Picking up first ever meaty chicks tomorrow! All processed***PICS***

[TriciaHowe]

We have 19 of them. I had them with the heat light in the coop until we hit the 60's at night. I didn't want them using energy to keep warm. When I took the heat light (went from a 250w to a 125w @ 6weeks - make sure you have a porcelain base, not plastic) I replace it with just a regular light bulb so they had light 24hrs. My coop is pretty dark even during the day where it's covered with the tarp. I could have put it on a timer, but just didn't lol. It dropped to the 30's last night and I added no extra heat, but they are 8 weeks today and fully feathered and also have no draft where they are.

 

[TriciaHowe]

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3261662748169.214602.1465203455&type=3

Here are the pictures from the show

 

[TriciaHowe]

Well, got them all processed today. Decided that since we never cook whole birds we parted them out. Did split breasts and leg quarters, all skinless. What beautiful meat they had!! Also saved the livers and hearts for my mom. She likes those lol.
Have pictures of the finished bags but my hubby has the camera cord so won't be posted until tomorrow. All the bags are resting in the fridge until tomorrow night. The breasts on these birds were HUGE! They were 8 weeks on Monday.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Yay, no more feeding or cleaning, just cooking & eating! Enjoy the delicious fruit of your hard labor.

 

[TriciaHowe]

All the bags lined up to go into the fridge. The meat filled two 5 gallon buckets!!


Giant breast (whole, not split)


Livers and hearts for my mom

 

[halo]

Good job! Thats exactly what I do, I dont pluck. I wondered how that would work, but I baked some quarters the other day, slowly and covered, and they were very juicy and tasty. I wont bother plucking any, skinning works out so much easier. I also part out, since I dont cook whole birds.

I have some of those giant chicken breasts too!!!! I baked one the other day, and it was great. I took another one, sliced off the meat into strips, and made fried chicken strips....OMG, they were great!! I thought they might be tough because of their size, but they werent.

 

[TriciaHowe]

Thanks Halo! That's exactly what I was hoping to hear

 

[jdywntr]

Congrats! Great job. I am trying to decide if I am going to skin and part out or not. I may pluck a few but I get impatient so.....

 

[TriciaHowe]

If you have a whiz bang or some other mechanical plucker then it's not a big deal but I wasn't going to hand pluck 19 birds LOL! Or if you are only doing a very small number it wouldn't be a big deal either. I didn't want to mess with the smell, hot water and covered in feathers. This worked beautifully and we got all the pieces that we eat.

 

[bluere11e]

Your birdies look great! And delicious too! A few folks from my local poultry fanciers' club are splitting an order of meaties from Schlecht Hatcheries and we're planning a processing workshop in a few months when the chicks are mature.

Carol,
I'm kicking myself for not doing our own thread on our Poultry Club Meaties project..lol