Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[AnneInTheBurbs]

So yesterday we processed all 15 of the meat chickens and the one young nasty Roo, Larry.


I am so thankful! My friend and his Dad are from the
Ukraine and did this all the time, so it was no big deal to them and it was like an assembly line. I didn't do any of the killing this time, but I'm pretty sure I won't have a problem with it. Most of the birds were over 6 lbs live weight, except for Larry, who was a tiny 3 lbs. Their butchered weight was about 5 lbs., but we didn't weight them all, just a couple. My friend and his Dad were so surprised how big they were! They were telling me how in the old country, you would walk up to a shop with live chickens, and they would butcher it for you on the spot. Then the guy who plucked, would sell the feathers for pillows. They were also giving me ideas on how to use different organ parts.

Although Larry was small, his leg meat was very nice and dark. I'm curious to see if there is a taste difference.

I will definitely raise up more Roos to eat like him, since he was hatched from an egg of my own stock. Now with my continuous broodies, I can easily let them raise the chicks, and keep the Roos for eating. It would be nice because I can process them at my own time, instead of all in one day like this group.

A couple questions for those of you who do meat birds, please.

1. Do you prefer to chop the heads or bleed them out? I was going to bleed them out, but they were chopping heads, and it looked just as easy and humane.

2. If you raise Roos from your own stock, do you separate them in a bachelor pen to restrict movement and fatten them up? I am already thinking of doing that...

3. Do you usually have a lot of pin feathers? These were colored broilers, but I sat in the kitchen for hours last night picking out all of the pins. Larry had almost none, and he was about a month older.

 

[fangedknight]

She should be fine. I have a chicken that I got that has her two outer toes that twist backward. She walks fine and has no problems. She is name Curly because if her funny feet.

Just find some nice red clay soil. They seem to prefer that around here. Usually something around the bottom of a bush, where it is shaded and nothing else is growing. I also add wood ashes.

Okay sounds good! We just burned some old wood the other day, I'll wait till everything's dry and then go sifting. And I think I'll name her Twisty Toes, Twisty for short of course lol. Hopefully everyone's okay from that storm last night... between that and the fireworks, yikes!

 

[yoopergirl1211]

So I'm home and trying to keep myself moving after the hospital for a week. Can't believe how weak I am. Lots of good things going on with our birds and my ads are going up to start selling off ducklings. My kids are in upper Michigan for the next month and it really sucks that I wasn't able to spend time with them before they left but they did a great job keeping everyone going while I couldn't. Going to try and take turkeys down to barn while we work on their new house. Its going to be pretty cool I think. I swear they doubled in size while I was away. 5 new turkeys in the brooder with 15 assorted polish and 8 royal purple guineas I'm pretty happy survived me not being here when they were shipped. Going to try and post pics later today.

 

[fangedknight]

Welp... Klaus is trying to drown me once again. Bath time they said. It would be fun, they said. I'm soaking wet and they haven't been in here for five minutes yet!! I say!

 

[fangedknight]

Case in point

He's getting huge!

 

[OneMountainAcres]

1. Do you prefer to chop the heads or bleed them out? I was going to bleed them out, but they were chopping heads, and it looked just as easy and humane.

2. If you raise Roos from your own stock, do you separate them in a bachelor pen to restrict movement and fatten them up? I am already thinking of doing that...

3. Do you usually have a lot of pin feathers? These were colored broilers, but I sat in the kitchen for hours last night picking out all of the pins. Larry had almost none, and he was about a month older.

1. Hubby prefers to use the hatchet to coop their heads off then hang them for a few minutes for gravity to do is work. When I'm doing it, I do the broomstick method then hang them for a few minutes. The blood still pools up in the neck so once they're dead and I remove their heads, it all comes out. I tried bleeding them out once...it felt too long and I cried. I may have done it wrong, but I'll never do it again.

2. When I raise roos from my own birds, I let them free range with the flock until they are big enough or until they start being pushy about mating the girls, then I just seperate them the night before butcher day. I have done the seperate Batchelor pad thing before. It worked pretty well too but they went through a lot more feed that way. Both ways, they were still rather scrawny lol

3. Yep, the wonderful pin feathers. You must have picked the perfect time to butcher, right as they were starting to get their adult plumage lol. That usualy happens to us with the flock raised boys. Is always a pain but still needs done. I'm not sure if we'll have the same issue with the meaties or not.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Thank you! That's very helpful. That makes sense about the pin feathers, and why Larry had almost none. He was a month older and had his big boy pants on already.

 

[gonehencrazy]

The littles enjoying some watermelon. The cockerel on the left is an Icelandic and the giant cockerel is my CL x Welsummer/Wyandotte

The Icelandic looks just like the CL just smaller...I think the OE is a pullet

This little pullet (i think) hatched like 6 days after the giant. She's so tiny!! She is out of a Sapphire egg with a CL dad

I don't think she will be a big chicken

 

[yoopergirl1211]

I am so happy we got the turkeys. I should be annoyed they like my husband more but he likes it so much I can't. He spent all day transforming an old part of a barn into the perfect turkey house while our 7 babies followed him back and forth across the yard. It was hilarious.

 

[Northern Appalachian]

Our 14-year-old dog passed away last morning, two hours shy of his euthanasia appointment. We're building him a box today and we'll bury him soon, next to the dog we lost last year. Dad was his favorite, so it's hardest on him. Dad's mom is also very sad, more than I expected.

My sister's mollies gave birth, so suddenly we had 20 or so new fish. They were slowly being preyed upon by the adult fish, so we went out and got them a little tank of their own. They seem to be a mix of white and dalmation, we think we were able to save 12. In about four to six weeks they'll go in with the adults, granted we have any vacancies.

Ducks aren't the smartest of creatures, but they finally know what we want from them around dusk and will walk up their ramp and into their coop with just a bit of coaxing. They're 13 weeks old now, saw a troop of wild turkeys and their babies the other day. Baby turkeys were very interested in the ducks. We're also thinking they ganged up and killed an adult mouse that tried to eat their food. We found the body next to their pool.