meat bird safe to eat

[aafairchild]

Hi All,

I am currently in my first experiment with meaties. I have CX and broilers. They will all be processed in the next couple of weeks, but this morning I found 1 CX deceased in the pen. It was alive at 6pm yesterday and found at 8am today. Temp here overnight was in the low 40's. Is this bird still safe to eat if I process it? I bagged it and stuck it in the fridge until I know. Even if I can't eat it I might cook it for the critters.

Thanks
Alice

 

[LilyD]

I would definitely cook it up for the animals because dogs and cats are much more able to deal with bacteria in their food. Since the intestines weren't removed I would be hesitant to eat it even with temps in the 40's as they might have tainted the meat. That's just me though.

 

[BCMaraniac]

The meat should still be good. BUT keep in mind that the bird most likely died of heart failure AND it did not bleed out, so there is still blood in all of the tissue, and clotted blood in all of the blood vessels. If I were going to try to use it, I would simply skin it, cut off the breasts, wings, and leg quarters and discard the rest.

I had a bird that I emergently processed because I found it one morning in congestive heart failure. Even with butchering while still alive, it did not bleed well, and the breast meat was blue. I just cut off the meat as I described above, and fed it to my animals.....the gut was full since it had not been starved overnight, and I wasn't going to go there....

If this is your first experience with meat birds, I wouldn't want the mess you will most likely encounter in gutting this bird to taint your opinion about meaties.

Just my opinion and a few things to think about.

 

[aafairchild]

Hi All,

Thanks for the advice. I knew CX were prone to die suddenly and these are about 10 weeks old. In spite of being deceased it did bleed out decently. I skinned it and took the leg quarters and breast meat. The back is cooking for the critters right now. The intestines were still intact and nothing smelled any different than any other bird's innards. I did see minor evidence of fluid in the body cavity but nothing major. I think my weekend project is to process the rest while they are still breathing. The wings I pitched because they were not worth the effort to skin. I feel pretty good about eating what I've got if cooked thoroughly, but will wait a few days before I decide which animal gets the meat.

Alice