North Carolina

[Banriona]

I have a 6 month old Lavender Orpington roo & a 5 month old freedom ranger roo who both needed to go because they started crowing.
Do you think they are young enough I can still eat them like normal chicken or do you think they'll already be tough and should go in a soup or slow cooker?

You should be fine at that age for "normal" cooking. Here's a great link on exactly that question....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/438262/what-meat-chickens-should-i-raise-whats-the-differences

 

[Matt A NC]

At 6 months old they will need to sit in the fridge and cure for a few days after processing. Then you can cook however you want.

Matt

 

[ramirezframing]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsqx2fwDGrM&noredirect=1

 

[ramirezframing]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx5Dms960BI

 

[Coop Scoop Boogie]

Good morning folks

I had lots of things do yesterday and was out and about
in the rain and I enjoyed it for the most part..........just
didn't like the part where the OMG drivers tried to cause
a wreck and include everyone near them. I swear Crackerjacks
made a fortune on those little boxes of popcorn with the driver
license as a prize.

hope everyone has a good day

 

[Tikkijane]

I'm procrastinating.  I have to go kill cockerels.  I have a beautiful Sumatra mix, and I hate to do it, but he's just got to go.  I had a friend bring me two beautiful Brahma boys to process and another friend bringing me like 8 pure partridge java and mile-fleur Leghorn cockerels to process and I feel just awful about killing such pretty boys, but you can only have just so many roosters before they just have to go.  I need to rewire my garage so I can put a freezer in there.  Though I must say that the pull-out freezer in my arnoir fridge can really pull its weight.  What I really need (and have asked santa for) is a plucker.  My fingers nearly froze off while plucking the Thanksgiving muscovy.  I got his big feathers plucked and then brought him inside and handed him to my husband to do the pin feathers.  My fingers were numb at that point and I get that syndrome where my fingers get all bright red and numb when they get too cold.  Anyway, thank goodness its warm today.  It will be good for processing.  

That's Raynaud's. Go back a few pages ; we were just talking about our tips and tricks to deal with it. :/

 

[rbaker0345]

I feel your pain! We have to process 2 roo's that I REALLY don't want to!
Hope it goes smoothly for you!
Do you ever process yours without plucking? I realize that's not ideal (and if it's for Thanksgiving it needs the skin), but I make DH do all the processing alone and he asks to be allowed to just skin them when I won't help. Works great for chicken when we're going to break it into pieces anyway. He does the killing, peels the skin right off with the feathers, cleans them, then brings me the bird and I break it down into pieces and vacuum seal for freezer camp.
We're (well I use the term "we" lightly!) are processing today too, hope the rain holds out until we're done. We have 3 turkeys and 2 "pet" roosters to do
How was the duck? I've never had it, think we're going to get one in the spring....

We skin unless it's for roasting, too. We quit doing ducks, simply because they were soooooo much more work. "Surplus" roos we'll skin carefully for the hackle feathers for my son who ties fishing flies. Those are soup birds anyway.

Only thing I pluck is the turkeys, all chickens are skinned. Turkeys either go in the oven or get smoked so the skin helps keep them moist.

Thank you for the suggestions, I wasn't thinking. I plan on putting the meat through the grinder because they're free-range and probably tough anyway (not much meat on them). It went way faster.

I actually find my ducks easier to do, but I have muscovies and they don't have the down that non-muscovies have. I pluck all the ducks and I usually pluck the chickens but I think that now that I have a meat grinder, I'm going to be skinning the chickens from now on.

I love my hound dog, she's such a farm dog. She's the only one that will eat the chicken feet straight off the chicken, toenails and everything. Its especially gruesome to hear her crunching on the duck claws.

 

[rbaker0345]

The javas that my friend just dropped off are gorgeous, wish I had a girl for one of them, but they're partridge javas and my java is a mottled java. They're big boys, very meaty, I may end up just putting them in the pressure cooker.

 

[dutchbunny83]

FINALLY!!!!! After nearly 9 months without fresh eggs, Merry Christmas to meeeeeeeee!!!!

It's really dark, I don't know why the flash on my camera is making it look a lighter brown.
I was in the kitchen shucking oysters and I hear one of my girls squawking like crazy and run outside thinking one was about to give me a Christmas present! Sure enough my Marans was squatting down working hard and a minute or so later out rolled this beauty!
Hopefully my Lav Orps start soon!

 

[Coop Scoop Boogie]

FINALLY!!!!! After nearly 9 months without fresh eggs, Merry Christmas to meeeeeeeee!!!!

It's really dark, I don't know why the flash on my camera is making it look a lighter brown.
I was in the kitchen shucking oysters and I hear one of my girls squawking like crazy and run outside thinking one was about to give me a Christmas present! Sure enough my Marans was squatting down working hard and a minute or so later out rolled this beauty!
Hopefully my Lav Orps start soon!