Last night "harvesting" recap - second harvest better than first!

[Hummingbird Hollow]

sounds like alot of work. if i do this, i'm going to plan it for cool weather time.

That would probably be a good idea. I was thinking along the lines of 'how early could I get birds and have it warm enough for them to go out when they are old enough to go out" rather than what the weather would be like when they were at processing age. On the other hand, you don't want to try to have the chicks shipped to you during the heat of July or August and have a bunch of them die due to the heat during shipping either. And yes, it is a lot of work.

 

[El Exorcisto]

I have found that a severing of the head while in the cone is the fastest method. Get a _good_ french knife or a secondhand carver from a butcher. Start with an ear-to-ear slice, then from the back hold the blade against the spine and make a quick snap back, severing the head.

If you want to stick with just slitting the throat, I have found slipping a "Schrade Muskrat" skinning knife in at about the 4 o'clock position (beak at 12, viewed from the top), pushing it all the way through and then pulling forward guarantees you catch one, usually two carotids. If the amount of blood coming out doesn't look like something out of a Tarantino flick, you missed the carotid.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

How quickly these summer weeks are passing. Mom and I planned on processing 6 more of the Freedom Rangers this Saturday, but I decided to do one today so that it would be "rested" in time for Sunday dinner. I mentioned it to Mom when I was out moving the mini-van chicken coop this morning and she asked if we could just go ahead and do 6 today so that she would have Saturday morning free for other activities.

I have to say that this 6 went more smoothly and with less trauma (at least on my part) than the 6 last week, and considerably better than the first. We started these 6 about 1/2 hour later and I think we finished about 1/2 hour earlier, even though we didn't have Jenelle here to help. I did rope my sons in to help with the plucking, each son doing one bird.

I think the most important thing I've learned that has made the process easier is that there is really no gentle way to kill a chicken. I can handle it gently every day of its life, move slowly and quietly to catch it on processing day, hold it and speak to it gently as I carry it to the cone and tip it in as gently as I can to make the moments as un-traumatic as possible. I can even be gentle as I take its head and open its beak, but when it is time to stab the knife through the top of the mouth and into its brain, there is no such thing as gentle. In fact, if I try to be gentle, I'm probably adding to its pain, not the other way around. Same with the slitting of the throat, going fast, going hard, going deep is kinder than anything else.

I can't say I will ever stop feeling badly about this part of the process, but today was better because I was more deciscive. After we had the 6 birds in the cooler, the stock simmering on the stove, the fat rendering down for the dog (my Anatolian Shepherd puppy needs additional fat added to his diet) and the livers ready for a second batch of pate (last week's batch was AWESOME) I sat down and made myself a sandwich from the last bit of the little pullet we processes and smoked last weekend. The sandwich was delicious and I decided to toss the carcass in with the simmering broth to give it a bit of a smoky flavor. I'm feeling pretty satisfied with the day's work.

I noticed that this week's chickens were carrying more fat than last week's chickens, even though last week I picked the largest to go first. I'll compare weights when I haul them out of the ice-water bath and weigh them.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

For the record, the chickens I processed this week weighed an average of 5oz (fully dressed, necks giblets, excess fat removed) than the ones I processed last week. Doing the math with the assumption that all of the chickens I was feeding last week put on that 5oz/bird average (not just the 6 I slaughtered), and seeing how they ate their way through a full bag of broiler finisher at about $20/bag, the increased meat cost me about $2.99/lb. When I did the calculations last week on how much it had cost to bring the birds to where they were then, I think I was around $2.50/lb (cost of chicks, shipping and feed only, no calculation on housing etc.) so it looks like 9 weeks may be a better processing time for maximum gain for the dollar. I'll see how this plays out next week when process more.

 

[bama gal]

You are exactly right. Glad things went smoother for you this time. Be interested in seeing how the food/weight plays out next week. I'm looking to use fermented feed with my next batch. Supposed to be cheaper and better tasting birds.....we'll see.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

You are exactly right. Glad things went smoother for you this time. Be interested in seeing how the food/weight plays out next week. I'm looking to use fermented feed with my next batch. Supposed to be cheaper and better tasting birds.....we'll see.

