Our babies made it

[daviechik]

great idea! I do have another scale at my house we will use this is the one i had at my office...

 

[daviechik]

So, we decided on a whim to do one tonight... more so to see if i could get through it (and ive read to do ONE before trying to do them all in one hit) my mom and I are in this together but I wasnt sure if I was going to be able to go through with it so I thought it would be better to struggle through one by myself in case I couldnt get through it than to do it with my mom, chicken out (pun intended) not be able to do it and disappoint my mom in the process.

It wasnt nearly as bad as I feared it was going to be, my hub' did the killing part (i was no where near by, i just am not there yet) and once he stopped flapping around we went through the motions, as ive read a billion times step by step did the job. Im glad the first one is done, we chose one of the smaller ones in case I did mess up somewhere along the way. It dressed out to 3lbs which is small but im not too disappointed considering how small it was before processing. Were likely going to go another two weeks before doing more of them just to get more size on them.

 

[Mingming]

So, we decided on a whim to do one tonight... more so to see if i could get through it (and ive read to do ONE before trying to do them all in one hit) my mom and I are in this together but I wasnt sure if I was going to be able to go through with it so I thought it would be better to struggle through one by myself in case I couldnt get through it than to do it with my mom, chicken out (pun intended) not be able to do it and disappoint my mom in the process.

It wasnt nearly as bad as I feared it was going to be, my hub' did the killing part (i was no where near by, i just am not there yet) and once he stopped flapping around we went through the motions, as ive read a billion times step by step did the job. Im glad the first one is done, we chose one of the smaller ones in case I did mess up somewhere along the way. It dressed out to 3lbs which is small but im not too disappointed considering how small it was before processing. Were likely going to go another two weeks before doing more of them just to get more size on them.

Yeah you!!! That looks awesome!!

 

[ZooSD]

Congrats! The first one is the most difficult. Did you eat it yet? My husband and kids were converts the first time they tasted one of ours.
.

 

[daviechik]

we did, it was delicious lol

 

[ZooSD]

How long are you going to wait on the others? Unfortunately I've had several incidents in the past 3 weeks that have delayed my processing. I have 4 left from my first batch of 15 and they're so big I'll have to enlarge the cone again.

 

[AvianEgo]

Wow you did a great job on the cleaning! Enjoy the sweetness of your labor

 

[daviechik]

Were going to do four tonight.... This weekend were going to try and do the rest of them. We dont want to wait too long, its getting increasingly hotter everyday.

Is there a time frame from when they are killed to getting them in scalding water that would ruin the meat? I can only clean so fast (im the one cleaning, hubby is killing) and worried about their meat going "bad" if I wait too long.

 

[ZooSD]

I do mine by myself and the longest I've gone from killing to scald is about 25min, that's just because of the order I do them in not because I'm particularly fast at plucking and cleaning. I'm working on improving my method. Maybe I'll have it down before the next group. I'm really impressed with how clean yours was. I just can't seem to do that well the first try. I always bring them in the house and end up plucking some more before I put them in the freezer.

 

[daviechik]

I can do about 25 min.. I just wonder, if im going to do 4 at a time... maybe scald them and then right into ice water all at once, then take them out one at a time and clean them (while the others wait in ice water) I have to drive them home (really the hunny brings them home on his way home from work) as where I keep my chickens isnt the same place I clean them (because its just easier that way for me) which is why im asking. By the time they make it home they have already drained of blood which is convenient. There is only about a 10-15min lapse from kill to scald here but I cant exactly just go outside and pick up another one which is why i need to do groups at a time...