Not as bad as I thought

[kesrchicky16]

So my DH had shot and threw away 2 chickens for egg eating and I felt guilty for wasting perfectly healthy meat. I had some suspicions about a "I can no longer keep chickebs" bird I was given and finally caught her yellow beaked.
So I summmoned my courage and DH and I culled and plucked them this morning. (Great grandma make chicken noodle soup and was happy to gut for us.) We had another older bird that had been struggling with molt for week s longer then everyone else so 2 bird went.

I will admit I wasn't quite prepared for how much her legs struggled to get free of my grasp after her head was separated but the scalding and plucking wasn't as bad as I was prepared for it to be.

Thanks for listening.

 

[Parront]

The hardest thing is the first one. Then you realize you can do it, the next one is better. Now, the next time you will not hesitate and loose more eggs to the egg eater! Older birds go great in the pressure cooker.

 

[kesrchicky16]

This one never joined the flock. I saw a yolk stain in her quarantine crate so she got to be live bait in my fox trap.

I had to stop plucking after rigger really set in but I was just fighting broken feathers on the old rough looking one anyway. The pretty egg eater plucked really easily. DH did say he will work as much overtime as necessary to buy a plucker though for when we process "homemade" chicks next summer/fall.

DH is having a harder time then me. It brought up a lot of memories from helping his family when he was little.

 

[Parront]

This one never joined the flock. I saw a yolk stain in her quarantine crate so she got to be live bait in my fox trap.

I had to stop plucking after rigger really set in but I was just fighting broken feathers on the old rough looking one anyway. The pretty egg eater plucked really easily. DH did say he will work as much overtime as necessary to buy a plucker though for when we process "homemade" chicks next summer/fall.

DH is having a harder time then me. It brought up a lot of memories from helping his family when he was little.

For an old one destined to the soup pot, skinning is a good option. Plucking gets faster, but I also lust after those automatic pluckers. If I were raising a lot of meat birds again, I would have to pony up. That was not an option when I had chickens years ago!

 

[kesrchicky16]

Just talked to Grandma. She was very pleased with the plucking job I did! She's used to the "men" handing her what they thought was good and saying "finish that". Lol

I can do this.

 

[Parront]

Just talked to Grandma. She was very pleased with the plucking job I did! She's used to the "men" handing her what they thought was good and saying "finish that". Lol

I can do this.

Be good to Grandma, she will teach you all of the tricks people on here are always asking for!

 

[kesrchicky16]

Biologically Grandma belongs to DH but I claim her completely. She is an amazing lady!

 

[kesrchicky16]

I got to sneek a peek at the soup/broth. There is seriously a film 1/4 inch thick of liquid fat in each pan (1 bird each in a 12qt pot). She reports it looked like they had butter completely covering them beneath the skin. It depends on perspective who got the better end of this deal.

I didn't have to gut them and do get to enjoy her delicious soup cooked by expert hands. She didn't have to kill or pluck them. We both think we won!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah, put Grandma to work and pay attention to what she does. Sounds like you have a winner there.

You'll find that hens usually have a lot more fat then roosters and cockerels. There is a reason for that, the excess fat is mostly what they live on when they go broody so they don't have to spend much time off of the nest eating. Even in hens that don't go broody they tend to pack on a lot of fat. Sometimes their is so much in their abdomen I'm amazed they can get an egg through to lay it.

For different reasons I skin mine instead of pluck. It takes more strength than plucking and there are a few tricks to it. I cut the feet off first thing, that makes the legs a lot easier though they can still be rough. The wings especially take some strength, they may not be worth it for you. The older the bird the more strength it takes. If you pluck when they are molting you will see a lot of pin feathers and probably pockets of goo where the new feathers are growing. That won't hurt you but it can look disgusting.

No matter how you go about it there is a learning curve. It will get easier and you will get faster. If you or your husband ever enjoy the killing part I'd worry about you, but you have learned that you can do it. I think you deserve a thumbs up for the whole thing!

 

[Krazyquilts]

For an old one destined to the soup pot, skinning is a good option.

I wish I'd thought of that when we butchered a mature adult rooster a few weeks ago. (He'd been making some Bad Life Choices, culminating with full-on attacking me just two days before our next butchering day.) Skinning him would have been significantly faster than plucking the tough bird and wouldn't have a difference cooking-wise since I plan on using the slow cooker.