Discouraged with Meaties...

[chickens4me]

First I had 27 Cornish Rocks sent and I ended up with 19 after predators (neighbor's dog and some hawks) got some. And I have a 5' chain link fence all around.

Then they smell unbelievably bad no matter how clean I tried to keep them.

And they were very ugly IMHO.

Today, I butchered 11 of them and it was an awful experience all around. It took me most of the day, too. (I'm still new at this meat bird thing.) They do have a lot of interesting inner "bits" though & would be great for some biologist person to study?

I am soooo worn out and I have 8 more to go tomorrow.

I don't think they were worth it for me as they ate at least a whole bag of feed a week, so they are a Very Rich Sheik's food by now.

Others don't seem to have a bad time with them though....hmmm....what could I have done differently?

Not order them ever again!!

I love my layers and my little silkies...I think I will stick to that for now.

But I sure hope those meaties taste good.

We'll see.

 

[FrenchHen]

I think we're going to make kill day a community thing...we have friends who are curious as to how to butcher a chicken. We'll process them and then have chicken dinner a couple days later!

 

[sandspoultry]

We found the same thing, if you want a quick "in and in the freezer" type chicken they are the way to go. For us... we like chickens. Buff orps, RIR's Speckled Sussex, Dark Cornish and Cuckoo Marans. they are our dual purpose birds, eggs and meat and a never ending supply.

Steve in NC

 

[AHappychick]

I am sure they will be very yummy and worth it

why not look for a processor to do them for you?

 

[jjparke]

If you are plucking try skinning. That should save some time. Don't forget to soak them in saltwater before you freeze them. Soak for at least 24 hours it helps make the meat nice and tender.

 

[ChanceRider]

I can imagine if it was your first time butchering and did 11 by yourself it would be a huge chore. My neighbors and my DH and I raise meaties together. They're on my property and I provide all the care, though they'll help if I ask. Come butchering day, we get together and turn it into a two family event. It sure makes it easier as we all have different "strengths" and skills. I would never have been able to do it all myself, well, especially the actual killing part. My DH did the cutting while I held them.... I didn't have to watch to be able to hold them for him!

There's no gettin' around the smell... and we raised our first batch in the dead of winter so they didn't get outside the coop much. We're just heading into week 3 with our current batch and have had a few issues, but nothing to deter me from wanting to do this again.

For this next batch, I even found a friend who wants to learn how to butcher chickens so she'll be joining us. Is there anyone who can give you a hand? It might sound a bit twisted, but we spent so much time laughing at ourselves in our first attempt that we actually had fun. (We treated the birds as humanely as possible to ensure they didn't suffer needlessly, it's just that WE had a lot to learn). We did our first batch outdoors, a day after a pretty good snow storm, in still very cold weather. Compared to that, this next batch should go much easier.

Sorry you had such a challenging time... I hope the next batch is easier for you!