Butchering Hens Bred for Egg Production

[HensAndFriends]

Thanks for everyone's input!
It was very helpful

Hope everyone has a great rest of their week!

 

[JamieBrock]

I culled five bullies out of my flock. Comets, ‘lorps and EE’s. I just skinned and deboned the meat and pressure canned it. My only regret is not separating the light from dark. But that was only for appearance sake. Flavor was excellent. They were at least a year old. I got a flock of ten or so from a person that was done with the chicken thing.

 

[HensAndFriends]

I culled five bullies out of my flock. Comets, ‘lorps and EE’s. I just skinned and deboned the meat and pressure canned it. My only regret is not separating the light from dark. But that was only for appearance sake. Flavor was excellent. They were at least a year old. I got a flock of ten or so from a person that was done with the chicken thing.

I'm glad to hear that the flavor of a production hen was great!

How much meat would you say you got from the five you culled and processed?

Thank you for sharing

 

[JamieBrock]

I'm glad to hear that the flavor of a production hen was great!

How much meat would you say you got from the five you culled and processed?

Thank you for sharing

Easily five pints. I think over seven but I’m not sure. It went fast.

 

[HensAndFriends]

Thanks for sharing

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I'm late to this party. Sorry. I should link my flock, I have Comets, and also Hoover Hatchery "Rainbows" which are like somewhat larger Comets (NH Reds instead RI Reds in the genetic background, and something else). I eat a lot of older, primarily "egg-laying" so called dual purpose birds and try and let my more meaty birds have a chance to breed.

I have a "culling project".

The answer, on an older bird, is this. It's tough. Stew, stock, or sausage. Unless you are using the skin for something (like a sausage inclusion), its worthless. Don't bother. Save yourself the time and disrobe them, don't scald and pluck. That's going to affect your yield. If your butchering is good, you should get a carcass yield around 74% of live weight. So a 4# Bird should yeild about a 3# carcass. Remove the bones, you have about 70-75 of that weight. Remove the organs, 70-80% of that.

Don't like math (or haven't had coffee yet - I feel ya on the coffee thing).

Full Grown comets in my flock range from about 3.7# to maybe 4.4#. They yeild a carcass from 2.5# to just over 3# in weight. I keep the heart, liver gizzard, which leaves me about 1.7 to 2.25# in meat.

 

[HensAndFriends]

I'm late to this party. Sorry. I should link my flock, I have Comets, and also Hoover Hatchery "Rainbows" which are like somewhat larger Comets (NH Reds instead RI Reds in the genetic background, and something else). I eat a lot of older, primarily "egg-laying" so called dual purpose birds and try and let my more meaty birds have a chance to breed.

I have a "culling project".

The answer, on an older bird, is this. It's tough. Stew, stock, or sausage. Unless you are using the skin for something (like a sausage inclusion), its worthless. Don't bother. Save yourself the time and disrobe them, don't scald and pluck. That's going to affect your yield. If your butchering is good, you should get a carcass yield around 74% of live weight. So a 4# Bird should yeild about a 3# carcass. Remove the bones, you have about 70-75 of that weight. Remove the organs, 70-80% of that.

Don't like math (or haven't had coffee yet - I feel ya on the coffee thing).

Full Grown comets in my flock range from about 3.7# to maybe 4.4#. They yeild a carcass from 2.5# to just over 3# in weight. I keep the heart, liver gizzard, which leaves me about 1.7 to 2.25# in meat.

Thanks for the meat yield poundage examples! That is just what I was looking for.

When you say an 'older bird' do you mean 1+ years old or 3+ years old?

 

[Klutch]

There is nothing a good pressure cooker can't solve. You might trying recipes for Goulash, chicken and dumplings, stew and my favorite chicken curry (needs a stew chicken) for a more hearty base.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Thanks for the meat yield poundage examples! That is just what I was looking for.

When you say an 'older bird' do you mean 1+ years old or 3+ years old?

Sorry, meant to respond to this after work. Some of my older hens were 13-16 months, the ones I hope to take this weekend will be 21 months, almost 22 - but there will be essentially no difference between then and the 13-16 month hens. Tough either way.

and in addition to curries, I'm going to hat tip the national dish of Ethiopia, Doro Wat - which is essentially their version of spicy red curry chicken stew, but they also put whole hard boiled eggs in it (and of course, local spices).

 

[HensAndFriends]

Sorry, meant to respond to this after work. Some of my older hens were 13-16 months, the ones I hope to take this weekend will be 21 months, almost 22 - but there will be essentially no difference between then and the 13-16 month hens. Tough either way.

and in addition to curries, I'm going to hat tip the national dish of Ethiopia, Doro Wat - which is essentially their version of spicy red curry chicken stew, but they also put whole hard boiled eggs in it (and of course, local spices).

Around 12-16 months is when I will probably be culling as well.

Thanks for taking the time to share your input