Organ?

[kesrchicky16]

So I just finished my first slaughter day. 6 cockerels born 17 weeks ago. (Time got away from us). I defiantly don't want to get a job doing it but the mechanics weren'tas bad as I had expected.

1st OMG testicle size!!! The feisty ones were huge! Heart size or BIGGER. The ones that had me questioning gender up until finding the testicles were reasonable.

Now for my question. What is the dark, very fall apart, ?organ?, tucked towards the tail from the ribs, right in by the lumbar nerves? I couldn't see the nerves until I started cleaning out the ?organ? in question but some of it had to be cleaned from behind the nerves with a water spray.

 

[KathryninQuebec]

If I had to guess it may be bruising/pooled blood. Did you find this in every bird? How did you dispatch them? Killing cone? Holding down and removing the head?
In very large meat birds I have also seen globes of white or cream colored fat which my husband, a Quebec butcher, calls "Suif du poule" More like a very good chicken sweet bread but are usually too small to collect to amount to anything.
When you say "dark" what color is that? Do you have any pictures?

 

[kesrchicky16]

If I had to guess it may be bruising/pooled blood. Did you find this in every bird? How did you dispatch them? Killing cone? Holding down and removing the head?
In very large meat birds I have also seen globes of white or cream colored fat which my husband, a Quebec butcher, calls "Suif du poule" More like a very good chicken sweet bread but are usually too small to collect to amount to anything.
When you say "dark" what color is that? Do you have any pictures?

We cut the heads off laying down then hung them by the feet to finish. It was every bird and uniform on both sides. It didn't have the glossy outside like the liver but was that same color and similar texture but it fell apart easier then the liver. Our livers didn't come out whole. Like I said first time processing. I watched my Father-in-law skin and gut my human agressive rooster but all I did with him was wash the cavity until it looked "store-ish". Everything else was done before i touched it that time.

No pictures. I will take some in 3 months when my newer chicks start being pests.

I felt really bad skinning them because they had beautiful fat deposits but they had too many blood feathers and plucking wasn't working. They should have been done 2-3 weeks ago.

 

[bbond]

Lungs?

 

[kesrchicky16]

Lungs?

Nope the lungs were much brighter red and up inside the rib cage.

 

[Mylied]

It's the kidneys. I don't bother removing them since they just mush up. It doesn't hurt anything that I can tell to keep them in.

I read on here an easy way to process if you don't want a whole bird. Skin the underside and just cut off the legs and breast. Leaves everything else in a neat package, so no reason to gut. I toss all the rest, heads and all, to my pigs and they love it. I make dog treats from drying out the feet. The back and wings don't have much meat anyway, so I don't feel like I'm wasting, plus we get it back when it comes time to bring the pigs to the butcher.

 

[kesrchicky16]

It's the kidneys. I don't bother removing them since they just mush up. It doesn't hurt anything that I can tell to keep them in.

I read on here an easy way to process if you don't want a whole bird. Skin the underside and just cut off the legs and breast. Leaves everything else in a neat package, so no reason to gut. I toss all the rest, heads and all, to my pigs and they love it. I make dog treats from drying out the feet. The back and wings don't have much meat anyway, so I don't feel like I'm wasting, plus we get it back when it comes time to bring the pigs to the butcher.

I was suspecting kidneys based on human anatomy.

The original plan was to pluck and had I slaughtered when I was supposed to they wouldn't have had all the blood feathers that I couldn't get out in one piece. Live and learn and do better next time.

On a brighter, still morbid note. Hubby and I figured out it only took me about 20 minutes per bird to go from feathers to cleanout sink. Not bad for a first time.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You are right on testicle size. The ones that mature early have really large testicles, the ones that are late to mature can be as small as a dried bean. It's surprising how much difference there can be in maturity in the same aged chickens.

Yours were probably going through their last juvenile molt when you butchered, that's why there were so many pin feathers. If the cockerels had been white or buff it would not have been so noticeable, those dark red and black feathers really show up. That's why the Cornish X are white, you get a prettier carcass when you pluck them.

I also skin mine, though I usually wait until they are between 5 and 6 months old. The more mature cockerels can have a lot of connective tissue that makes that kind of rough, the ones with those small testicles skin pretty easily. If you think 17 weeks was bad don't let them get much older or have a very sharp knife. I use poultry shears for some cuts to keep the knife sharper longer.

When I butcher I cut mine into serving pieces, so I take a longer time to butcher than a lot of people. It varies a little from bird to bird, younger or less mature birds are quicker, but it usually takes me about 30 minutes from killing one bird to killing the next when working by myself. I don't know what was involved in your 20 minutes but for the first time that is not bad.

I use the back, neck, wings, heart, and gizzard to make broth, much better broth than you will buy in the store. I use the feet too. If I blanch them the toenails twist off and the skin peels pretty easily as long as you don't blanch them too long. I bring a pot of water to a boil and drop the feet in for 15 to 20 seconds then dump the water and feet in the sink to stop the cooking. For cockerels that young I'd go with 15 seconds. That gets them clean enough for me to use for broth and they add a lot of good stuff to broth. I leave the kidneys in when I make broth.

I also butcher pullets and hens, some laying, some not. You can learn quite a bit about how they work inside if you pay attention when butchering.

Congratulations on your success. There is a learning curve figuring out what works for you.