How to use the whole animal (waste not want not)

[ozexpat]

Holy cow everyone. Thank you for all this info!

its a great thread topic

 

[vehve]

Something we've done with gamebirds, is cut the wings off whole and let them dry, then use zipties to fasten them to a block of wood to use as dummies for training the dogs. Not a good idea to use chicken wings though, those we want the dogs to leave alone.

 

[Beour3rd]

The hearts taste so good just sliced and cooked in butter.

 

[Amberjem]

Chickens that have been bred specifically to get full butcher weight in a bout six to eight weeks. Cornish cross or similar....

Same goes for broad brested Turkeys...they will get so large they will break their legs just trying to walk about... So they Have to be butchered. you cant keep them as pets.... A friend of mine had to give his away because he couldnt butcher it.... it was 65 lbs.

Both grow so large they have problems with organ failure or cracked bones because of the weight they attain. And no they are not genetically altered except by years of breeding.

deb

ahh gotcha thanks so much for the informative information I was thinking of running a chicken tractor this spring with a mes of those chickens to feed up n fill my freezer

 

[Beer can]

whats a franken chicken?

Just to add to the other comment, Cornish X, I saw a bunch of them at a local county fair for show, they were butchering size and while super meaty and cheap to feed, they look gross to me. Missing chest feathers from laying down on them cause they are so big and lazy, panting like they were dyin, not very healthy looking at all, and I'm sure they cleaned them up cause they are usually covered in poop cause they just lay in it. All the heritage show birds looked happy and healthy.

 

[Kusanar]

My dad hunts and usually shoots 1-2 deer a year, I am interested in trying to tan the hides this year if he gets any. Question I have is, everything I see says you should skin them out while the body is still warm if you want to preserve the hide? Is this true? We always gut the deer and let it hang a day or 2, always overnight, before we skin it and chunk it up for processing. The hide keeps the meat clean while it hangs so I wouldn't want to skin it and leave a naked corpse hanging... Any ideas?

 

[hennible]

That's a great question, I hope we get to hear an answer soon!

 

[Beer can]

ahh gotcha thanks so much for the informative information  I was thinking of running a chicken tractor this spring with a mes  of those chickens to feed up n fill my freezer

They are the cheapest to grow, and are tender and juicy, though some people say they lack in flavor. If you don't mind a tougher smaller breasted bird that takes longer and more food to reach butchering size then go with heritage breeds. I plan on trying Delawares, and Jersey Giants in the spring, and maybe Bresse if I feel like expanding my coop. I will also be trying a bunch of heritage roos cheap bargain chicks to try caponizing on before I try it on the others. Delawares grow fast and were the meat bird before frankenbirds. Jersey Giants are HUGE mini turkeys but take forever before butchering size but I want to try capons with this breed. Bresse are supposed to be the French say "best tasting chicken in the world" there is a breeder near me and I want to try them to see if they live up to the hype. It will cost more $ than store bought or raiseing CornishX, but we all have to have a hobby, and I would like to help preserve the White Jersey Giants and become a breeder of them, white more so than black cause you don't see them available, very few places have them.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
there is a thread here about raising them on fermented feed and allowing them to free range so they are less Franken Chicken like.

For some reason I am not getting emails from BYC.... So I have to investigate this.

deb

 

[vehve]

My dad hunts and usually shoots 1-2 deer a year, I am interested in trying to tan the hides this year if he gets any. Question I have is, everything I see says you should skin them out while the body is still warm if you want to preserve the hide? Is this true? We always gut the deer and let it hang a day or 2, always overnight, before we skin it and chunk it up for processing. The hide keeps the meat clean while it hangs so I wouldn't want to skin it and leave a naked corpse hanging... Any ideas?

I'm going mainly by memory of stuff I've read and I don't have any personal experience, but if I remember correctly, you need to get the skin off as quick as possibly. It should then be preserved with salt, if you intend to have someone else tan it. I don't know if the salting step is necessary if you do it yourself. The brain can be used for the tanning, and if I remember correctly, willow bark is somehow usually incorporated into the process too. To affect the color, you can use coffee or tea or other stuff. I've re-tanned leather with coffee to make it darker. Give's it a little more aged look, but that was already processed leather.