Delawares from kathyinmo

[finnfur]

I haven't tried it yet and I may have goofed it up. We pressure canned all the older cock birds. The directions said to use raw chicken and that sounded wrong, so I cooked it, first. First time using a pressure canner and then we realized how much the meat cooks while being canned. The meat fell apart inside the now sealed jars. So, I'm not sure how it's going to taste.
I never buy canned chicken, so can't compare.

Sharon cuts the breast out - that gets frozen most time-when we cut the rest off bone it gets canned no water or precook - thats what is used for stock or chicken salad [ one of my favorite ways to eat chicken ]

 

[desertmarcy]

Sharon cuts the breast out - that gets frozen most time-when we cut the rest off bone it gets canned no water or precook - thats what is used for stock or chicken salad [ one of my favorite ways to eat chicken ]

Are you canning in quart jars? No water in the jar at all? How tightly packed, how big are the pieces and how long do you pressure cook it? I have to use 15 lbs pressure here always since I'm 2500' elevation. Thanks, I'm thinking of trying this, I have a lot of birds I need to thin out.

I have someone from the Salvation Army coming to pick up frozen chickens from me tomorrow that I'm donating. I've got 133 lbs of frozen whole chickens, that I processed and cleaned, from 2011-2012. Still have a bunch from last year. No way the two of us can eat all this chicken. I am really glad they can use them. They cook up meals for the needy and homeless and do a lot of stewing because the food stretches farther, perfect for these old birds.

 

[rancher hicks]

Are you canning in quart jars? No water in the jar at all? How tightly packed, how big are the pieces and how long do you pressure cook it? I have to use 15 lbs pressure here always since I'm 2500' elevation. Thanks, I'm thinking of trying this, I have a lot of birds I need to thin out.

I have someone from the Salvation Army coming to pick up frozen chickens from me tomorrow that I'm donating. I've got 133 lbs of frozen whole chickens, that I processed and cleaned, from 2011-2012. Still have a bunch from last year. No way the two of us can eat all this chicken. I am really glad they can use them. They cook up meals for the needy and homeless and do a lot of stewing because the food stretches farther, perfect for these old birds.

This is the difficult thing for us. There's only two of us. I make jam and jellies and applesauce but always there is more than we need in a year.

I do donate or give it to friends. Right now I've a freezer full of berries and rhubarb. I've started my own berries bushes and rhubarb and they're doing okay but I don't need any. The only thing I don't grow is Blueberries and Strawberries.

I've had to give eggs away since I had no one to buy them. Now I've someone who will buy them but some hens are brooding chicks.

Three were born last night.

I had two hens who lost their three chicks. Some hens are not good mothers. And some roosters are not good fathers.

 

[desertmarcy]

This is the difficult thing for us. There's only two of us. I make jam and jellies and applesauce but always there is more than we need in a year.

I do donate or give it to friends. Right now I've a freezer full of berries and rhubarb. I've started my own berries bushes and rhubarb and they're doing okay but I don't need any. The only thing I don't grow is Blueberries and Strawberries.

I've had to give eggs away since I had no one to buy them. Now I've someone who will buy them but some hens are brooding chicks.

Three were born last night.

I had two hens who lost their three chicks. Some hens are not good mothers. And some roosters are not good fathers.

Summer gardening is rough for us here, especially mid-May to early July, before we get summer rains. IF we get the 'promised' summer rains

. We have no problem using up the fruit we grow and we freeze a lot of it for later--peaches, plums, figs, we freeze whole. Put them on a cookie sheet single to freeze solid, then bag, that way they don't stick together. This year, my partner did all the hard work of getting the seeds separated out of the pomegranates since we had a bumper crop and he froze them in ziplock bags. We just pull a handful out at a time and add to salads or put in smoothies. YUM!

Eggs, I have no problem disposing of those. Once they are over a month old, I hard boil 3 or 4 dozen at a time, peel and dice up and feed to the youngest chicks and turkey poults. Helps them look at me as a treat bearer, and they get a bit tamer. Not as tame as if I had time to handle them, but better. We have a lot of snowbirds that come here and when they leave, egg sales plummet. Deviled turkey eggs are my treat to bring when we go to a potluck in the summer. There are always lots of turkey eggs since I don't hatch in the summer and the turkeys keep laying in the heat even while the chickens slow way down.

Too bad about the lost chicks. I don't even try to let hens hatch. I'm just not set up for that.

