very early this morning.
I really thought I was mentally prepared for this, as they are meat birds.
But when the time came for these 2, I felt overwhelmingly sick to my stomach.
I had to send my husband out to do it, and couldn't even help.
We live in the south, so we love fried chicken. Which you need the skin for. But my husband told me if he was doing it alone he wasn't plucking he was skinning the whole bird.
I feel kinda bad-- he is out there right now getting ready to do these chickens and I am in here on the computer because after all this apparently I'm not actually ready.

Also,we aren't "poor" by any means, but we pretty much just make ends meet. We live in a nice area and have nice things and all, but I am very budget conscious we can't just freely spend. I started to raise chickens for meat for several reasons--

OH GOD HE JUST KILLED ONE! I NEED TO TURN ON THE TV!!! I THINK I'M GOING TO BE SICK.

I raised chickens because I wanted them to have a humane life, which I accomplished. I wanted to feed my kids GMO free food. Which I was unable to accomplish because I can't find the ingredients to make feed & the main ingredients in commercial feed is GMO soy & corn. I know where they were raised & handled. I know they weren't washed in bleach to prevent bacteria in a factory plant. But are they really THAT much healthier for my kids if they have GMO's coursing through the meat?

Finally, I wanted this to be an affordable alternative. However, at $2.50 per chick initially, plus $20 a week or so to feed 12 birds. So at the recommended processing age of 10 weeks, it's costing me about $20 per bird (which is about 3.5lbs processed w/ bones) that I could buy at a grocery store for $4. Granted this is better for a lot of reasons, but we can't afford to spend 5 times as much on a chicken. Anyone have suggestions on getting these numbers to be more reasonable???

Also, I've heard stories about back in the day going out Sunday after church, killing a chicken then frying it. But on here lots of people say it's better if you rest the meat. How long am I supposed to rest it for? Can I filet it from the bone before resting? Anything else I need to know?

 

[DaveMorey]

Dave, have you tried this cone out yet?  I can see where you might have some difficulty with the design and was wondering how it worked for you?

Bee, I used it yesterday for all of my birds. The picture does make it appear that the bottom of the cone is shallow and the bird could come out during the death throes. I learned a thing or two during use. 1. The bird's feet needed to face away from the open V. The first bird kicked me a couple times. 2. It needs to be mounted higher. My back can't handle the low height during repeated use. Fortunately, one of my sons was more than capable and willing to do this task. With that said, the cone worked great and I did not have any birds escape it during the process.

 

[DaveMorey]

I just started to read this thread about processing chickens.

Lately, I have a very strong urge to learn how to do this. I feel that raising, butchering, and processing our own animals is a trade going by the wayside. I have never seen it, but I want to learn. It is in the blood, I think. Hard to explain, but there is a strong desire to learn.

The only thing I will say is if something drastic were to change in our environment,  we could not live with out a supermarket.
I have a small garden that I have harvested and processed via freezing or canning (a minimum amount of bounty), but I feel I am learning
how to be self-sustaining. Key word: Sustainable Farming, which includes learning how to raise, butcher our animals. No one needs acres and acres of land to learn. I have .69 acres. I have 6 layers so far. I want to raise two dozen meat birds and some turkeys. I want to learn to raise dairy or meat goats.

I saw an email from GRIT about International Homesteading Education Month. In the email there was a highlight to a link called Homesteading events in your town. There was an event offered called 'Raising your own Roasting Chickens'. The work shop was being offered today, 9/14/13 at a farm in Freeport, ME. I was very interested, so I called and was disappointed when I was told the work shop was cancelled due to low registration. I was ready to drop everything for today just to go and learn.

Unfortunately, in Mass. this sort of work shop is not offered, at least not in a public advertising kind of way. I will keep the rest of my comments to myself. I guess I will just 'jump in and do it'. I will do my research, of course.

I was a little rusty at the whole process having not done it for 20 some years. I went online and found a ton of YT videos. The best one I have seen for the gutting process was one with Joel Salatin done for Mother Earth News. His technique for this process was excellent and did not take a lot of practice to master. It actually was very easy. I am not sure how far you are willing to travel but I have a bunch (25) more to do in about a month if you wanted to come observe.

 

[DaveMorey]

Two of our freedom ranger roosters are getting mean, bullying other chickens over food, & started crowing very early this morning.
I really thought I was mentally prepared for this, as they are meat birds.
But when the time came for these 2, I felt overwhelmingly sick to my stomach.
I had to send my husband out to do it, and couldn't even help.
We live in the south, so we love fried chicken.  Which you need the skin for.  But my husband told me if he was doing it alone he wasn't plucking he was skinning the whole bird.
I feel kinda bad-- he is out there right now getting ready to do these chickens and I am in here on the computer because after all this apparently I'm not actually ready.

Also,we aren't "poor" by any means, but we pretty much just make ends meet.  We live in a nice area and have nice things and all, but I am very budget conscious we can't just freely spend.  I started to raise chickens for meat for several reasons--

OH GOD HE JUST KILLED ONE!  I NEED TO TURN ON THE TV!!!  I THINK I'M GOING TO BE SICK.

I raised chickens because I wanted them to have a humane life, which I accomplished.  I wanted to feed my kids GMO free food.  Which I was unable to accomplish because I can't find the ingredients to make feed & the main ingredients in commercial feed is GMO soy & corn.  I know where they were raised & handled.  I know they weren't washed in bleach to prevent bacteria in a factory plant.  But are they really THAT much healthier for my kids if they have GMO's coursing through the meat?

Finally, I wanted this to be an affordable alternative.  However, at $2.50 per chick initially, plus $20 a week or so to feed 12 birds.  So at the recommended processing age of 10 weeks, it's costing me about $20 per bird (which is about 3.5lbs processed w/ bones) that I could buy at a grocery store for $4.  Granted this is better for a lot of reasons, but we can't afford to spend 5 times as much on a chicken.  Anyone have suggestions on getting these numbers to be more reasonable???

Also,  I've heard stories about back in the day going out Sunday after church, killing a chicken then frying it.  But on here lots of people say it's better if you rest the meat.  How long am I supposed to rest it for?  Can I filet it from the bone before resting?  Anything else I need to know?

In regards to the cost of birds and feed here is my experience thus far. I paid $45 for 25 CX chicks. I am feeding them FF and they are almost in their 5th week. I have gone about 110 lbs of feed at this point for a total cost of $35. My birds are healthy and all close to 3lbs at this point. I keep them in a tractor and they eat grass and remain pretty active. Not the lazy slobs some have experienced. After the first week of free choice fees I cut them back to measured feed 3X daily. I also have to watch my pennies though I am by no means poor.

 

[dutchbunny83]

In regards to the cost of birds and feed here is my experience thus far. I paid $45 for 25 CX chicks. I am feeding them FF and they are almost in their 5th week. I have gone about 110 lbs of feed at this point for a total cost of $35. My birds are healthy and all close to 3lbs at this point. I keep them in a tractor and they eat grass and remain pretty active. Not the lazy slobs some have experienced. After the first week of free choice fees I cut them back to measured feed 3X daily. I also have to watch my pennies though I am by no means poor.

How do you get 110lbs of feed for $35, is it where you live?
Here a 50lbs bag is $20 and my freedom rangers are going through that in a week!
I started FF the other day, but it's not long enough to have noticed a difference, though they seem like they are eating just as much if not more...