- Thread starter
- #11
Oh may gosh Leighwb, I am so sorry to hear what happened to you and your flock. I can imagine what you are going through, both having lost a single chicken to a bobcat (I saw it happen and chased the bobcat away) and having checked on my 35 young Freedom Rangers one morning last summer and found pieces of three of them scattered over the hillside and a fourth dead in the tractor, the casualties of some sort of predator who had broken in through the window. Not to mention the chicken who prompted the start of thes discussion thread.
In the case of the pullet who was killed by a bobcat, I did butcher her, brine her and then put her in the smoker and we all had a nice smoked chicken salad. The difference is in your case is the fact that they had been dead for awhile before you found them. Logic would suggest that our ancestors set traps and snares along game trails and then came back the next day to see if they had caught anything. Once chickens have been butchered, they are left to "rest" in the refridgerator for a few days so since your chickens were frozen, there shouldn't have been any spoilage or bacteria growth. I think the best question would be whether there had been any internal damage that might have leaked the contents of the intestines or other organs into the body cavity and contaminated the meat.
Have you butchered chickens before? Do you know what the contents of the body cavity are supposed to look and smell like?
So, with the quallification that I am not a doctor, or FDA inspector or an expert on chicken born pathogens, I can tell you that at a minimum, I would probably defrost one of your chickens and butcher it. If you've never butchered a chicken before, you'd at least learn what it was like without the added stress of actually having to kill it yourself. I'd pay close attention to every part of the process and see if, beyond injury to the neck, there was any damage to the body. Was there even enough meat on the carcass to make the effort worthwhile (I don't know what type of chickens you were raising so it may not be worth your while even if they are "safe"). After it had gone throught the ice bath and "rested" for a few days, I'd give it a thorough examination and decide whether I wanted to proceed further. Frankly, bacteria can't survive a thorough cooking, so check the internet or "Joy of Cooking" and determine the safe cooking temperature of chicken and go past it. So, that's what I'd probably do...but seeing how I was the one who asked the initial question, and since I, like you, hate the idea of just tossing them in the trash or on the compost pile, I might not be the best source.
Here's another idea if that sounds too risky to you, or too much work. Contact your local zoo or wildlife center (near me is the Colorado Wolf Center where they take abandoned wolf and wolf hybrids) and ask them if they'd like 35 whole but frozen chickens. I do not doubt that they would happily feed them to their wolves or bobcats or alligators and while you would not receive anything from it (except perhaps a tax deduction) at least you would know that they were not completely wasted.
My poor chicken is still brining in the refridgerator. Over the past 48 hours I have come to the compramise that I am going to cook her and feed the meat to my dogs. Since I don't really know why she was dying and don't know what other risks that might add, I don't know if I could place it on my dining table. However, I figure that wolves and wild dogs hunt the weak and the sick and their digestive tracts are designed to deal with it. They can eat carion and cat poo and other stuff that would give us all sorts of problems and will probably consider free-ranging, organic chicken a special treat. It still bums me out big time and feels like a terrible waste.
Let me know how things go OK?
In the case of the pullet who was killed by a bobcat, I did butcher her, brine her and then put her in the smoker and we all had a nice smoked chicken salad. The difference is in your case is the fact that they had been dead for awhile before you found them. Logic would suggest that our ancestors set traps and snares along game trails and then came back the next day to see if they had caught anything. Once chickens have been butchered, they are left to "rest" in the refridgerator for a few days so since your chickens were frozen, there shouldn't have been any spoilage or bacteria growth. I think the best question would be whether there had been any internal damage that might have leaked the contents of the intestines or other organs into the body cavity and contaminated the meat.
Have you butchered chickens before? Do you know what the contents of the body cavity are supposed to look and smell like?
So, with the quallification that I am not a doctor, or FDA inspector or an expert on chicken born pathogens, I can tell you that at a minimum, I would probably defrost one of your chickens and butcher it. If you've never butchered a chicken before, you'd at least learn what it was like without the added stress of actually having to kill it yourself. I'd pay close attention to every part of the process and see if, beyond injury to the neck, there was any damage to the body. Was there even enough meat on the carcass to make the effort worthwhile (I don't know what type of chickens you were raising so it may not be worth your while even if they are "safe"). After it had gone throught the ice bath and "rested" for a few days, I'd give it a thorough examination and decide whether I wanted to proceed further. Frankly, bacteria can't survive a thorough cooking, so check the internet or "Joy of Cooking" and determine the safe cooking temperature of chicken and go past it. So, that's what I'd probably do...but seeing how I was the one who asked the initial question, and since I, like you, hate the idea of just tossing them in the trash or on the compost pile, I might not be the best source.
Here's another idea if that sounds too risky to you, or too much work. Contact your local zoo or wildlife center (near me is the Colorado Wolf Center where they take abandoned wolf and wolf hybrids) and ask them if they'd like 35 whole but frozen chickens. I do not doubt that they would happily feed them to their wolves or bobcats or alligators and while you would not receive anything from it (except perhaps a tax deduction) at least you would know that they were not completely wasted.
My poor chicken is still brining in the refridgerator. Over the past 48 hours I have come to the compramise that I am going to cook her and feed the meat to my dogs. Since I don't really know why she was dying and don't know what other risks that might add, I don't know if I could place it on my dining table. However, I figure that wolves and wild dogs hunt the weak and the sick and their digestive tracts are designed to deal with it. They can eat carion and cat poo and other stuff that would give us all sorts of problems and will probably consider free-ranging, organic chicken a special treat. It still bums me out big time and feels like a terrible waste.
Let me know how things go OK?
