How Old is Too Old for Processing?

[skeeter]

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yep as a matter of fact in the sixties you could buy them in the meat counter as stewing hens,but now people are so sqeemish,that its ewwwwe i cant eat that ewwwwe,unless its in a fancy package and full of crap I cant pronoune let alone spell,if things get real bad in this country the average American is going to be SOL,im glad there are some folks trying learn something like the ones on this site

 

[dancingbear]

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yep as a matter of fact in the sixties you could buy them in the meat counter as stewing hens, but now people are so squeamish,that its ewwwwe i cant eat that ewwwwe, unless its in a fancy package and full of crap I cant pronounce let alone spell, if things get real bad in this country the average American is going to be SOL, i'm glad there are some folks trying learn something like the ones on this site

I'm old enough that I remember seeing the stewing hens, I'm sure we ate a few, when we ran out of homegrown.

You're right, people have certainly gotten silly about what they eat, and have bought into the mass marketing BS. I mention this from time to time, as a good example of absurd things that are sold, and that there is evidently, to my astonishment, a real market for: There are actually frozen PB&J sandwiches, on white bread, with the crusts cut off. And there are actually idiots that buy them! I thought buying naked boneless chicken breast (even if all you ever eat is the breast, you can buy split breasts with the bones and fillet them yourself, at about half the price, and have bones left for soup) was silly enough, but the PB&J's even beat that.

Have you seen the pre-cooked side dishes, like mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, etc? People evidently either don't know how to make this stuff, (how pathetic is that?) or are just too lazy to do it. You'd think that people who are so dependent on technology would think to look up recipes on the internet. I do, fairly often!

Oh well, if a person can't manage to take bread out of a bag and smear peanut butter and jelly on it, all by themselves, I guess something as complex as boiling a potato and mashing it with a bit of milk are completely out of the question. Much less raising food!

 

[Heather J]

Most of the the layer facilities now euthanize the hens and compost them for fertilizer.

That fact aside, those old birds make great chicken soup, chicken and dumplings, chicken a la king, etc...

I can't imagine using a chicken in fertilizer, you aren't supposed to use meats in compost. Gross! and are they putting this rotten chicken fertilizer on food? Hello, Salmonella anyone?​

 

[Mac in Wisco]

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I can't imagine using a chicken in fertilizer, you aren't supposed to use meats in compost. Gross! and are they putting this rotten chicken fertilizer on food? Hello, Salmonella anyone?

Why wouldn't it make good fertilizer? The only reason they say not to put meat in your compost pile is that in small compost piles it tends to smell and attract critters. Composting of livestock mortalities and offal is commonplace now. It is environmentally sound disposal versus burial or incineration. It is no different from composting any other organic materials and the end product is used as just as any compost would be. All pathogens are destroyed in the process.

 

[mtnhomechick]

I was talking to a retired farmer from IA a couple weeks ago. We were talking chicken.....his wife buys my eggs.

He used to be a big time farmer...hog....cattle, etc... before he retired a couple years ago and moved down here.

He mentioned an egg company he used to deal with. They came out to his farm and set up the coop and everything necessary. They would pick up the eggs and he got a commission of some type. All he had to do was feed and water the hens, clean the coop and collect the eggs. He had thousands of their laying hens.

This was the part that killed me......

When they passed the peak age for laying, he said they would come out with a shredder and just throw the chickens in it and replace with new, young layers.

I can't imagine....

Didn't ask him what the heck they used shredded chicken for. I see him once in awhile, I'll have to ask him.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Some companies used to use wood chippers to dispose of spent hens. The discharge would be directed to a wagon and the slurry would be spread between layers of bedding and manure to compost. The animal rights group have rid the industry of that practice. The current practice is to euthanize with electric shock or a carbon dioxide atmosphere and then compost whole carcasses in large windrow operations.

 

[redhen]

well..i think if youre like over 80 or something..it may be a bit tough to do...

 

[dancingbear]

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What may be tough to do if you're over 80?

 

[mtnhomechick]

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Yep, that's exactly what he said. I chipper/shredder and into the back of a truck.

Sick!

 

[bheila]

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No they aren't laying anymore that's why the lady gave them to us. She asked what people do with hens that don't lay anymore. Duh? Then of coarse I couldn't butcher the poor granny hens. The dumb things up and died about a month after I got them though about a week apart from each other. They must have known the fate of a nonlayer at my house.