My own Meaties Experiment

[Deerfield Acres]

Kizanne -- thanks so much for documenting your meatie project. I'm learning so much here. I'm off to explore the mealworm project!

 

[kizanne]

Quote:
Yeah I probably won't weigh them near as much next time, but my first time I want to see how each step is going and what I can learn from it.


Speaking of learning......

I was much too optimistic about being outside. I lost two today.

One I'm sure escaped my pallet fence, there were three pallets I suspected that the wood was spaced too far apart. Unfortunately it was confirmed today. One wiggled out and promptly got killed by the dog.

I am missing one other and not sure it was the same thing or air born predator. I put up some chicken fence on those pallets and strung some string across the top. It was the best I could do in the 45 minutes before dark. We had company over yesterday and didn't get everything done I wanted but I was ready for them to be out of their small brooder.

I don't know if I'll let them out of the coop tomorrow or not. Probably will and see how it goes. I hate the losses but it is part of learning. I'm not worried about ground predators because the same dog that got the escapee will get anything that might try to get the birds. I also ran a light tonight to their coop. They seemed alittle cold this morning even though it was above 50 degrees here. Later this week it is supposed to hit 27 degrees and I don't want to lose any to suffucation.

Tomorrow starts the 3rd bag of feed. We've used about 1 large square of shavings. I'm anticipating 2 for the project.

 

[kizanne]

Ok so I thought I should update my thread.

DH and I killed 2 of the largest birds (by eye) today. It was easier and harder than I thought it would be.

Yesterday was exactly 8 weeks in my possession, The largest was a live weight of 8 lbs 2 oz and the second was 8 lbs even. Very pleased with those weights at 8 weeks considering I did organic feed with protein 19%. Not all birds are that big yet but I'm not killing all at once so.... that is ok.

We skinned and didn't save the neck (wanted to but fist time and all) but did save the liver, heart, gizzard. Getting set up and 'ready' took longer than the cleaning. I timed the second one and it took 35 minutes from coop to fridgerator.

Items used for killing:
We simply used a chair, a towel, a black tray (to catch blood), a plastic table, a trash bag, 2 sharp knives, a roll of paper towels, a large shallow bowl, 3 smaller trash bags, 2 gallon ziploc baggies and the hose. Items I didn't use cooler, kinda.

After we got one skinned and hosed off it was cool so I slipped it into a small trash bag and placed it in the fridge. I did use the cooler to put the liver, gizzards, heart in a ziploc bag and kept it out for adding more to the bag. I also put the feet in a ziploc bag and kept it in the cooler to add the others to.


Things that didn't go the way I would have liked. My meaties while retaining some chicken behaviors didn't use a standard coop ramp. I had an outside area for them to range in but the 12 chickens (not all of them) who would come down the ramp did not then later go up the ramp. So when I let them out of the coop I had to put them up. They didn't go up the ramp to eat, drink or sleep. I lost a few late in the game but they never had put on weight like the others I suspect they had something wrong with them genetically. They really do poop alot and I had to clean out the coop before they were done. I like the deep litter method and thought if they had outside time and area it would be less but they didn't get as much outside time as I would have liked. I would have liked them to have more greens/grass and bugs but the whole inside outside thing just didn't work well.

Somehow in the skinning and gutting I lost more than 35% of the weight. I lost more like 50%.

If I do it again the place they sleep at night will have to be closer to the ground. I like the idea of a tractor but my coop/range was very cheap to build because I just cut a hole in an existing shed for the coop and used free pallets to make a fence for the range the most expensive part of their range was the very large zip ties I used to tie them together. I used mealworms to boost their protein the first few weeks. They loved it but next time I'll use tilapia as I will soon have a supply of small fry hopefully. I won't keep them on the extra fish beyond 3 weeks so hopefully the taste won't be affected.

 

[zzGypsy]

very cool, do keep us updated... I'm following along as I'll be doing meaties for the first time this year.

 

[kizanne]

Ok Sunday we slaughtered 3 more. Those three were (2) 7 lbs 8 oz and 8 pounds. The dressed weight without the gibblets and neck was about 4 1/2 pounds. So far the weights are good and all the birds processed have been healthy looking.

I tried to make a broth with 3 1/2 necks, 10 peeled feet and some veggies. It tasted too much like warm water so when I cooked dinner (my first chicken dinner from my meaties) I took the center of the carcass and put it in the crockpot and cooked for another 4 hours on high. Still tastes alot like water.

The dinner was yummy. I could tell a difference in all the meat. I was pleased with the results. Most importantly my daughter ate some even knowing it was one of our chickens (she was asleep during slaughter so it took her a little while to figure out we were missing some birds). She's 13 right at the yuck I'm going to be come a vegetarian age. But not so far!!!

Still don't know if we'll try this experiment again but I think in the fall we will. I think I might save out the prettiest, large girl who is nicely feathered and walks well to cross with my black maran rooster and see how long that takes to grow out. But maybe not, I'll know more in 4 weeks when I've processed all the other meaties and it has yet to be seen if the rooster will live to be old enough to mate

 

[zzGypsy]

so in what way would you describe the meat? different from store-bought? how?
inquiring minds want to know!

 

[kizanne]

Well the breast was a different texture and flavor. I don't know if this will make sense. It didn't taste as white. It was more like chicken. I enjoyed it but if you are looking for the squishey, white meat it would not please you. It was also firmer but not tough or stringy. I enjoyed it. I can't say I'm going to wax poetical about never eating regular chicken again. White meat is fine but the cornish I raised did taste better. Tomorrow I'm going to try crockpot one tomorrow.

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

Was it noticeably different from DP birds? I imagine home-raised Cornish X would be between supermarket and DP for flavor and firmness.

 

[kizanne]

I have never had a DP bird so I can't make a comparison. sorry.

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

Using all the bones left over from roasting a chicken will really add flavor to your broth. I like to stuff the carcass with rosemary, sage, thyme, and a few bay leaves before I roast it to eat. After the meal is over, everything goes into the crockpot for at least twelve hours. The birds we processed made the best chicken stock because they had a stronger flavor of their own. My usual stock recipe is:
1-2 carrots, coarsely chopped
1/2 onion, coarsely chopped
2 celery branches or one celeriac root, coarsely chopped
10-12 whole peppercorns
chicken carcass + the herbs from inside it
Liquid-wise, I'm not sure exactly how many cups of water I add. I make sure everything is covered and then cook, cook, cook. It will be very dark when done and freezing it in an ice cube tray makes it easy to add when you're cooking.