Processed 2 of my Rangers this morning/ graphic

[knittychickadee]

First time I've killed them myself, and I'm still shook up over that. A lot of them have been getting new feathers like crazy so it wasn't the best time to do them, but I was really wanting to see where they were weight wise- and how bad the pinfeathers were. The size they are, they're going as soon as their feathers are in. The roos are going to end up a bit bigger than I wanted I guess.

They were 9wks old. I used a large plastic black shrub/tree pot that I cut a hole in for a 'cone', and put it on a post with a couple screws. Cleaned some of the coop yesterday, and stuck the wheelbarrow with the old shavings under it to collect blood for the compost pile. I wrapped a couple plastic grocery store bags around the post so cleanup was pretty easy.

Used a folding utility/razor blade knife to slice the throats. I went too far and cut into the windpipes. I was trying to avoid doing that, but was worried about not going deep enough too. Didn't seem to bother them though, they just silently went limp until the nerves started.

I scalded, dipped in cold water after, and plucked by hand. The first was great, his feathers were grown out good enough to grab and he took me less than 10 min. The second had quite a few pins and I had to spend an extra 5min on him picking those out. The rest went pretty well- though I'm gonna pick up a sharper knife for gutting the next ones. Mine wasn't as sharp as I thought and made the going slower.. I was done within an hr anyways. One weighed 5lbs 5oz, the other 6lb 1oz. Plus 2lbs of head, feet and organ goodies for my raw fed dog. I put the feathers and intestines in the compost pile.

Strangely, one had a gizzard packed full of grit, a bit of stones from the yard, and some kind of hard grit sized seeds from something. The other was totally empty, not a single stone or anything else.

 

[bearfretworks]

WOW! Those are huge. I was all happy with my "monster" 9 week old CRB's....dressed out at 3lb 12oz and 3 lb 15oz.

How'd yours taste?

 

[knittychickadee]

Trying one tomorrow hopefully. None of us were home at the same time today.
A record amount of rain has kept their forage growing like crazy. I think that has helped their size. A lot of high protein clover and chicory in it.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Good for you, sounds like you're off to a great start with your processing! I hope you have lots of delicious meals as a reward for your efforts. Each time you process you'll figure out ways to make the next session even easier. But it sounds like things went fairly well already for your first time.

How did the plastic plant pot work for a cone? Did you use one snug enough to keep the birds' wings from flapping? What's a good size pot that's snug enough to hold the bird and deep enough to keep him from wriggling out?

 

[knittychickadee]

Finally got a chance to cook one last night. I fried up the smaller one along with some mashed potatoes and sweet corn, both from my garden. He got two thumbs up

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The pot I used was 9 1/2'' inches tall, 11'' across the top. A bit narrower would have been nice, but it was still pretty good. I cut the hole down where the drain holes are, not in the middle, so their backs were right up against the side of the pot. Then I crammed a few wadded up plastic grocery bags against their chests, lol. I was worried they may be able to back out of it, but neither did. Now that I said that, the next one will jump right out of it...