Fry Pan Bargain from Meyers Hatchery

[LilyD]

Looking good! How old are they again?

21 weeks or 5 months just started crowing

 

[aliciaplus3]

First post of the thread was April 10th and she said she just go her chicks so I would guess they are 21 weeks old.

Thank you I was too lazy to read back....shame on me

 

[aliciaplus3]

They might sound better in the freezer?

 

[Compost King]

Thank you I was too lazy to read back....shame on me

I know the feeling, but I was full of energy (rare for me when I am at the Computer) so I went and looked. I just remember when the thread started it started with the arrival or just before the arrival of the chicks.

 

[LilyD]

Today is the day I processed 14 of the 15 fry pan bargain chicks. It would have been 15 but I did have one pullet in the bunch so she was given a pardon. These guys are 21 weeks this week and are a good size and weight.

Equipment used:

Two Havalon Edge knives ( I highly recommend these for processing. They are amazing for both killing and processing afterwards. The blade is a razor blade and it comes with replacements so when they get dull you can replace the blade with a new one. I also have a pair of loppers that I got at a hunting store years ago and use every year. These are great for breaking the neck to get the head off and also for helping with taking the neck off as you process out your bird. This year my husband got me a new knife called the Outdoor Edge to try that is a little bit longer and has a wider blade so that is the third blade on the table.

I have a foldable table that I wash down with bleach and antibacterial dish detergent for each processing. I have a frame we built with three kill cones on it. The two outside cones are for small turkeys the inside is a large chicken. I usually kill chickens in the middle one then move them to the turkey cones to bleed out. I use a rubbermaid tote that is also washed with bleach and antibacterial soap and then has clean water in it and salt and ice to keep the chickens cold as I do them. I use a large hunting sled to catch the blood from the chickens and then I drag that out into the pasture and bury it with the offal I don't eat or feed to my dogs so that predators don't get at it. I use a turkey fryer to heat the water with a large candy thermometer to check when it's ready for dunking and I have a tub plucker for plucking the birds.

I use shrink bags for packaging the birds. I hated them the first year until I learned you needed to get the turkey fryer water to 170ish and hold them under for 10 minutes with a straw through the end and zip tied in the bag so the air can escape out. It seals the birds very nicely and looks very nice post processing.

Logistics of processing: I clean my tools after every bird and every stage. The knives are placed in the bleachy dish soap water between every kill as are the loppers. I kill three birds and then will eviscerate those three and bag them up. Then I do three more, kill clean and bag up. Then all the waters get changed out and buckets are cleaned before the next six. The table is cleaned after every bird with bleachy dish water and then is hosed off again. Birds are kept in the rubbermaid tote with the cover on while I am working on one birds and then are placed back in there until I am ready to bag them up. I have a large gray plastic tub that I use when grinding my meat and I use that for transporting each set of birds to the freezer in the house while I am waiting for the water in the fryer to reheat.

My findings with this batch. My lightest bird was a dominique and it was 4 lbs live weight. In fact most of the dominiques were on the lighter side. I had three wellsummer roos and they were the next size up followed by the Australorps and then the Orpingtons. Largest roo was close to 7 and a half pounds live weight using a standard luggage scale.

Weights of the birds after processing ranged from 2 1/2 lbs for the light little dominiques up to 5 lbs. When I process the birds I remove the feet, offal and necks and I also take of the tail. I was originally taught by someone who had been processing for years and this is how he had always done it and it just has become habit. I keep the gizzards, liver, heart, lungs, kidneys, testicles, feet, and necks in a separate bag from the chickens and they either would get eaten by us or my dogs who are all raw fed. I use the necks feet and backs to make stock with fresh veg and try to use as much of the birds as I can.

Total processing time was a total of 4.5 hours but I was slowed down by taking pictures and weighing birds. Without that I would have been closer to 3 hours so not a bad days work.

 

[LilyD]

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Wow, that looks great! Can you talk a little about comparing breeds, processed weights, and carcass quality? The one in the pic like pretty filled out and meaty I'd love some birds like that but have had terrible luck with dual purpose breeds and skinny carcasses. We've also done Cornish cross. I'm not to keen on those for a variety of reasons.

Again, thank you for sharing from start to finish! It's inspiring.

 

[LilyD]

Wow, that looks great! Can you talk a little about comparing breeds, processed weights, and carcass quality? The one in the pic like pretty filled out and meaty I'd love some birds like that but have had terrible luck with dual purpose breeds and skinny carcasses. We've also done Cornish cross. I'm not to keen on those for a variety of reasons.

Again, thank you for sharing from start to finish! It's inspiring.

I had Buff Orpingtons, Speckled Sussex not Wellsummers sorry I checked my notes and realized that I had said the wrong breed,Dominiques, and Australorps.

