another "Know It All" Bites Dust

After growing and plucking chickens for an awfully long time (it seems) I am often the one people ask questions of.

This can lead to swelled headitis. Some time back I found some posts here on the best water temp for pluckking chickens.

Concensus among the folks was between 150 and 160, mean ~ 154F. Well poo poo I thought. Wisdom dredged up from some childhood memory made me sure the proper temp is Boiling, then enough time for a coffee with the lid off. In other words about 190 - 195F. And I was pretty darn sure of that.

Today I tried 154F, with a thermometer. 3 birds in 10 1/2 minutes. No skin tears, No pinfeathers for the wife to agonise over, and the wing feathers didn't have to be yanked one by one.

Sheesh, I guess old dogs can learn new tricks, and YES this forum can do it.

douglas

 

While I'm in contrite mode, I tried some of the techniques for avoiding the "instant death syndrome" with my meat birds this year.

Water and feed bunker were max distance apart, ~ 12 feet.

Lights out, 9pm - 8am = no feed

Feed reduced for the last 2 weeks. What a violent bunch when they are hungry. talk about vigourous meat birds. Drew blood on my legs
if I fed them in my housecoat. I would hate to fall down among them...... Nightmare material.

Results = No deaths. Except the one that backflipped into a 1 gal icecream bucket of water and drowned. Maybe heart?
No internal fat stores. Dry innards when cleaning. = Tough birds? Maybe. Will try not reducing final feeding regime next time.

Overall I would have to say these guys' are a lot more healthy and active and fun to deal with than the ones fed to specs. Those sit a lot and seem drugged almost comatose. They are bigger and "jucier " though. taste test to follow.

Good to be back at backyardchickens.com

douglas

 

I thought I should follow up on my previous promise.

On 11/02/2010 @ 3:01 pm I (koonaone) wrote:

>> Overall I would have to say these guys' are a lot more healthy and active and fun to deal with than the ones fed to specs. Those sit a lot and seem drugged almost comatose. They are bigger and "jucier " though.

taste test to follow.


10 12 05 <[dcs-LLH]> 12 01 A

The taste test has turned out resoundingly positive, all birds so far are moist, tasty, whopping morscles of goodness.

It turned out that a few of the birds had almost no fat reserves, but most did, and a couple were quite fat. Thus yielding me a couple of quarts of rendered chicken fat from about 20 birds. Sovereign for making supreme croissants and walnut knishes.

This result implies, to me at least, that the birds were competing for food to a certain degree. Some getting a little more than their share, but none being unhealthy from it.


Another, unrelated learning: 1 hour before butchering my birds I fed each a small handful of coarse birdseed. Why would he do that you ask ?

The crops were not pasted flat against the neck skin like they are when empty. The coarse material inside the crop made it much easier to peel the crop out in one piece and isolate the connector to the internal digestive system, and thus cut it close. Sort of gave me a handle on it. Tee hee.

I formed a hypothesis, tested it experimentaly, and by gawd it worked. I must be a citizen scientist.

The birdseed I fed back the the hens, they love the texture of it like I like the crunch of cornchips. (with my 2 remaining molars)

The woodshavings I used are not producing anywhere near the amount of heat, now it's cold, that a foot of manure infused straw would be, so I won't be using ithem again.

yours

(___)
{O,O}
/)__)
-"-"--------DOUGLAS