First time raising meat birds - my journey of raising Cornish X in the city

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone! We finished at about 4:30. We are exhausted! I thought I would get all the weights today too, but I will just have to do that tomorrow. I'll also try to do a write-up on my opinions of the experience as a whole if I have the time. I still have plenty of work to do cutting up the meat (once it's ready), preparing the innards to be dog food, making chicken stock, and just general clean up. But overall, I'm happy with the outcome thus far.

 

[Morrigan]

Congratulations on your first harvest. And thank you for documenting your journey. Your story will be a great resource for other people thinking about raising meat birds in a suburban setting.

Looking forward to hearing all the details once you are rested up.

 

[Sussex19]

I must say that I'm very impressed that you got them all done in one go!
My first time, I only did one and that was bad enough.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Alright, here's my post-processing update.

I think it was an overall success. Killing the birds was the most emotional part, but all the kills were swift and clean and I think that really helped us feel okay about it. Plucking was difficult. I went a little too long on the first bird's scald and slightly cooked the skin. After that, I got all my scalds right though and the feathers came out nicely. We just spent a lot of time digging out pin feathers. Evisceration was a learning process. Even though I really tried not to, on my first bird I still punctured both the bile duct and part of the intestines near the vent that was filled with poop. That was messy and discouraging, but I just kept plugging away best I could. Since doing our first 2 birds took us 2 and a half hours, we thought we would be out until nighttime. But it did speed up. I think the remaining 4 birds took us about 3 hours.

I am really proud of how the birds turned out dressed. Here they are out on the table this morning after I weighed them.

The dressed weights are:
8 lbs 9 oz
8 lbs 5 oz
8 lbs
7 lbs 12 oz
6 lbs 13 oz
6 lbs 13 oz

I was going to be happy with birds in the 5-7 pound range, but three of them in the 8 pound range?! YIPPEE! This was at exactly the 8 week mark, so I'm really happy with the results.

I'm also really proud of how little waste we had. The amount of parts we actually threw in the trash probably equaled 4 cups worth. Everything else will be used for chicken stock, compost, or dog food.

I think I'll do a final post later this week with a review of my opinions of my process as a whole and everything. But for now, I'll just bask in the pride of knowing I actually completed this project.

Here are some additional photos. What do you guys think?

 

[3KillerBs]

They look wonderful!

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

They look wonderful!

Thank you! That means a lot!

 

[Morrigan]

You should be basking in the pride of a job well done right now! You did your research, thought through the entire process before you began, and now you have a freezer full of wonderful, home grown meat.

 

[Isadora]

Awesome job.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

You should be basking in the pride of a job well done right now! You did your research, thought through the entire process before you began, and now you have a freezer full of wonderful, home grown meat.

Awesome job.

Thank you both very much!

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Question for anyone who may know? Is it okay to feed the intestines to my dog if they seem to still have a little food/poop in them? I saved them and they have been on ice for two days with the other organs I won't eat. They smell a little like poop and I can see some poop coming out of some parts. If I cook it will it be okay?