Need Advice. Processed Cornish x

[bigcountry82]

This is the second time this year that we have had chickens processed and this is the first year we have ever raised meat chickens. So the first experience was horrible we went to a local family that advertised poultry processing. The birds came back covered in grass and dirty inside and out the skin was mutilated and even received two whole chickens that were skinless . The. Birds were 9 weeks and averaged 5.5 lbs processed. Wich brings us to the second time we went to a professional place an hour and a half away dropped the birds off on Tuesday picked up thursday. They were 11 weeks old and visually almost double the size of the first chickens. What we picked up average 3.3 lbs and have red skin do these look like Cornish x to you guys and gals?

 

[bigcountry82]

Waiting to hear back from processors. My wife picked the birds up and i assumed she counted them. Nope we actually received two more birds than we dropped off.so now I guess I have to hope the other people complain about getting 8 lb birds back rather than 3 lb

 

[bigcountry82]

OK so now it is confirmed a mistake was made and the person with our chickens live 90 miles from us just have to wait and see if they want to give our 8 pounders back for their 3 pounders.

 

[cassie]

You would be a lot better off if you learned to process them yourself. It really isn't that hard but that is just my opinion. I learned how because I had to and I only had 25 chickens. I did not try to do the whole batch at once. I processed two or three a day until I got them all done. I looked in the archives on BYC and printed out a step by step guide on how to do it. The key is to not think about it. I just read one step. did it, and went on to the next step. Before long I had a naked clean chicken in the fridge. The next one was easier. If you get a good proper scald the feathers come right off. Did you ever get your own chickens back? At the very least you should get your processing fee back.

 

[bigcountry82]

We plan on doing our own at some point but right now I just do not have the time. And No I have not got our chickens back. We took 21 Cornish cross in and the other person took 22 heritage chickens in. Being that i received 22 chickens back it seems fairly simple as to what happened. But the other person says he is sure that he received his chickens. So now i am waiting to hear what that are going to do to resolve the issue. It really comes down to a weight issue we were expecting somewhere between 120 and 150 pounds of chicken back and received 65.6. Not to mention the taste difference as well. At least from what i read there is a big difference in taste.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

That's a shame. I doubt the other party will ever bring back the chickens they picked up. Hopefully the processor gives you a rebate for the mistake but in reality they don't have to. By taking the birds home you in essence checked and accepted the merchandise.

Besides the size difference there won't be much difference in taste. The tenderness of CornishX is due to the young age. Those 3lbs standard bred birds were not old either. Probably 12 weeks and certainly under 14 weeks so still grill worthy.

 

[MichaelZ13]

Wow, I would be pretty upset if this happened! Too bad that the other party has taken the low road on this. It is really the responsibility of the processor to get this right - even if they say that you accepted the birds, you can still bug them, tell them about the action you will take with your state attorney general, etc. When you get them sweating a little, they might come through. If you ask me, they should offer to give you the 3 pound birds at no charge unless they can somehow obtain free range 8# CX chickens to replace yours.

I only raise 12 birds. I then butcher 4 at a time - it is about as much time for each batch as cleaning a small mess of fish. I behead, pluck, gut, and wash them down and then my wife finishes cleaning inside at our sink. When you get to around 25 or even 20 at a time, it does take quite a chunk of time and keeping the water hot for plucking is quite a task. For my 4 birds, I just heat up a large canning pot on the stove.

 

[bigcountry82]

I want to be clear although skeptical at first as soon as the processor realized what happened they have been very apologetic and have assured me they would make it right however I do not know exactly how that can be done. Even with free processing I still am short at least 60 lbs of chicken. And the 65 I have came from somewhere I know nothing about I do not know how they were raised what they were fed a day most importantly the health of the birds.

 

[aart]

I want to be clear although skeptical at first as soon as the processor realized what happened they have been very apologetic and have assured me they would make it right however I do not know exactly how that can be done. Even with free processing I still am short at least 60 lbs of chicken. And the 65 I have came from somewhere I know nothing about I do not know how they were raised what they were fed a day most importantly the health of the birds.

Agrees, nothing will 'make it right'.
Only thing to gain from this hard lesson is you now know of 2 places that you do NOT want to use to have your chickens processed.

 

[rick54]

After going through a similar episode two years ago, I told the wife that we'd never transport our meat birds to someone to be cleaned again. I vowed we'd have our own equipment and the capability to do the job ourselves.

This year with the new plucker added into the assembly line, we were able to take our 15 Cornish X Rock birds from dispatch to cooling on ice in 2 hours. At nine wks. old they dressed out at 6 1/4 lbs. with two going under and one at 7 1/4.

We then canned them the next day ending up with 25 qts. of chicken and putting up 4 qts. of broth.

We currently have 30 Freedom Rangers entering their 5th wk. and 16 Pekin ducks entering their 6th wk. I can't say enough for doing the processing yourself!