First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[JessicaThistle]

Oh Ralph, come on. Man up. Lol! My hubby had a vasectomy on his own without me asking him to and both of my male dogs are fixed. If all the males are fixed around here why should the roosters get reprieve?

 

[duluthralphie]

Oh Ralph, come on. Man up. Lol! My hubby had a vasectomy on his own without me asking him to and both of my male dogs are fixed. If all the males are fixed around here why should the roosters get reprieve?

Which is why I have 2 female dogs........ One is fixed because of a "pre-cancerous" infection/growth she had.

There is a huge difference between a vasectomy and cutting out the jewels........ Must be a man thing, to empathize with any other male losing his organs.


BTW I am down to 4 roosters!! One more than I wanted keep over winter. ( not counting a future frog Daddy) I have one either Production red or RIR rooster that is on double secret probation, he stay alive if he behaves. He really ran and hid well when I was hunting him. I am rewarding his brains and ability to hide, by not snatching him while he sleeps. BUT if one hen complains about his unwanted advances he is a goner.

Next I have to decide which frog daddy to keep. It might take copious quantities of vodka to decide that....

 

[KCMOLisa]

Well, 11 of my meatballs have gone to freezer camp so far. We have 13 left, but we're calling it a day and finishing tomorrow morning. It took us about 4 hours to set up, figure out what the heck we were doing and process 11 of them. I think that's pretty good considering neither my brother or I had ever done it before and we were plucking by hand.

We definitely need to work on getting the water temperature even for scalding. We are just using a turkey fryer and it is either too hot or too cold. We scalded one that was way, way too hot and ended up having to skin it.

It's been a little traumatizing, but not too bad. In the spring, I am definitely calling around to see if I can get someone to do them for me. I live near a big Amish community, so if they will give me a reasonable price, I might just have them do it. Between ice and running water for hours and the time and mess, I really think paying a couple bucks per bird would be worth it just to drop them off and pick up a clean bird. If we don't do that, I'm definitely getting a plucker next year. I am exhausted after hand plucking and gutting 11 birds!

I just weighed a few that are in the cooler. They average about 4 - 4 1/2 pounds each. That's exactly the size I was going for, so I am excited about that! They were 7 weeks old yesterday. I'm glad I get to have the other half of my meatballs running around for one more day. It is going to be so weird to look out and not see any white fluffballs on the lawn in a couple of days. But I can still live vicariously through those of you who still have youngsters for the next couple of weeks (and Ralphie who has seniors! Ha ha!)

 

[Morrigan]

Congratulations Lisa on getting 11 done. So far, the only birds we've processed have been a couple of rooster/culls, and I'm a little bit nervous about what's going to be involved in doing up 19 meaties all in one go.

My little 2 week meaties are out in their outside yard right now. I bundled them into a dog carrier and put them outside this morning. It took them about an hour before they were brave enough to venture forth from the dog carrier. Even know, they are still only exploring a very small part of their yard. My laying hens stood on the other side of the fence and watched for awhile. I need to corral them up in a couple of hours and put them in for the night, as I haven't figured out a snug enough outdoor shelter yet. DH did double their brooder size then they were out in the yard, so at least they will have a little bit more space inside tonight.

 

[Morrigan]

Oh Lisa, I also meant to ask -- how heavy were your 7 week old before pre-butcher? We're trying to figure out how big to let our birds get into order to get to 4 lbs dressed out.

 

[duluthralphie]

Oh Lisa, I also meant to ask -- how heavy were your 7 week old before pre-butcher? We're trying to figure out how big to let our birds get into order to get to 4 lbs dressed out.

Just take a look at my birds and divide in half, and you will have the right size.....

 

[KCMOLisa]

Quote:
I haven't weighed one in a few days because they get pretty uncooperative with standing on a scale at about Week 5. The last one I weighed was around 5 1/2 pounds live weight. I think that weight should get you 4 pounds dressed. I had 12 roos and 12 hens and now there are still 10 roos out there, so apparently my brother was having an easier time catching the hens. I think the roos are going to weigh slightly more. They are probably about 6 1/2 pounds live weight right now.

 

[holm25]

Duluth

Holm: Did you have a bad experience with the CX's?  Why would you not raise them again??

No but I want to do heritage breeds.

 

[duluthralphie]

That makes sense Lisa, I think my first CX's were around 7 pounds live weight and I got about 4 1/2 pound birds from them.

 

[Morrigan]

Thanks for the info. 4 to 4 1/2 lbs dressed sounds like about the perfect weight. One of my larger one's was 13 oz this morning, so we have a ways to go.

I just rounded up my crew for the night. It ended up being pretty easy -- I hadn't fed them since morning, so I just put a fresh dish of feed in the dog carrier and within minutes all but 3 had crowded in. We transferred the first group in, and then put the food and carrier back out for the final 3. In they went!