CURIOUS what everybody else does :)

[MrsSmitho]

Howdy!

We are about to partake of our first fresh from our farm chickens

I have heard you should keep food from the chicken for anywhere from 1 to 3 days...

????

I understand why (poo thing), but how long should I give the little succulents just water???

Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!

Kim

 

[the1much]

you dont feed them for 24 hours,, not just the "poo" thing,, but also so their crops are empty. and no bedding wherever your keeping them isolated for the 24 hours,, they'll eat that too.


EDIT: ta say,, let them have plenty of water the last 24 hours,, it wont hurt a thing

 

[chickenfever]

Yes, definitely give them water, if you don't the meat will be tougher.

 

[miss_jayne]

i just grab them outta the yard whether they've eaten or not. the crop will be full, but easy to get out still.

taking a batch to butcher tomorrow and they said they don't have their customers hold back food.

everyone does it differently. just depends what you want to deal with.

 

[chickenfever]

Yeah, I recently butchered three roosters, and they had eaten half the day. They came out OK

 

[Bammony]

We never hold back food. Like Miss Jayne said, we just grab them and kill. It's a nasty chore no matter if their crop is full or not.

 

[dancingbear]

I prefer to let mine have a last meal and not be too uncomfortable. I have taken away food the night before, and it really didn't make much difference, other than the crop being harder to find. So I opt for letting them eat, before I eat them.

Never withhold water, though. It makes them more comfortable, and helps move the existing food and poo on through the system and out, if that's what you choose to do. Food won't move well, dry.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I remove the food 12-24 hours before butchering. And make sure they can't even reach the grass around their cage. But I do have water available right up to the end.

It helps to have as much poop out of their systems before butchering to prevent any spilling into the cavity. Not only gross, but unsanitary for the meat. The same goes with removing the crop, much easier when it's empty.

And on a practical level, why feed them when it won't have time to be converted into meat?

 

[Acre of Blessings]

Please just make sure you separate the ones that you are going to butcher. Well, what I am trying to say is if you have 20 and your ready to butcher 10, just take the 10 out and feed the other 10, otherwise you will stress out the ones that are not being butchered and you have the possibility of one or more dying on you.

We have butchered 20 of our 34 already and have fried up 4 of them and they are so tasty. YUMMY!!!

I took food away for the night time and then separated the ones to be butchered from the rest and fed & watered the others and gave only water to the ones to be butchered.

 

[MrsSmitho]

I did it!! Thanks for all the different ways to do it... I went through my own little mental process of doing it, learning what to do and how, figuring out how to lower the grand scale of doing it for only one bird at a time...yadda, yadda...

and, of course, the mental thing with the simple act of the first kill to eat, processing thing

Mr. was his name, pictured as my avitar

, and if he hadn't tried to jump me for the 3rd day in a row this morning, it wouldhave been the younger roo first...but he did, and I got him.

I did not with-hold food...since this was a kind of on the spot thing, and the crop was easy to find and pull...I have never seen any of this, mind you.

It took forever to go through the whole process, but I wanted to go slow and do it, at least, mostly right. And, except for over-scalding it, it went really smooth!!

He made very tasty fried dinner

Thanks all!!

Kim