Illinois...

[dsboyce]

Hello everyone!

I'm in west central Illinois. My wife is also a member of the forum. We currently have 100 meat chicks and 7 egg chicks, with 5 more layers on the way.

 

[misbhaven]

Welcome ! I also am raising some meaties but not as many and they have reached weight. so next weekend freezer camp

 

[ChickenFootFarm]

Oh how funny, ours are going this weekend as well! First time butchering ourselves.

 

[ChickenFootFarm]

Putnam county here. I have started breeding Bourbon Red turkeys this year. I have some in the bator as we speak. If anyone is interested in poults let me know!

 

[Colin fly tier]

How was everyones easter? Colin the fly tier

 

[dsboyce]

Oh how funny, ours are going this weekend as well! First time butchering ourselves.

How did the first time butchering go? That's the one aspect of this whole thing that has me a bit nervous.

 

[misbhaven]

We weighed ours and 3 were 8lbs plus so the others got a furlow for a week.. spend all that time raising might as well make sure it is worthwhile. To weigh we put them in a feed bag and used a fish scale..it wasn't bad hubby went old school axe and log, put them in rubber maid tubs then hung them by their feet for a few.. we have a turkey fryer so used it to heat water,and we made a plucker out of the pvc cap and fingers..we did ours entirely outside.

 

[ChickenFootFarm]

I don't mean to be a butt-in-ski here but, I don't suppose you have any pictures of your chicken plucker do you? If not that's fine, just trying to get ideas to make my own.

 

[misbhaven]

I don't mean to be a butt-in-ski here but, I don't suppose you have any pictures of your chicken plucker do you? If not that's fine, just trying to get ideas to make my own.

no, but lookup pvc chicken plucker on youtube, basically you need a drill, a rod, pvc cap we used 4inch, and either rubber tarp straps/bungee cords or the plucker fingers (what i used) bought 50 on ebay for $16..if you use the bungee cords you use the real short one you can get them anywhere cut in half you then have two fingers, so you need about 5 or 6.. you make holes in rows of 2 around the cap so you can slide the cut end out..we help the drill down to a make shift taple with a couple of screws through a plastic milk jug cut apart so feather etc wouldn't get in the motor, and used a zip tie around the trigger to keep it on at about medium speed, just plug or unplug for on and off..we have many fingers left over to make one costs a about $25 or less...works pretty good

 

[ChickenFootFarm]

Hey, thanks! I will look it up!