Buffs and the Austrolorps were by far the largest heaviest breasted breeds. The one in the picture is a buff bird. The Buffs averaged between 5.5 and 7.5 lb live weights. Feet and leg bones were not huge like the Cornish X but the legs were definitely longer than with the CRX. Both the Buffs and Austrlorps dressed out like the one pictured.

The Sussex were a little big thinner in the breast but when I felt their breast bone it still had quite a bit of meat on it and didn't feel terribly high or skinny like they hadn't filled out yet. The last place for these guys was the

Dominiques they ranged between 4lbs to 4.5lbs liveweight and dressed out at about 2 1/2 lbs processed. Out of the 4 I had that were Doms I had three that had an abnormally small abdominal cavity (less than one inch between the end of the breast bone and the pelvic bones) which made them harder to process. Their breasts were the thinnest too and they were much leggier than the other breeds. Much more dark meat than breast meat.

I did Cornish X as well this year just for a comparison and they hands down were about double in breast weight to these guys but I had a devil of a time getting them to free range at all and they didn't even start getting interested in it until about a week or two before processing time. They would rather lay around the feeder and eat. I tried to solve this by spreading the feed out all over the place so they had to move to get it and it kept them going until processing time but I prefer the heritage breeds by far.

My current batch of roos ( I have four Crele Orpington Rooster that are 9 weeks old) are already getting heavy and only 9 weeks. I will try and get weights this week to compare against the Meal Makers but I am pretty excited so far by how full they look. The breeding stock I kept are all orpingtons (English Variety) which tend to be more of a fancy breed but they are already stockier and heavier than the birds I just processed and they are only 16 weeks.

 

[Morrigan]

That's for the detailed report. How did you settle on 21 weeks as the butcher date. I've heard mixed things about how much more they fill out after 16 weeks and whether the feed to weight gain is worth it, particularly as they can get more toothsome after they start crowing.

I'd also be interested in how you are preparing them to eat and what you think of the taste and texture. I've always turned heritage roosters over the age of 15 weeks in to sausage, because I feared it would be too tough, but I've never tried a true slow-roasting or pressure canning approach.

 

[LilyD]

That's for the detailed report. How did you settle on 21 weeks as the butcher date. I've heard mixed things about how much more they fill out after 16 weeks and whether the feed to weight gain is worth it, particularly as they can get more toothsome after they start crowing.

I'd also be interested in how you are preparing them to eat and what you think of the taste and texture. I've always turned heritage roosters over the age of 15 weeks in to sausage, because I feared it would be too tough, but I've never tried a true slow-roasting or pressure canning approach.

Believe it or not I had them scheduled for 18 weeks processing time even had it set up to remind me on the calendar lol. Things popped up and made it impossible to do then so we waited until things settled before setting up and getting it done. Usually I am good going any time between 18 to 30 weeks. The 18 week to 24 week birds I usually will process as roasters. Because they're heritage varieties and have more muscle tone making the meat more chewy I cook usually in a covered roasting pan with a grate or potatoes underneath the bird to keep it elevated with chicken broth below it (maybe an inch worth). I usually cook at 225 degrees and increase my cooking time until the meat is good and tender. This prevents the legs and thighs from getting chewy.

Anything older than 24 weeks I usually cook in the crock pot or in a pot on the stove bone and all for things like soups stews, chickens and dumplings, enchiladas etc. You can also pressure cook them first and then do things like fried chicken with them or cooking them on the grill which is higher heat. The pressure cooking breaks the connective tissues in the meat so it's not tough to eat even though it's an older bird.

These guys had just started crowing a few nights before processing so that was slower to develop in them for which the neighbors were grateful. I got these guys (originally 25 birds 15 birds made it to processing) on April 10th and got a load of 11 turkeys and 17 Cornish X around April 26th. They started out in separate brooders but were all put together in the large outdoor grow out pen that I have in my horse pasture. They were allowed to free range after 3 weeks old until processing as were the turkeys and Cornish.

These birds by far were superior in their foraging. They would leave the coop first thing in the morning and not be back until I showed up with the feed at night. I went through a 50lb bag of feed every 2 weeks total for 53 birds to start. I lost about 10 birds about 1/2 way through to an owl couple that moved in to the neighborhood so they had to do a few weeks where they were put into the pen early to keep them safe. During that time I increased their grain since I was decreasing their time out bringing them in around 3:30 in the afternoon rather than at dusk because that's when the owls were hunting.

The Cornish X and BBW turkeys would sit and eat all day rather than foraging so they increased it somewhat towards then end but I tried to be craftier and started spreading their food out so they had to move to eat rather than sitting all day. All told between the three groups I have gone through 15 bags of feed from April 10th until now at 18.99 a bag for a total feed cost of 284.85. I got 17 Cornish X and 15 Heritage breeds to processing, 32 birds total (Turkeys have another two weeks)Cornish X averaged out at about 7-8 lbs process weights heritage were from 3 -5lbs processed.