Processed FIRST birds today- UPDATED LINK

[lexustami]

Hello all,

We decided yesterday today would be the day that we processed our 6 oldest Cornish X's. They are about 12 weeks old.

I had my husband look at the instructions at http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Butchering-Ready.html and he felt confident that he understood everything he needed to do.

We started this afternoon around 1:00 and just got finished with cleanup around 4:30pm.

I have to tell you, I really thought I was going to have a hard time with it. I even had a nightmare last night but it really wasn't that bad.

I closed my eyes and covered my ears when he chopped off of the head of the 1st one. I was scared to look. But the kids didn't seem to have a problem with it and they convinced me to look.

My husband had a real easy time doing the whole process. The kids (10 and 8) helped him pluck and he taught them how to clean out the bird. They were fascinated by the whole process. My oldest daughter (11) sat with me and watched.

I decided about half way through to cull some of my roosters before they became a problem. The kids and I picked out 3 and we did them last. I guess they will be soup birds because they are so small and don't have a lot of meat on them.

My 8 year old daughter did the last 2 birds almost by herself. She needed help with chopping the head and the cutting.

Overall, it was a very positive process for all of us.

Take care,

Tami

P.S. I will let you know how they taste!

 

[Heidi]

Wow - I'm impressed. I'm still working up the nerve. For some reason I still feel kind of bad about the whole thing. Hopefully by spring I will change my mind as I plan on ordering cornish/meat chickens.

 

[lexustami]

You know what the worst part of the whole thing was? The yellow jackets that swarmed us to get to the chicken parts. They were all over everything!

The kids were so great. They didn't have a problem with anything... they even picked up the heads to examine them more closely.

And they LOVE the chickens. They are their babies but they knew from the beginning that some of them were meat birds.

They were actually disappointed when we ran out of birds today and they wanted to process our younger Cornish X's. They are gonna have to wait 5 more weeks on them!

I really have to give my husband a lot of credit. I talked him into this whole chicken thing and he is willing to do whatever I tell him to do. (LOL) He actually was pretty quick plucking and cleaning.

Take care,

Tami

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Can I borrow your children, please?
I have 50-ish roos that need processing and I keep putting it off because I only have 2 hands, lol, and it has been ridiculously hot here.

I wish I knew what to do about the yellow jackets. I put 5 birds in the freezer last week (because we were completely out of home-grown chicken), and got stung twice. They were making things really unpleasant.

Lisa

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Quote:
That's the part I'm really worried about. I'm deadly allergic.

Wondering if I set up a screenhouse/canopy I could process them in there a few at a time and keep down on the yellow jackets.

No way my husband could hand the processing. I had to ask him to put down a little bunny one time that the cat got and her about lost it.

 

[Omeletta]

We did our first chickens and rabbits 2 days ago! We had the same things happen with our children, as with yours! I can't say we "loved" it, but we grit our teeth and "set to" and got it finished. The hardest part was the first rabbit was not a "clean kill" but aside from feeling badly for the rabbit, we were alright. And rabbits were so much easier than chickens, like half the time! And clean-up was a breeze...now I just gotta get up the nerve to pull that first chicken out of the freezer for timmorrows supper...any recipe ideas?

 

[lexustami]

Here is a slide show I put together.

Slideshow of Processing Day- Graphic Pictures

Take care,

Tami

 

[HobbyChickener]

How long did you "water" them to get the feathers to come out easier? I noticed the pot in the side show and just assumed that you were scalding them.

 

[lexustami]

The water was at 145 degrees and we scalded them for 30 seconds. We just followed the instructions from the link on my first post.

We just used a turkey fryer for our scalder. Then we dipped it into the cold water bucket to stop the scald. Then the plucking was easy.

Take care,

Tami

 

[Chelly]

Your kids are tough! I worry about mine, my son still has concerns about FIRE after the huge fires we went through in CA in 2003!