I thought Barred Rocks were dual purpose. Our first processing and it's a sad chicken. *Update page

[furbabymum]

That's interesting about the bloody flavor. Did you notice much leftover blood while you were cleaning him out?

I like to dunk the bird in a fresh pot of water after plucking and beheading. About five minutes or so gets any lingering blood out, and it's only then that I start worrying about the rest of the process.

There were a few noticeable bruises on the carcass. My best guess is they are from the kick I gave him after the attack. It was the one bloody bite only. But we shall do the water trick in the future!

 

[DenverBird]

Back to the original topic, and as a follow up to Oregon Blues who posted early in the thread and said, "that's what chickens look like" and that they have been bred to such a strange body shape.

If you watch the Christmas film "It's a Wonderful Life" look closely in the scene when George Bailey comes home on his wedding night and his wife has two chickens roasting on the fire. You'll see long bodies with skinny breasts. That's what chickens looked like in 1950, before the advent of the 7-week enormous breasted Cornish Cross.

Enjoy that dark meat!

-DB

 

[ScottnLydia]

Back to the original topic, and as a follow up to Oregon Blues who posted early in the thread and said, "that's what chickens look like" and that they have been bred to such a strange body shape.

If you watch the Christmas film "It's a Wonderful Life" look closely in the scene when George Bailey comes home on his wedding night and his wife has two chickens roasting on the fire. You'll see long bodies with skinny breasts. That's what chickens looked like in 1950, before the advent of the 7-week enormous breasted Cornish Cross.

Enjoy that dark meat!

-DB

That's exactly what I like about them, they taste like the chickens my grandma cooked for me when I was a kid!

Speaking of heritage birds in classic holiday movies, there is a wedge-breasted standard bronze turkey featured in "Going My Way" with Bing Crosby.

 

[davony's chicks]

We raised our first cornish cross this year. We didn't process them ourselves, I wanted to in the beginning but "chickened out" when it came time. Thankfully we live near the Amish so I took them down there for processing. I would really like to help out once to see how it is done before I attempt it myself. I would really like to process my own. I think I let them get to big though. The dressed bird was bigger than anything I have ever seen in the store. They taste great! I had her cut several into halves for smoking and BBQing, some were cut up for frying and she left a few of the breast whole because she thought they were to large I use them in the slow cooker and have baked one.

Any suggestions for getting my courage up to do this on my own??

 

[Gofygure]

We raised our first cornish cross this year. We didn't process them ourselves, I wanted to in the beginning but "chickened out" when it came time. Thankfully we live near the Amish so I took them down there for processing. I would really like to help out once to see how it is done before I attempt it myself. I would really like to process my own. I think I let them get to big though. The dressed bird was bigger than anything I have ever seen in the store. They taste great! I had her cut several into halves for smoking and BBQing, some were cut up for frying and she left a few of the breast whole because she thought they were to large I use them in the slow cooker and have baked one.

Any suggestions for getting my courage up to do this on my own??

Honestly, you just have to buckle down and make the cut. It's like pulling a band-aid; once you make the decision to kill the animal it should be dead or dying within the next five seconds. It's tough- especially with the dual-purpose birds who live long enough to grow a personality. My first homegrown chicken was delicious, but I remember slaughtering him more than I remember eating him. Treat it with the solemnity it deserves, but commit to your decision.

The rest of it's just technical details, really, and not that hard.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Glad to read this thread- we processed our first rooster on Saturday and hubby and I were both SHOCKED at the small size of the bird. So shocked we put plans on hold for the other 3 in line to slaughter. He is still resting in the fridge, FBCM about 5 1/5 months but once he was dressed only weighed about 1 3/4 lb! I swear that big guy weighed 5 or 6 lbs before we started. Guess I should cook him up and eat him then before we decide about the others- thanks for this thread!

 

[AinaWGSD]

I'd be a little shocked too. I've not raised Marans, so I have no real comparison for size, but I would have imagined they'd be bigger than that by 5 1/2 months. At 16 weeks, my Ameraucana and EE cockerels were bigger than that. Even the one I had to do early at 14 weeks (came home and found him dying, still not sure if it was a trample injury or one of the other chickens just beat the tar out of him and he couldn't handle it coupled with the heat wave and the ants that set in once he was bleeding) was almost 2lbs minus the organ meat when processed.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

They have free access all day to feed and free range wherever they like in our yard. So I would assume he has eaten well. And he sure looked big enough!

Someone told us yesterday that a big part of it was the super hot summer we had here in Oklahoma- they just don't grow right when it's that hot. She also said that in her experience with Marans they are slower growing than many breeds and aren't big enough for eating until AT LEAST 6 or 8 months.

They are our first chickens so we just chalk it up to learning experience. Bought 10 chicks June 1 and dog killed all but one hen, plus the occasional loss, so we figured we would at least get some meat out of theextra roosters. Guess not or at least not right now!

Rinda

 

[furbabymum]

We raised our first cornish cross this year. We didn't process them ourselves, I wanted to in the beginning but "chickened out" when it came time. Thankfully we live near the Amish so I took them down there for processing. I would really like to help out once to see how it is done before I attempt it myself. I would really like to process my own. I think I let them get to big though. The dressed bird was bigger than anything I have ever seen in the store. They taste great! I had her cut several into halves for smoking and BBQing, some were cut up for frying and she left a few of the breast whole because she thought they were to large I use them in the slow cooker and have baked one.

Any suggestions for getting my courage up to do this on my own??

Mind over matter. I guess I was helped out by the fact that my son was injured by this rooster so I was happy he was dead. Really it wasn't that bad. Wasn't as much blood as I thought and as soon as they are beheaded and plucked they are very grocery store looking. I guess for me it was just easy to seperate what I was doing from something that had actually lived.

 

[furbabymum]

Glad to read this thread- we processed our first rooster on Saturday and hubby and I were both SHOCKED at the small size of the bird. So shocked we put plans on hold for the other 3 in line to slaughter. He is still resting in the fridge, FBCM about 5 1/5 months but once he was dressed only weighed about 1 3/4 lb! I swear that big guy weighed 5 or 6 lbs before we started. Guess I should cook him up and eat him then before we decide about the others- thanks for this thread!

It's those sneaky feathers. Our roo looked massive before we plucked him. It's amazing how small they get without that fluff!