First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[JessicaThistle]

Sorry Linda, no scalder option on the table. Haha!

I hope you all find one. It worked great! I have a thing about clean hands and of course cleaning chickens is a dirty job. It was way better than trying to manipulate the garden hose switcher with slimy hands. Every chicken was squeaky clean when it went off to the cooler also. I can't say I did that well when I was in the kitchen because I was worried sick about cross contamination. Yep a little insanity from my nursing/caregiving years. Also, my kitchen faucet is wearing out and doesn't stay on unless you put it on full blast, which while rinsing a chicken means you are also rinsing yourself with chicken splatter. Ugh!

Ralph: Your wife is awesome! She needs two of them....

What do you think caused your chicken to be tough?

 

[mountain mom]

Hi gang! Sorry I have been MIA, busy busy. Anyhow, i have a quick question. Without wanting to take the time to search the thread, what age did you switch to grower feed? My meaties are just around 4 weeks. Thanks in advance all!!

 

[duluthralphie]

Jessica, We have a trailer set up for processing the chickens. It has 2 waste barrels, A waste bucket for the parts I feed back to the chickens, and a table. Which is actually just a old countertop across two barrels.

I have a "turkey fryer" in the corner I use to scald and a "rack" for hanging the headless chickens on to bleed out. And of course my Plucker. This way we are not walking in mud and can keep the mess outside.

2 tables would be nicer so we could each clean without bumping into each other. Especially if I ever get in gear and build a whiz bang for plucking several chickens at once.



MountainMom, I only used one bag of starter and then went to 18% protein grower.

 

[JessicaThistle]

Hi gang! Sorry I have been MIA, busy busy. Anyhow, i have a quick question. Without wanting to take the time to search the thread, what age did you switch to grower feed? My meaties are just around 4 weeks. Thanks in advance all!!

I fed Nutrena Meatbird crumbles for the whole time.

 

[Betsy57]

Yeah. I admit that I'm a bit spoiled since I have a handy husband that says, "if we are going to do this, we are going to do it right. Meaning as fast and efficient as possible!" I estimate that I eviscerated a chicken every 9 minutes. it seemed waaayyy longer than that.


Here's the table. So awesome! It's called a fish and game table. I got it at a farm store but maybe where hunting things are sold would sell it? It was a bit spendy at $89.99 but well worth saving for! I would have hunted for a cheaper price but we bought it on Saturday and camp day was Sunday. Not alot of time for research. Worth the money and even more value if you fish or hunt! A hose attaches to the faucet for running water. We have a drain hole outside that goes straight to the septic. So I stationed myself right over it so the drain hose drained right down the drain hole. It was an odd location but so much easier than sticking a bucket underneath!

http://www.amazon.com/Tricam-MT-2-C..._sbs_lg_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1JNTEWC8CR1KEHPQVPGY

 

[JessicaThistle]

http://www.amazon.com/Tricam-MT-2-C..._sbs_lg_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1JNTEWC8CR1KEHPQVPGY

Yep that's it! Possible free shipping there too. Go for it!

 

[Double Kindness]

In 2 weeks we're buying a new big deep chest freezer, I have a standing chest freezer and my p.o.s. lg side by side new fridge with freezer on the bottom (don't ever buy this model, we have replaced almost every door shelf and the ice maker is constantly jammed with ice cubes frozen together in a solid mass). We have 1 camping cooler, my fridge is almost always busting at the seams with stuff... so I guess I'm asking about resting the chickens before freezing since fridge space is tight for me and my camping cooler isn't huge, should we also buy an extra fridge? Or like a mini fridge or Styrofoam or plastic coolers for resting the chickens/ducks after plucking etc?

Do you just hose everything down for clean up? What do you do with all the feathers?

 

[mountain mom]

Thanks for the feed help! I didnt think of the fact they grow so much faster, and that I had no idea when to switch them over

Double Kindness- I will have to let you know about some spring meatballs! So far my husband is not positive he will want to do another round of meat birds... it was his idea in the first place!! He has grown more attached to this round.
How many are you processing at once? I would get another cheap cooler or two, it is the best place to store them for the cool down, in my opinion. Just be sure to have a lot of ice!!

It sounds like processing is going well for everyone! Fingers crossed in 4 weeks I've still got nice weather!

 

[duluthralphie]

In 2 weeks we're buying a new big deep chest freezer, I have a standing chest freezer and my p.o.s. lg side by side new fridge with freezer on the bottom (don't ever buy this model, we have replaced almost every door shelf and the ice maker is constantly jammed with ice cubes frozen together in a solid mass). We have 1 camping cooler, my fridge is almost always busting at the seams with stuff... so I guess I'm asking about resting the chickens before freezing since fridge space is tight for me and my camping cooler isn't huge, should we also buy an extra fridge? Or like a mini fridge or Styrofoam or plastic coolers for resting the chickens/ducks after plucking etc?

Do you just hose everything down for clean up? What do you do with all the feathers?

We must have the same Side by side fridge!!!


roflmbo!


We put the feathers in a 55 gallon garbage bag and send it to the landfill.

 

[Double Kindness]

Ok, b/c I read on a blog about a homestead that used their feathers and blood for fertilizer in the garden soil and didn't know much about it and was wondering what everyone does with the masses of feathers.

We're going to process 3 ducks and 27 chickens. I expect much feathers and I will probably end up crying all day while plucking or gutting... maybe I can just be the one to bring each chicken to the cone? They love me so much, hop onto my arm, head, back, coo at me. Oh dang. Now I'm in tears thinking about my peep peeps.

I better go look up some delicious looking chicken and duck recipes stat!