Against the odds hatching thread (with pictures and questions)

[K0k0shka]

If that.
Hard to say for sure.
Would be great if you were going to slaughter two and could cook one right away and rest the other for a couple days then cook the same way.
Then you'd have a valid comparison for the carcass resting theory experiment.

I’ll make soup out of whoever is third - the same pressure cooker soup as the first - but I’ll rest the third. And then we’ll know.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Yup, 2 days is a great starting point. You can wiggle the limbs around while it's resting. To check when it's through rigor and started to relax.

 

[K0k0shka]

Crowing boy #2 made a delicious sous vide roast. Little Butt, with the umbilical issue. His butt and everything else looked perfectly smooth and normal, not a sign of whatever that issue was. My husband salt brined him overnight, that's all the rest he got and he was delicious! A little chewier than store-bought meat, unavoidably, but I wouldn't call it tough at all. Even the breast was juicy and flavorful, and less chewy than the first chicken (probably because of the sous vide though). The meat was SO much more flavorful than store chickens! Man I missed that taste so much!!! I definitely want to raise a handful of meat chickens along with the pet chickens every year now.

The next chicken to crow will participate in the carcass resting experiment. I'll rest him for 2-3 days and then make the same pressure cooker soup as the first one. I'm very very curious. Meanwhile, I asked my mom (who also grew up rural) and a few friends who grew up rural in other countries, and nobody had heard of the meat resting practice. So I wonder if it's regional/cultural..

 

[em_dawson]

Crowing boy #2 made a delicious sous vide roast. Little Butt, with the umbilical issue. His butt and everything else looked perfectly smooth and normal, not a sign of whatever that issue was. My husband salt brined him overnight, that's all the rest he got and he was delicious! A little chewier than store-bought meat, unavoidably, but I wouldn't call it tough at all. Even the breast was juicy and flavorful, and less chewy than the first chicken (probably because of the sous vide though). The meat was SO much more flavorful than store chickens! Man I missed that taste so much!!! I definitely want to raise a handful of meat chickens along with the pet chickens every year now.

The next chicken to crow will participate in the carcass resting experiment. I'll rest him for 2-3 days and then make the same pressure cooker soup as the first one. I'm very very curious. Meanwhile, I asked my mom (who also grew up rural) and a few friends who grew up rural in other countries, and nobody had heard of the meat resting practice. So I wonder if it's regional/cultural..

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He was a pretty boy... and probably pretty good tasting too!

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Yum! I've never done a sous vide myself but my in-laws love cooking that way. Glad he was tasty for you.

 

[K0k0shka]

My husband is the sous chef. I love the results - everything comes out so juicy and delicious!

 

[K0k0shka]

My Barnevelders keep getting prettier and prettier! The boys are not to be underestimated, either. 11 weeks old

 

[adirondak5]

Wow , beautiful .

 

[aart]

My Barnevelders keep getting prettier and prettier!

Gorgeous!
Love the lacing...and with the dark head, striking!

 

[K0k0shka]

Thanks! I'm curious about the heads so I'll ask the breeder now. When I google DSL Barnevelders, the hens have black heads/necks and the roosters have silver heads/necks when mature. Of the two boys I had, the one I butchered had a black head/neck and the one that's still alive has a silver head/neck. So, with the girls having a black head/neck, out of the 4 chicks I had 1 silver and 3 black head/neck. What's really interesting is that when they hatched and when they were young, the 3 that ended up with black heads had dark brown heads and bodies (with chipmunk stripes), and the one silver head male had a very light gray head and body, and white breast. Still had the chipmunk stripes and the pattern on the head, but everything was very pale. He really stood out from the rest, like he got dropped in bleach! So now that makes me wonder, if the silver head when grown presents as pale overall colors when hatched, then that would be a nice way to sex them at hatch! Of course, I don't know enough about Barnevelders to know if there's any truth in that, or if I just happened to have one chick look pale by coincidence. I've looked up Barnevelder sexing many times and never found any reliable and definitive method, so this seems too good to be true, and my sample size is too small. It sure does look interesting though!

Here he is as a chick:

And the other three looked like this: