Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[Cluck it]

Can someone tell me when a hen pretty much stops laying her eggs. If the meat is still good to eat or is it tough?
Thanks in advance

 

[kacklinkelly]

oh Kelly I hope he does show up that day! I am sorry you are separated for so many miles! Have you wondered or has he? I would love to wonder, but I still live less than 200 yards from my parents house!

And you should do the FF its so easy too! I cut feed in half and only clean coops every two weeks as the FF keeps the smell at bay by changing all that ph and stuff inside them! I don't know how to put that technically but I can tell you brooders and coops stay ALOT fresher, EGGS are HUMOUNGOUS too! I have finally found a few great shortcuts and don't even have to strain and make a mess anymore! You see I add hot water from the spicket, at first time you need to add hot water feed and 1 cup acv with mother and let it sit for 4 days, and then everytime you take what you need add hot water and add more feed to the bucket and I have now learned how it feels stiring it so I get a nice thick meal that doesn't need strained, and yes it still puffs and bubbles this way and smells like booze for sure! But I am so happy I experimented because the straining was a pain in the tush!


What kind of meaties did you buy? and what age is processing?

I really miss seeing both my parents on a regular basis. We used to actually live together for a while (maybe that's why we live 2500 miles apart now - just kidding) My father and I have a very easy friendship that has always been that way. I am still waiting for the fermentation process. I added yeast on day 4 and some sugar today (day 5) if nothing happens tonight, I'll be tossing batch number two. I bought 4 cornish cross 3 weeks ago and am watching/weighing them before decided what age processing will be. If they start getting too lethargic, I will do the deed before they develop any complications. I am hoping to get them to 7 or 8 weeks but understand that may be stretching it a bit. (I am almost half way there)

Might I suggest plucking one? They cook up much tastier with the skin on and with one you will get a feel for plucking.

Forget what you have been told about fat being bad for you. We need fat and the fat on your home raised birds is so healthy and full of omega 3s.

Thanks for the suggestion. I am considering this but like everyone in this thread - my challenge is just this- I feel plucking would be most difficult for me first time around. Just typing this, my
throat is getting tight. One step at a time. It's a good thing no one is relying on me to fill their freezer

.

 

[paridisefarm2009]

you will get a kick out of this I was playing around and thought I'd have some fun I posted this on my face book and some responses were there was something wrong with me.. BAHAHHHHH

I said Oh no this chicken is in labor with a breach baby is there a chicken doctor in the house ?
Well I thought it was funny

 

[kacklinkelly]

THat's excellent

 

[ronott1]

Quote:
The first time, with plucking it will probably take an hour for one. I plucked my first chicken when I was around 10 years old, so I have muscle memory and am pretty fast at it. It will get faster for you quickly.

Plucking is not hard if the chicken is properly scalded.

 

[ronott1]

Can someone tell me when a hen pretty much stops laying her eggs. If the meat is still good to eat or is it tough?
Thanks in advance

It depends. Some quit at 2 years but many of them go on for more that 5 years. Last year I hatched Heritage RIR from a 6 year old hen and Rooster.

 

[kacklinkelly]

The first time, with plucking it will probably take an hour for one. I plucked my first chicken when I was around 10 years old, so I have muscle memory and am pretty fast at it. It will get faster for you quickly.

Plucking is not hard if the chicken is properly scalded.

OK, now I just feel ridiculous. 10 years old plucking a chicken and 50 year old

not so much.
You guys make it all worthwhile!

 

[ronott1]

Quote:
My Mom made us all work when we processed. When I was older, she would tell us to go pick a hen that was not laying and while we culled it, she got the water boiling and after it was all processed, she made chicken and Dumplings. That was always amazingly good.

We moved to the City when I was 17 and I did not process any chickens until last year when I was 52. I helped a friend process 7 cockerels and she was amazed at how fast I plucked the feathers! The hands remember stuff you learned at a young age.

Yes, you will do fine processing your birds!

