First Batch of Meatbirds Processed This Morning

[the simple life]

Well my first batch of meatbirds were processed this morning.
The processor said they were great looking birds.
I wanted to divide the batch between now and the next to weeks so I could get different sizes.
Todays birds all weighed in the 6 pound range so I am very happy with the way things are going.
I will have a good range of sizes over the next two weeks, I just have to be careful not to push any too far and have them flip.
I will pull out the ones for next week that look like they need to go and then let the rest go to the following week.
Then I will just have the last batch that is two weeks old right now and I can pack it in for winter.
I have 115 birds total.
I have had a very good experience doing this and could not be more pleased.
Its really not hard to keep them clean(I am surprised at how clean they stayed) and well fed and let them roam outside if they so choose so I will do this again.
I do like the cooler months for it although this is further in the season than I will do next time, I will start in September next year with one or two large batches.
The cooler weather has its perks, the birds aren't hot, the smell isn't as bad and the ground is not wet and muddy.
All in all a good experience and I will let you know how the family likes their first home grown chicken after tomorrow.

 

[EweSheep]

 

[The Chicken People]

 

[PandoraTaylor]

I like the flavor of my own over store bought any day!

 

[the simple life]

Its amazing how nice looking they came back, I was impressed if I say so myself.

I guess I was worried that they might come back looking raggedy or something because you are use to seeing supermarket chickens that are all doctered up with fake stuff injected into them to make them look plump and all that.
These look really nice.
Looks like we are going to get snowed in here overnight so we will have nice roasted chicken tomorrow.

 

[crj]

Natalie
I am originally from Weymouth now living in North Carolina!!
Where did you have them processed ?
I wish I had someone to do mine when I lived up there.
Down here you have to do it yourself and I have trouble doing the killing part.

 

[the simple life]

Get outta here! Small world! I grew up here in town, I am in South Weymouth near the high school and I bought a house a mile from where I grew up and stayed here and am raising my family.
I got my birds processed in Bridgewater at Denbastiens. He has quite a busy place there, mobbed every day since he is the only one around that does poultry as well as other animals.
I know what you are saying about the killing part, I am not there yet and even if I was I am too closely situated to the neighbors for that.
I have 7 kids and some are fine with the raising your own animals for food part, the younger ones believe it or not, its the older ones that are less than thrilled but have accepted it because they do not have any other choice.
If you start when they are young they don't think anything of it but when they are older and its different from what they are use to or from what everyone else around us is doing its a harder adjustment.
We have lots of hens running around here laying eggs and they love that.
I am getting turkeys this spring as well, hopefully some to process and a couple for pets if it works out and they stick around.
We got hit with a couple feet of snow overnight and its still coming down, they say its going to continue through tomorow and are calling it the blizzard of 2009.
How is it in North Carolina?

 

[the simple life]

Well we cooked up our first chickens tonight. I roasted a couple of them so that we could have chicken sandwiches for leftovers this week given how busy the week before Christmas can be I wanted something prepared in a pinch.
So anyway, they were a big hit, I was surprised how much my family liked them and my husband just kept raving about how great they were.
Every so often during the night he would bring up how much he enjoyed dinner.
I had heard that some people have to get use to home cooked chicken but that wasn't the case here.
I brined one and didn't brine the other. They were both tender but the unbrined chicken had the meat just falling off the bone when I carved it even though the meat itself was firm.
I didn't brine the other chicken for very long though so I don't know if it made a difference or not.
I won't bother brining the rest, the one I didn't do was just perfect without it.
I cooked them both the same, I always start roasters out on very high heat for 15 minutes and then turn the temperature down and roast it at 350 for the rest of the time.
It was a pleasure to deal with considering most of the time with the store bought roasters I am picking the meat off forever and it comes off in all these tiny pieces.
I only had them rested for 24 hours so I was worried that it wouldn't be enough time for them to age but it was completely fine.
I am breathing a big sigh of relief now that I actually cooked some up and they were great.

 

[crj]

Congratulations on your success!!!
I will brine and age/rest all my meaties if and when I get them done.
I was born over in North Weymouth (Wessagussett Beach). We moved right up the street from you...(the Hingham end of Pine street in South Weymouth) in 1967 and lived there until 1991. I had chickens and horses and rabbits back then and we had to process them all ourselves. No not the horses!!! Just the birds and the occasional bunny.
My wife also wants a turkey or two this spring but that means building another coop/pen. She wants to free range them but we don't have the room. I'd rather do a bunch of cornish x's. I may even put in a pig or two we have a processor that will do them but no one does chicken or birds of any kind around here.

Merry Christmas

 

[the simple life]

Small world for sure. When I first moved out of my parents house (the street next to Ralph Talbot School near the old fairgrounds) I actually moved to an apartment in North Weymouth for a few years, not far from the beach and then I moved back to South Weymouth when I bought the house where I live now, looks like I was trailing you.

Its nice only being a mile from my parents.
My kids have some of my old teachers and some of my old school friends grew up and became their teachers as well, same church I grew up in etc.
We may know some of the same people. Did you go to North High or South High? Its all one school now, they built a huge campus a couple of years ago where South High was and made North the middle school.
That must have been cool growing up with all those animals. There are alot of wild turkeys running around between here and where you lived, Pine street seems to be their hangout, I had 11 of them show up on my front lawn one day.