 

[rancher hicks]

Summer gardening is rough for us here, especially mid-May to early July, before we get summer rains. IF we get the 'promised' summer rains

. We have no problem using up the fruit we grow and we freeze a lot of it for later--peaches, plums, figs, we freeze whole. Put them on a cookie sheet single to freeze solid, then bag, that way they don't stick together. This year, my partner did all the hard work of getting the seeds separated out of the pomegranates since we had a bumper crop and he froze them in ziplock bags. We just pull a handful out at a time and add to salads or put in smoothies. YUM!

Eggs, I have no problem disposing of those. Once they are over a month old, I hard boil 3 or 4 dozen at a time, peel and dice up and feed to the youngest chicks and turkey poults. Helps them look at me as a treat bearer, and they get a bit tamer. Not as tame as if I had time to handle them, but better. We have a lot of snowbirds that come here and when they leave, egg sales plummet. Deviled turkey eggs are my treat to bring when we go to a potluck in the summer. There are always lots of turkey eggs since I don't hatch in the summer and the turkeys keep laying in the heat even while the chickens slow way down.

Too bad about the lost chicks. I don't even try to let hens hatch. I'm just not set up for that.

I have a set up just not enough for so many hens. Some hens are good at it and I know who they are. Some are new and I'm just learning their ways. EE and my Sussex are good mothers. Frenchy is a good mother too and will protect her chicks. One EE however seemed not to know what to do, like the "pruk, pruk" giving them food and showing them how to peck food and drink water. I'll just take her chicks and hope she quits being broody.

 

[finnfur]

Are you canning in quart jars? No water in the jar at all? How tightly packed, how big are the pieces and how long do you pressure cook it? I have to use 15 lbs pressure here always since I'm 2500' elevation. Thanks, I'm thinking of trying this, I have a lot of birds I need to thin out.

From the Chief Cook
"For chicken breast only- that I'll be adding to a salad, making chicken BBQ for sandwiches or making chicken salad out of, I don't add any liquid. For quarts you pressure can it for 90 minutes. Pints would be canned at 75 minutes. I fill the jars up to the fill line, but I don't pack it in there tightly. I add a dash of salt to the jars and can. It's not the prettiest sight when it's finished like the jars that you do with broth, but it's efficient."
She also says she cans the rest of chicken raw - with bone or deboned- but adds previosly saved broth to that.

Marcia we are at 450 feet if it helps with time duration

Tom -
Chief plucker and bottle washer

 

[crazyhen]

I think when the time comes i will cut the meat off and put it in the refrig. Then I will cook all the bones to make a rich broth. I will put the two together and can. That sounds like I will have a rich broth filled chicken meat for whatever. i also can remove part of the fat on the broth ahead of time. I bet even old hens would be tender. Can anyone say chicken and dumplings Yum. Now just to get my back in better shape. Ouch.

 

[LindaB220]

I think when the time comes i will cut the meat off and put it in the refrig. Then I will cook all the bones to make a rich broth. I will put the two together and can. That sounds like I will have a rich broth filled chicken meat for whatever. i also can remove part of the fat on the broth ahead of time. I bet even old hens would be tender. Can anyone say chicken and dumplings Yum. Now just to get my back in better shape. Ouch.

Man, that sounds like a winner. Try it and let us know how it turned out. I know what you mean about your back. I lost a 10 day old baby out of the brooder and had to contort into various positions just to catch the little sucker. I bought a fish catch net but that thing would land an 80# marlin.

I could lay it across an area to trap him. Now I feel my back. But all in all, I'm 67 and happier than I've ever been in my life. Things still to do:
Wrap the 4' x 6' dog kennel with wire and hardware cloth. So babies can go out.
Put a run up for my bigger kennel 7.5' x 12'.
Incubate 15 eggs and adding 15 more in a couple of days.
Buy a freezer- small I don't need a big one.
Buy a pressure canner.
And I'm getting 25 CX babies in Sept. Gonna be busy.

 

[DuckBoy]

Hello Can some one tell me why I got these

in my del project and which would be the best roo to move on with thanks.

 

[Zanna]

Hello Can some one tell me why I got these

in my del project and which would be the best roo to move on with thanks.

Hard to tell much from just these photos but these Dels. are a work in progress and type still needs addressed before colour. The top Cockeral appears to be much wider shoulder to hip and may have a nice open tail so he would be my choice of the two if I had to decide with this picture as all I had. The bottom Cockeral appears narrow with a pinched tail. Are they the same age? Hatchmates? Do you know who the parents are or did you pen mate? The F'4's I got from Kathy had several over coloured and columbian marked like these. Not seeing any columbian marked in my F'5's but still lots of barring on the backs of the Cockerals.