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well, we had a succesful family processing day today. DIL got 4 leghorn roos and 4 spent black hens at the Schuylkill Haven Saturday night market. ( They live about 10 minutes from there.) She said there were few chickens available. Paid $2/ea for the leghorns. $5 each for others.
Lesson 1. When I looked at the crate this morning, we noticed a white egg on the floor! ??? I started looking closer. Leghorns were hens! I picked out the one I thought may have laid the egg and then another one to keep her company in their small flock so they wouldn't have only one new one. Then we had a lesson on how to tell a roo from a hen ( hint.. NOT by the size of the comb.) Fortunately DIL had chosen one of our FBlueCM roos for her flock so we had a comparison.
Lesson 2. How to best guess if they are laying. DIL and DD learned about pelvic distance. All 4 leghorns seemed wide, but this was processing time! We split the diff.. 2 saved, 2 process. Black hens all seemed narrow. Best guess on black hen breed: Black Stars
DS had water boiling outside on a campfire and a HUGE stump ready plus a sharp hatchet. Both DD's volunteered for holders, SIL2B did the deed. Total of 10. We took up 5 of our 4 yr old Orps. Some we plucked and skinned some. Leghorns worked better skinned due to many pinfeathers and hairs. Orps were exceedingly fatty. Age or are we overfeeding? Unknown hens were also quite fatty but not as bad. Found loads of eggs in the leghorns, none in the blacks and one in an orp.
DS had heat in the shed for cutting. All three gals grabbed knives and followed SIL2B's instructions ( he is a hunter and farm butcher.) Then I followed with how to cut whole chicken into pieces.
Overall conclusions: Eminently doable to process your own but having a group made the process MUCH more bearable. Finished in 3 hours with lots of amateur debate time.
Kids are planning another session in summer and contemplating meat birds. John and I are not interested in meaties but will have roos from FBCM hatchings.
Oh, and as we were checking out their laying flock coop we found another leghorn egg! Bonus
smile.png

Yet to learn: how to caponize. No roosters to practice on
idunno.gif
 
fisherlady said:
When it dries and fluffs post up another pic please... we got 4 BRs and 4 Black Australorps and I'm not sure which are which...
Click to expand...
Geesh... just did some searches and answered my own question... I should have done that first... but then again, any excuse for chick pics! LOL


Of course, that doesn't mean I don't still want to see the pics! Always love the pics!
 
Last edited:
they'reHISchickens said:
CAUTION: GRAPHIC POST
well, we had a succesful family processing day today. DIL got 4 leghorn roos and 4 spent black hens at the Schuylkill Haven Saturday night market. ( They live about 10 minutes from there.) She said there were few chickens available. Paid $2/ea for the leghorns. $5 each for others.
Lesson 1. When I looked at the crate this morning, we noticed a white egg on the floor! ??? I started looking closer. Leghorns were hens! I picked out the one I thought may have laid the egg and then another one to keep her company in their small flock so they wouldn't have only one new one. Then we had a lesson on how to tell a roo from a hen ( hint.. NOT by the size of the comb.) Fortunately DIL had chosen one of our FBlueCM roos for her flock so we had a comparison.
Lesson 2. How to best guess if they are laying. DIL and DD learned about pelvic distance. All 4 leghorns seemed wide, but this was processing time! We split the diff.. 2 saved, 2 process. Black hens all seemed narrow. Best guess on black hen breed: Black Stars
DS had water boiling outside on a campfire and a HUGE stump ready plus a sharp hatchet. Both DD's volunteered for holders, SIL2B did the deed. Total of 10. We took up 5 of our 4 yr old Orps. Some we plucked and skinned some. Leghorns worked better skinned due to many pinfeathers and hairs. Orps were exceedingly fatty. Age or are we overfeeding? Unknown hens were also quite fatty but not as bad. Found loads of eggs in the leghorns, none in the blacks and one in an orp.
DS had heat in the shed for cutting. All three gals grabbed knives and followed SIL2B's instructions ( he is a hunter and farm butcher.) Then I followed with how to cut whole chicken into pieces.
Overall conclusions: Eminently doable to process your own but having a group made the process MUCH more bearable. Finished in 3 hours with lots of amateur debate time.
Kids are planning another session in summer and contemplating meat birds. John and I are not interested in meaties but will have roos from FBCM hatchings.
Oh, and as we were checking out their laying flock coop we found another leghorn egg! Bonus
smile.png

Yet to learn: how to caponize. No roosters to practice on
idunno.gif
Click to expand...
awesome! How did u pluck?
 

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