Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[ajlynco]

Let's remember this threads purpose
Quote:
THREAD WARNING: The old-timers are just that, nothing more and nothing less. Their speech may be to the point, sassy, and no-nonsense~this does not mean they meant to offend you or each other. This is just how old farmers talk.

If you are very sensitive and offend easily, it may be time to turn your car around and head back to where the couches are soft and the music is soft and dreamy....this is where the rubber meets the road and only the strong survive.


****A suggestion has been made by a newbie that we all place our relative years of chicken husbandry next to our location on our profile....I think this is a good idea and will sort the wheat from the tares, so to speak. Get yer years up there and show yer ages in doing so....we won't laugh...much. big_smile ********

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Quote:
You also aren't sending it "to freezer camp". I don't know why, but that phrase irritates me. You're butchering or processing your chicken. Period. It might sound nicer, but you're still killing the bird, plucking and gutting it and putting it in the freezer.

Never heard freezer camp before BYC. Where did that ever come from? It's processing or butchering.

It was a joke. Someone was going to butcher in the summer, which is when children are traditionally sent to camp. I think they had an aggressive roo and said maybe they were going to have to send him to freezer camp that summer. It was said as a joke and repeated as a humorous euphemism. It was never about people that were unable to type the words butcher or kill. I thought it was funny at the time, but not everyone has the same sense of humor.

I usually use cull, butcher or euthanize, depending on the situation. They all mean different things. Sometimes I use the word kill, but I think that's more often when I'm talking about predator control choices. I've learned to use the words process and processor, since if someone is looking for that service, that's the terminology they need to be using. In some cases, you do need to move with the times.

I'm not sure how many people use the word cull because they don't want to use the word kill or butcher. I've seen a few threads where more than one person mistakenly thought cull meant the same thing as kill. For some people, all of their culled chickens are killed, so they may tend to think advice to cull always means kill and is just evading the term. I don't know. There are a lot of people thinking a lot of different things on this forum, that's for sure.

 

[loanwizard]

Somebody pm'd me for some advise. This being only my 2nd winter with chickens, I will post my reply here. It has to do with butchering chickens. I never thought much about it, and I have cleaned thousands of fish, but wondered if my way, self taught after reading here, was sufficient, or what others do differently. I am always open to good solid advise.

Butchering is not difficult. Have you ever cleaned a fish?

I put on a kettle of water and get it to almost boil, like there are the little bubbles coming up but no boil. While it is heating, I chop off the head and let it drain into a bucket. I take the water outside and put it in a 5 gallon bucket and hold the chicken by its feet and plunge it up and down for 30 to 45 seconds, then start pulling feathers. It isn't difficult but easier if you kill, dunk and pluck with very little time between.

Cleaning- I cut the neck out, then slit from lower breast bone to the vent (anus) and cut around the vent. I reach my hand up and try to separate the innards from the ribcage and pull it all out into a bowl. The only "yucky" thing to me is if I rupture the kidney, but I figure it will be well washed before I am done. After pulling the innards, I open and clean the gizzard, and keep the gizzard, heart and liver. The rest goes to the hogs, or chickens. I then cut the feet off, then separate the thigh and leg portion from the body, then the wing. I haven't separated the breast though because I have only killed old hens and I rest them in the fridge, then crock pot them. I will post this on the Old Timers thread for a little advise.

Thanks,
Shawn

 

[Clay Mudd]

Kill, cull, process, butcher, freezer camp, whatever.


What's important is the rosemary and garlic.

 

[Schwartzfarmnc]

New chicken owner for less than a year, but loving every minute.

Thanks to all OT and your years of wisdom, this thread has really opened my eyes and mind to rethink my entire approach to chicken farming. This thread has been a blessing and I hope it will continue, so much advice I've started to copy and paste into a word document for future reference.

I would like to add one word of advise from my father which I have always remembered and could benefit others when it comes to making decisions about your flock.

""When plain sense makes common sense, seek no other sense."

Think about it, it has held true for many years.

 

[NYREDS]

Quote:
Cannon fodder seems an unusual phrase to use here. Perhaps you don't understand what it means?
As to your contention that experience has no value I disagree. For many people knowledge comes with experience. However, this is not true of everyone. Perhaps you are one who does not learn from their experience & you assume that's true of everyone.

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
Oh, it is quite valid to fret over the cold spells in Interior Alaska.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
Sometimes I fillet fish, sometimes I clean them. Sometimes I pluck chickens, sometimes I skin them. Some people keep the carcass whole and some cut it into parts, even then not all the parts are cut the same way. It sounds like your way works for you so I won't criticize it at all. I'll admit I don't fully follow how you do that up in the neck area but that's not important.

I also usually use a crock pot to cook an older chicken. I'm not sure what your end result is or your exact method, but if you use the liquid you cooked them in as a broth, you might turn the chicken over when you are scalding it and scald the feet. We covered this a little bit ago in this thread, but the toenails twist off and the skin peels off. You get rid of the stuff that is hard to wash off and those feet really add to the broth.

 

[Tracydr]

Well, seems a few folks woke up on the wrong side of the bed this AM. I'm sitting here by the fire, enjoying my second cup of coffee. Planning on having some "egg mcmuffins" with fresh eggs in a few minutes. On the agenda for the day is butchering and processing a couple of enormous Cornish X who are well past due date. One of the roosters will be Christmas dinner.
Then, I'll be starting on planting my peppers and tomatoes for our early spring plantings. They go on a light shelf in the house. Finally, if there's time, I'm hoping to finish planting the last pound of garlic and prepare the potato bed.
Hoping y'all have some more questions and the other OTs post some good advise! This thread has been awesome.

 

[Gypsi]

anyone that could keep the same 12 chickens alive for 35 years must be doing something really unusual.

It isn't the chickens, or the years, it's the events in them

(This is what happens when I try to type a post and talk business on the phone at the same time. The 35 years matter. But the events inside, from disease outbreaks to predators to unusual weather, to all of the above combined is where the valuable EXPERIENCE comes from.
My way of addressing the cannon fodder poster - who is this person anyway?