I ordered 200 chicks- It's Promiselandfarm & Perfectly_polish's fault

[perfectly_polish]

Quote:
Ummm....250...

is all I can say........

You sure you don't wanna order some too and join the madness?

 

[Katy]

Thanks, but no thanks. I swore when I was a kid I'd never pluck another chicken and I haven't!! I hated butchering day....still can smell that nasty hot wet feather smell. I'll just let you guys go ahead and have all the fun!!

 

[perfectly_polish]

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Oh you don't have to pluck, PC built pluckers remember

 

[poultryand bees]

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Have you ever tried processing the chickens by just skinning them? My 86 year old neighbor, who obviously grew up plucking chickens by hand, decided a few years ago that since she didn't want the skin anyway - because of the fat content - she would just kill the chicken as usual and then slide her knife up under the skin right in front of the vent and slice the skin to the neck. We then pull the skin and feathers off at the same time. You don't have any skin to make it nice and pretty if you fry it, but you don't have any feathers to mess with either. We can process the meat chickens very quickly that way. If you are going to bake or stew the chicken or are trying to avoid fat - this works well.

I saw the ad for 200 chickens also and had to speak very sternly to myself to refrain from ordering..... after all, I do enjoy a "good buy."

 

[tattooedchickenlady]

I had a friend tell me about the skinning method, I think we may try both options! Call me crazy, but I dearly love chicken skin!

My Dh is already planning a new run! Yay!!!!

PP you are a rabble-rouser!

 

[PurpleChicken]

Every time I pop in here there are more posts than I can respond to.

Katy, yes we are nuts but you already knew that.

TatooedChickenLady, The Comets are not as productive as Cornish or the
Red Bros in PP's pictures (check jmhatchery.com). We always cull our Leghorn
roos from all the eggs we hatch and we are happy with them as soup birds.
I don't expect the comets to be huge but I'm hoping with a good broiler feed
(high protein around 25%) they will be small, yet plump chickens.

 

[sara]

Holy moly! 250 chicks! My neighbor dropped off 16 little meaties for me yesterday and I'm thinking this is going to be a lot of work to process when they are grown, I can't imagine 200+

 

[SandraMort]

I just called the cornell extension to get info about 4H and without prompting, the woman on the phone was telling me how fabulous her experiences w/ comets were. She said they were excellent for meat.

 

[SandraMort]

realistically, in Upstate NY (12477), how late in the season can I start a batch of meat birds? I'm processing half my birds before halloween and the other half early december, If I end up, hypothetically, with a stall and fenced in area to let tem play outside, could I start another batch when I process the last of them? Could I let them hang with the layers & use flockraiser?

 

[tattooedchickenlady]

Thanks PC!
I think we'll still do it, my DH was against it at first, but it seems like it'll be a good experience and we'll have something (no matter the size) to put up for the coming year.
We got the chickens with the idea that we would have eggs to eat and sell and birds to eat, so it'll test our ability to actually do it.
I'm excited, and a little scared, but I think we can do it.

How much food do you think those guys will eat in the 3-4 months until we harvest them?