My meat chicks arrived Jan 6, 2011

[Lippincott'sHomegrown]

My original plan was to let them feather out in the garage and then put them outside, since Texas usually has a mild winter. We don't have that this year, so they have been in the garage most of the time. We have had a few warm 60-70s days, so they have been outside during the day. I bring them back into the garage with lamps at night.
I keep kicking myself for buying them in January. From now on, I plan to start in late March or early April - using heat lamps adds to their cost too! I really, really don't like having them in the house...it is SO stinky, but I couldn't risk losing all of my meat to a rolling black out. So, as I am learning by trial and error, I have some advice - don't buy chicks in winter...wait until it is going to be warm enough that they won't need a heat lamp after they are feathered out. Oh, to add insult to injury, my white rocks are mostly bald. They have a lot of feathers on their heads, bottoms and wings, but not their actual body...so they have a hard time staying warm...weird little critters.

Hopefully they will add a lot of weight in the next two weeks...then the next big hurdle - harvest day!

 

[Lippincott'sHomegrown]

Quote:
WOW! 9 pounds @ 9 weeks! That is great. I plan to get more meaties when it is warmer...if all goes well with the processing. It is the first time I will do all the steps. I helped my grandma catch, hang/drain & pluck when I was younger...but she did all the REAL dirty work. I am reading and looking at processing pictures (Frugals) often to desensitize myself so that I won't be surprised by things when the day is here. I know, wussy but I am determined to do this from start to finish & then be able to repeat everything. I don't like the idea of killing anything, but I DO like the idea of clean meat. We have two steers for that same reason, but they will be sent to the processor...ain't no way I could take on that big of a job!

 

[Mamaperreca]

I took a class in college called Meats. It was exactly this: killing and processing livestock. No joke.

I have an Animal Science major from an Ag university. The locker did come and kill the steers for us and did the initial butchering. Then they brought the slabs of cow back to the university and we cut and packaged it ourselves. A bonus was we divided the meat between us students and we got to keep it. We did a pig, lamb and steer. No chickens although that would have been nice. Instead my mom came down and showed me the how to on the chickens.

Don't ask me to do it now though. It has been over 10 years.

For us, we don't care for the skin so we just skin them. SOO much faster than plucking. You literally pull the skin off like you are taking a sweater off the bird. Peel it down and the feathers all come with it.

 

[Lippincott'sHomegrown]

5 week update:

Sorry this is late. I am slacking. I only weighed 3 of the cornish rocks and 1 red broiler. We are back to our normal Texas winter weather (60s-70s

), so I put them all outside to enjoy the grass and sunshine. I moved the 4 mystery roos into a chicken tractor with the 1 month old EEers and bantams. The black roos will take a lot longer, so I just put them in with the smaller girls.

I have moved harvest day to March 5 to give them a little more time to grow. The weights are getting there, but their body size is small. I would rather wait a little longer than have to cook 2 at a time to feed the family.

 

[Lippincott'sHomegrown]

Hi. Sorry I haven't updated. Our computer will only stay on for a few minutes at a time. My husband is going to install a new hard drive soon.

Today is going to be the big harvest day. I was going to wait, but I lost one cornish hen yesterday and a couple others can't stand up today. Some are bigger than others, but I don't want to lose anymore when they are so close to the right size, so I've decided to just get it over with. I am not sure the rest could make it even one more week.

I will weigh them before and after and post pictures if I can keep the computer on long enough to upload them. I took away their food around 5 yesterday & I have everything set up and ready to go...wish us luck!

 

[Tiffrz-N-Kidz]

Good luck.

 

[Lippincott'sHomegrown]

Well, we did it! We have 12 cornish rocks resting in the fridge. My father in law did the actual killing - thank goodness!

I couldn't do it face to face after raising them for the last few weeks! We used a big bleach bottle for a cone and used poultry shears for the beheading, because the box cutter plan didn't work effectively. It was a new knife and blade, but didn't do a good clean job...maybe user error. We built a $6 chicken plucker with a drill, PVC and bungie cords. I found the plans on another post (can't remember the name of the man who posted the plans though). It worked well. This was my husband's first processing & he did a good job catching and putting them in the cone, scalding and plucking! I was also in charge of scalding, plucking, windpipe & crop removal, final rinsing and vacuum sealing. I bought a fish cleaning station at Academy so that we would have a sink area with a drain and a hole to drop offal into a big trash can. It was a good height and kept everything within reach. It was well worth the $80 in my opinion, since I plan to do this more than once.

Processing took a while since it was our first run & we had to work up some nerve, but it was a success. Now we're just waiting to ronco rotisserie one of them!

They were a little smaller than I wanted, but they were starting to look pretty bad (a couple couldn't stand) and I didn't want to lose more. I only lost one cornish rock on Sunday. I have 3 red broilers and 4 mystery roos still growing out.

Our finished live weights were: 1.9, 3.8, 4.9, 4.4, 2.4, 4.8, 3.1, 4.5, 3.1, 4.6, 4.7, 4.4

My husband and the set up

Me and my cleaning station

12 finished birds resting in the cooler before vacuum sealing

Here is the biggest alive and vacuum packed - he was 3.4 after processing

 

[ChickyLaura]

Wow, thanks for sharing the experience and the pictures! Now if I can work up to do my first roo on Friday, then I'll be good!

 

[Mamaperreca]

Ok. So I finally got my birds dressed. We did them last weekend. So they were about 10 weeks old. We only ended up with 3 birds out of 7. The dog got 2 and 2 died. SO...it took little time to process them.

Anyway, I don't have a kitchen scale but they were all 5 pounds or so dressed. The biggest may be closer to 6 he was big.

I think it took us much longer because we are in Missouri and it was pretty cold here for most of the time. I think we might do another batch in April, just 6 or so again. Keep it easy. It should go quicker in the warm weather.

 

[Pineywoods Peepers]

Great job!! How long did it take y'all to process your birds?

I love your cleaning station. I've been considering buying this http://www.cornerstone-farm.com/equipment/featured/poly-eviscerating-table for when we process our freedom rangers, but i may make a trip to Academy instead. Does your table fold up?

Where did you get your vacuum sealer? Are you happy with the job it did?

Is that a pampered chef knife?

. What other kinds of knives did you use? Anything you wish you could have had but didn't?