We processed 9 more of the Freedom Rangers today. I realized when I started doing the math today that my logic last week wasn't very good. I used the difference in the average harvested weight between the two weeks, applied to the entire flock and then applied what I'd spent in feed that week to calculate the cost/pound of additional meat.

If I did that again this week, I'd see that the average weight of both the roosters and pullets had increased again, but not by quite as much. However, what I didn't consider in these calculations is that each week I picked the largest (based just on looking at them) roosters and pullets to process. So, the ones I did later were smaller and probably grew considerably more during the week than the average process weights would suggest.

To be more accurate, I should have weighed ALL of the chickens each week, not just the ones I processed and calculated a good live weight to butchered weight ratio. Then I would have a better idea on how much weight the birds actually gained each week.

All I really can say with accuracy is that I picked what looked like the biggest birds to process the first week. Then, on the second week I picked what looked like the biggest birds again and on average, they were bigger than the ones from the week before. The third week I also picked the biggest...except I'm keeping one of the really lovely roosters who is quite a large specimine...and the ones I did today were heavier than the ones I did last week. Not very scientific I'm afraid.

By the way, the processing went even smoother the third time around. Mom and I did 9 in about the same time it took us to do 6 the week before.

 

[sonew123]

Congrats for getting it done the first time! It's hard, but it's a lot to learn. Many folks have gone generations without learning how to make meat from an animal.

It's OK to feel sadness too at the worry of a less than perfect job of a killing. I am a deer hunter, and believe you me, on the rare occasion I make a poor shot on a deer and know it's suffering, you don't want to be near me. I'm moody, upset, bitter, angry, and sad - for days and weeks. My poor husband knows better than to even come near me or talk to me. The main thing though is that I go right back out. If I just made a bad shot, I get out and do some practice shooting. If circumstances just misaligned - a branch in the way, the deer moved right when I was shooting, whatever, I analyze what happened and fix what I can to prevent it. You've done that already - reviewed that the first cut wasn't deep enough. You learned that it's a good idea to get the scald water up to temp before starting anything.You learned a lot, and you did get the job done!

I'm not sure if you've seen it, but I have a link in my signature that goes through how I process chickens. I do all of the cutting work from killing to final cuts with a scalpel (ordered from Havels). It might have some additional tips for the next round for you - I know you can do it!

Booker what a beautiful pictorial! I havent done meat birds again because I have no one to help like I did last time with 25. I bookmarked your blog because its fantastic...I know how to do it all but Im going to make sure Your blog is my back up! Thank you....

 

[dennarahl]

That would probably be a good idea.  I was thinking along the lines of 'how early could I get birds and have it warm enough for them to go out when they are old enough to go out" rather than what the weather would be like when they were at processing age.  On the other hand, you don't want to try to have the chicks shipped to you during the heat of July or August and have a bunch of them die due to the heat during shipping either.  And yes, it is a lot of work.

Our first meat birds were packing peanuts that were shipped Jan 25th, and harvested sometime in June. Since they weren't broiler types it took forever to grow them, but the timing was good. It wasn't too cold to ship (this year anyway), and it wasn't to hot to harvest. We just got our order of broilers last Friday and I was worried about the heat in shipping. When they arrived only 1 had died. Another was a runt and looking mighty unhappy, but water and food pulled her out of it. So far they're doing great, and I'm looking forward to the cooler fall to process.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Made 4 lbs of chicken sausage links and 1 lb of chicken sausage breakfast patties Monday with two of the chickens processed on Friday. I haven't cooked or eaten any of them yet, but felt such a sense of accomplishment in making a healthy, homegrown product for my family.

Will say however, that natural sausage casings are as weird a thing to handle as anything you do during butchering!

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Final six Freedom Rangers were processed yesterday. Well, I guess 9 of the final 6 because I've decided to keep one rooster and two pullets and conduct my own little "Freedom Rangers...The Next Generation" experiment and boldly go where probably someone has gone before and would possibly talk me out of.

I decided to do my big remaining rooster first of the day because he was so big and handsome that I was afraid that if I left him for last, when I was getting tired of the whole thing I might end up keeping yet another bird that I really shouldn't keep. His finished weight, plucked cleaned and everything was 6 lb, 6.2 oz.