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

[Beekissed]

I've used one many a time, fashioned out of a coat hanger. There is a certain finesse to the sweep and move of the hook to get it right, but the hook works.

 

[Beekissed]

Let's talk about processing a chicken. Any OTs have some good tips that aren't often discussed that make things a little more streamlined?

 

[off-grid hen]

Quote:
Exactlty. I may not be an old-timer, but this is how I feel, and if I ever have to cull a chick or hen, (or future mean rooster) I will do what is best for the animal, not for me. If I didn't/don't have the guts to do what needs to be done, I shouldn't raise chickens.

Great thread! But I'm still only on page 35 or whatever. *goes back to reading*

 

[Pony Trotsky]

don't try to impose your goodie two shoes attitude on me..

What "goodie two shoes attitude?" Who's "imposing" anything?

I said, "From a sociological point of view, BYC is pretty darn fascinating," and I absolutely stick by that. It is! Just look at the violence of your reaction to a perfectly simple observation!

...they WANT the thread to close. They NEED it to close...people who like living in the darkness hate the light.

Who's "they," and why on earth would "they" WANT (or, weirder still, NEED) your thread to close?

As I just said (twice) I find the crazy passions generated by chickens extremely peculiar, and very interesting all around.​

 

[Beekissed]

My mother told me an interesting story this morning about my one of my Grandma's processing rituals. After killing and scalding the bird, she would bring it in to the kitchen sink and sprinkle CHEER laundry detergent all over the bird's skin and give it a good scrubbing all over, finish picking any pen feathers and then rinse. Then she would proceed to gut it and cut it up for cooking.

It makes good sense to me to scrub an old hen's skin before consuming...I just never thought of using laundry detergent!

 

[dawg53]

I dont have 20 years experience with chickens. I started raising chickens and hogs in 1979. I got out of it in 1985 due to military deployment. I didnt get back into chickens til 2004, no hogs this time. Back in the early 80's, my chickens were purchased from the feed store as chicks and they never made it past a year old, always in the freezer, I had a bunch of younguns to feed. There wernt any favorite chickens, only the ones on the dinner plate. It was the same with the hogs. I had close to 30 head at one time, all duroc's. I'd sell most of them, save a few for the freezer each year, always had a boar and sow or two for breeding. I never treated the chickens for anything, never wormed them, they didnt live long enough to get anything. I wormed the hogs only once and that was with Red Devil lye. I'd put a 50 pound sack of corn into a 55 gallon drum, fill it half full of water, add 1 tablespoon of the Red Devil lye and stir it real well with a boat paddle. Once in awhile we'd go hunting using bay dogs and pit bulls to catch piney wood rooters...now that was fun. We'd sell the hogs, which in turn were sold and shipped out to another state and released in a hunting preserve....something you see advertised in the back of a hunting magazine that rich folk would gladly pay for a guaranteed hog hunt.
I dont eat my chickens now, kids are grown and gone. I'm a softie now, I consider them all as my pets and I have several favorites (and that number is growing.)

 

[Beekissed]

DAWG!!!!

Where ya been??

 

[Avalon1984]

I am an eager learner. Please, share more wisdom

 

[Clay Mudd]

Quote:
I find that specific point pretty hard to disagree with. That's part of what makes it fun.

 

[johnsons-r-us]

Quote:
I find that specific point pretty hard to disagree with. That's part of what makes it fun.

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