A lonely extra male - questions about how to proceed.

[Pandaisy]

Well, I did it. Burger is now in the freezer and will make a lovely snack someday soon. It wasn't nearly as traumatic as I thought it would be (thanks to that guide!), but if/when I need to do it again, I will... certainly remember not to let the body go once the head is off, haha... very messy. I also definitely need sharper shears - it took two cuts and it makes me really, really sad to know that it wasn't as quick as it should have been.

Personally I use a bin with a lid. As soon as the head is off I throw them in there, flap, flap, keeps me and my place from getting spray painted.

 

[Crowdango]

I ended up getting some shears from a hardware store that worked much better.

...I also found out that two birds that I thought were female were actually male. So we unknowingly had one poor girl living with three dudes. I processed the two extras today and left the nicest male with her (he's basically been at the bottom of the pecking order since the start, but he's my favorite). Getting some week-ish old chicks this weekend and going to try hatching a handful of my own eggs to hopefully get my hen count up... Bit hard to find these guys locally.

I'm excited to have a nice quail dinner this weekend though! Never tried it before.

 

[Nabiki]

I just put 9 into brine so they're ready to smoke tomorrow.