How Long to Wait Before Freezer Camp?

[Bossroo]

Just a thaught... hopefully the banker would councel to add up the costs of fertile eggs, their shipping, incubation, brooding, housing, predator security, very high price of organic chicken feed, transportation, butchering costs and ones daily time and labor, vs. what one can purchase an already processed organic chicken. Then, the benefits of a flock of weeder geese that can be raised on all grass and weeds only, plus the decrease of one's mowing costs of the orchard grass and weeds, plus the copeous amounts of fertilizer produced thereby the decrease of commercial fertilizer costs for the orchards, plus the geese eating dropped fruit thus eliminating ones clean up costs and orchard pest caryover, plus the savings to not purchase very expensive organic chicken feed, plus the huge decrease of one's daily time and labor, and plus the high price that one can realize for the Christmas holyday goose.

 

[MeatKing]

On the freezer issue... We have a chest and an upright.. When it came time to put the chickens away, we pu tthem in an the upright... It has shelves, so air to get around the chickens to freeze faster... We were freezing 30 at once, so to put this many in a chest freezer, you would want to go rotate them alot to make sure ones in the middle are frozen... (Not too sure how many your doing at once) Now with that being said, the upright seems to waste alot of space, with those shelves...

 

[Diavolicchio]

Quote:
MeatKing:

I noticed that one of the features on the chest freezer I posted was a Quick Freeze option to accelerate the freezing process. I don't know the specifics of how that works, but I'm hoping it will address the issue of things in the middle of the freezer not being completely frozen. That being said, it just doesn't make good sense to me that in 2010, the chest freezers being sold wouldn't have the capacity to keep every square inch of product within them thoroughly frozen. Then again, I don't own one of these freezers and have no idea how much of a problem that potentially would be.

Thanks for the input.


John

 

[greathorse]

Quote:
It was my impression that the OP was asking for some logistical advise as opposed the the business side of his plan. It would be the odd 60 bird operation to require a trip to the banker, but I suppose anything is possible.

 

[Diavolicchio]

Quote:
Agreed, Greathorse. I have NO idea why the heck he headed off on that bizarre tangent.



John

 

[Ridgerunner]

That being said, it just doesn't make good sense to me that in 2010, the chest freezers being sold wouldn't have the capacity to keep every square inch of product within them thoroughly frozen.

I believe the comment was that, with the chest type freezer, it will take longer to initially freeze the chicken in the center, not that it would not be able to keep it frozen once it freezes. The main concern is that the chicken in the middle might go off if it takes too long to freeze.

Another concern I've seen mentioned is that if you put too much warm stuff in a freezer, you may actually raise the temperature of something frozen and thaw it some, causing quality deterioration. Where I've seen this mentioned specifically is when you blanche vegetables before freezing, you cool them in ice water, partially to stop them from further cooking and partially so you can safely put them in the freezer. I'd think the same is true if you freeze chicken broth, cool it to room temperature before you put it in the freezer.

Since you mentioned you have not owned a freezer, I'll mention a little trick I learned. A freezer is more efficient at keeping things frozen if it is full. You have a larger heat sink mass plus you lose less cold air when you open it. Also if the freeezer is full, it will stay cold longer if it is full if the electricity goes out. So, when you first get your freezer and before you put anything in it to store, I suggest filling milk cartons or whatever you have with water and freezing that. Then, when you need more room in the freezer, just remove a carton of ice to make room.

 

[Bossroo]

Sorry to confuse with time, labor, and economic clues as food for thaught.

 

[greathorse]

thought???

 

[greathorse]

I think it will be a challenge to get the size you are looking for on these roosters before they fully mature at more than 12 months. I fear that by the time they get to your desired size you will have an issue with tenderness. My experience has been that somewhere around 24 weeks is max for them to be good eating. That doesnt get you to that full maturity size.

How do you feel about caponizing? Takes along time but you can get them to the big fella's. I just bought a caponizing set on Ebay, 9.99. I have not decided if I want to use it or not but thought it would at minimum be a nice collector's item. I missed one a couple of weeks ago at around 30 bucks.

 

[Diavolicchio]

Quote:
I used to think that too, until reading an article a few days ago that I posted in another thread. Check this out. I'll most likely sacrifice a little size and have most of the extra cockerels butchered at around 10 months. But I'm going to keep 2 extra cockerels of each breed (14 total) and allow them to get a year and a half old, just because of what I've read about the flavor in those birds if you simply cook them the right way.

Quote:
Can't say that I know very much about caponizing, aside from the fact you're basically turning a cockerel into a eunuch, right. I'll have to search a couple posts on here and do some Googling to learn more. Just what does a caponizing kit consist of?

I've got to admit, the thought of caponizing makes me wince a bit.

Check out this Sears & Roebuck brochure on the topic, if you haven't seen it.


John