10 Meaties Dispatched Last Night

[sbarab]

Thanks for the advice on what to feed my Free Cornish x Meaties that were county fair culls.

We butchered them last night. I didn't feed them anything yesterday and their crops were still full of scratch. I'm not sure if my kids snuck them scratch or if they had just eaten so much the day before?

Birds probably averaged 8-10 lbs live weight. I didn't weigh them. After processing they weighed 3-4 lbs. Perfect for a family meal.

We plucked some for roasters and skinned a bunch. Skinning is so much easier than plucking. They are now safely tucked into my new chest freezer. Purchased especially for them.

 

[dchickenman]

How old were they at time of slaughter? Also, I've been considering skinning mine. Easier? Does it affect the flavor?

 

[sbarab]

My kids told me that they fed them yesterday.

Here's the story of how I got them. I have a friend, Kevin, who knew I have chickens. One of his friends' kids have an FFA or 4H fair project going on and was going to have 100 birds to cull down to just 3 birds for the fair. Kevin called me on Sunday and said his friend was doing the 2nd to last culling of the birds and would I like them. Kevin and I went over to their beautiful gentleman's farm on Monday evening before anyone was home from work & picked 12 birds up. I never talked to their owners. I'm guessing they were about 8 weeks old?

One bird died on the way home. Stress? Got Sat on? IDK

We lost another bird on Wednesday night. She already couldn't walk and was slept on and smothered by another bird. Darn birds were in an extra large kiddie wading pool and had more than enough room. BTW the kiddie pool was an excellent place to house them inside my garage at night. I just added some shavings. They definitely could not get out. During the daytime I put them into a 10' x 6' chain link dog run outdoors.

It was definitely easier to skin them than pluck them. The skinned birds will be parted out and most likely deboned.

The breasts on these birds are phenominal & probably make up about 1/3 to 1/2 of the actual weight of the meat. Yum!

 

[dchickenman]

When you skin, how do you deal with the wings? I'm guessing once you pull out the big feathers, the wings skin easier? Or do you just not use the wings at all? Sorry for all the questions- I'm pretty new to chickens, and haven't processed many.

BTW, thanks for sharing your experience!

 

[sbarab]

We cut off the wing tips & pulled out the long feathers before skinning. Surprisingly, the meaties do not have feathers like a laying breed.