Meat Chicken just died of heat. Can we process it?

[kim in tulsa]

Well, I came home from shopping and found my meat chickens in a bad state...overcome with heat. I sprayed them with the hose and most of them perked right up, but three of them were completely unconscious. Two of them are now revived and sitting in a plastic container in the living room. They can't seem to stand up, but they're holding their heads up. It's their "time" anyway and so my husband is going to go ahead and process them when he gets home from work.

The third one died in my living room and I immediately placed it in a plastic bag and immersed it in ice water. Do you think it would be ok to process and consume this chicken? It will have been dead and iced for about an hour and a half when my husband gets home.

Kim

 

[Lady Marion]

Gee. I almost lost a laying hen from heat stroke today! SC hit 100 today, and I found this poor girl under a couple other stressed hens. I ran the sprinkler on their chicken tractor, and opened the laying box door so the air would flow through. I took the worst hen and poured water on her. She was really weak.

I gave a rooster to someone to eat on another scorcher last month, and it died of heat stroke on the way to his house. He called me to tell me, and I said not to eat it. I might be a little too careful about that, but he didn't lose anything since I didn't charge him anything.

By the way, I have my hen sitting in a box in the house, and will put her in a pen outside all by herself. I hope she will start feeling more like herself. She looks much better right now, but she did get terribly hot, so I hope there was no permanent damage.

 

[skeeter]

i wouldnt eat it to be honest with you,

 

[blue90292]

a guy i know, when his broilers do this, cooks them and then feeds them to his dogs. you won't find him wasting food.

 

[moodusnewchick]

I would go with the above. Cook it well and feed it to dogs, cats...just not chickens. So what did you end up doing?

 

[holliewould]

Why can't you eat a dead chicken that was immediately iced? Do the organs contaminate the meat after a certain amount of time or something? And if so, how much time do you have before this happens?

 

[AK-Bird-brain]

Quote:
The intestines have bacteria in them and so should be removed as soon as possible, the bird should also be bled. Besides that there is always the chance (slim as it may be) it died of something else. So I wouldn't eat it either (and I've eaten some funky stuff).

 

[bearfretworks]

I would think an iced down whole chicken would be FINE to process and eat. Millions of waterfowl and upland game birds are shot, carried around for hours, then processed and eaten with no ill effects. I've seen ducks, geese, and ptarmigan hanging whole outside Native village houses in Alaska. They are considered "perfect" when the body falls off and the head is left hanging.

So, an iced whole chicken? Clean it, cook it, and pass the BBQ sauce, please!

 

[kim in tulsa]

Quote:
We ended up burying it. Right after I posted my question my job called me in to work and my husband just decided to bury it.

He did process the other two...the ones that had been unconscious and I revived. They were kinda out of it and I suspected brain damage. We thought we ought to go ahead and do the deed and not risk them going on and dying.

The other thirteen are doing fine this morning.

Thanks for the advice...good to know for if this happens again!

Kim

 

[greyfields]

If you actually saw it die, it's OK to eat it. I would just avoid the organ meat.

Or make it a treat for your cats. Some dogs cannot tolerate chicken bones and that can cause serious problems.