 

[Waffle]

Hey Sally
I went through this last year. New farm new life. We moved onto a farm which had a HUGE chicken shed. Well we got all excited and had to fill the ****** thing. We had 100 mixed breed chickens and 8 turkeys. Well as you can imagine we ended up with half of them being roosters and after about 6 months of feeding them we decided enough was enough. The hens were getting jumped every time they tried to eat and we were spending a fortune on feed. So my husband and I decided to be brave while my parents were visiting and try one of the roosters for the pot. It was a horrible experience which ended up with me in floods of tears and my husband trying to console me while the rooster managed to flap its way down the bank of the creek. Hubby retrieved it and I plucked it (still crying but felt I had to "man" up) we bought it in and gagging tried our hand at gutting. My mum bless her took over. We cooked the thing and it was tough as old boots. We put it down to all that flapping though but left it at that.
I facebooked my experience (minus the me sobbing and the whole creek part) only for my old shop foreman to laugh at me and said there is no way I could ever become a proper farmer. Me being me saw this as a huge insult and had to prove him wrong. I put my one year old in her crib, threw a movie on for my four year old and stormed out to the chicken shed. Grabbed a rooster bagged his head and did the deed. I took it inside skinned him and put it in the pot. needless to say I was very proud of myself yet a little stressed and nauseated! Again the rooster tasted bloody awful tho. We did get rid of all our roosters but didn't eat them.

We did however do the extra Toms and they turned out to taste just fine sooooo we ordered 30 meat hens and went halves with them with some family. That started off horrific too with the whole plucking and gutting part but once we learnt to scald them I became chief plucker!! These birds however were not named and we did not spend any time hanging out with them. Just went in fed them and came out again. If I did watch them for any time I would think to myself don't like them they are food. and then turn to our pet chickens for the company that I love from having chickens.

Its hard but all I can say is distance yourself as much as you can from the meat birds and have special birds in your layers

:0)

 

[Waffle]

How to Hypnotize a Chicken Source: zyra.tv

THIS is a bit weird but I found it while searching pithing, and if DH walks in on me doing this I will be divorced for sure!

This article was written by someone who used the hypnotized chickens for "parlor tricks". With a few changes, it can be used to butcher the chickens painlessly.

1. First catch your chicken. This should be done neatly without fuss. Avoid unseemly behavior such as chasing wild chickens around. Having a tame chicken is best.

2. Holding the chicken the right side up with the head uppermost, gently but firmly grasp the legs of the chicken underneath. It's important to have a good grip on both of the legs but to avoid squeezing too much. The claws should be arranged to avoid damage to you or to the chicken.

3. With deft sleight-of-hand, the chicken is swung speedily and carefully roll into the upside-down position, leaving you holding the chicken by the legs! This will surprise the chicken, but it will not be upset. Note that although it is no longer regarded as acceptable by magicians to lift a rabbit by the ears, rabbit ears are not designed by nature to hold the weight of the rabbit. In contrast, the legs of a chicken are easily strong enough to hold the weight of a chicken.

4. Hold on to your chicken. If it flaps its wings, the wing tips should not come into contact with anything. You have to be careful, for the safe well-being of the chicken and also to save your eyes from feather-damage.

5. Within a few seconds the chicken calms down and becomes accustomed to being upside-down. This usually happens quite quickly.

6. Being upside-down is interpreted by the brain of the chicken as being a condition in which it is appropriate to go into a state of sleep. Within half a minute or so, you have a sleeping chicken in your hands. Or at least, you have hold of the legs of a chicken which is mysteriously hanging there upside-down, asleep.

7. You can now stroke the chicken on the head, and under the chin, and straighten any feathers which might have been ruffled up.

8. It's now possible to carefully lower the chicken and lay it down on a flat surface. With practice it's possible to skillfully drape a sleeping chicken across the top of a television or a conveniently placed garden object. RT: At this point, tie the birds feet with a single piece of rope. The bird will later hang from this rope for butchering.

9. You can in effect leave the chicken on its back with its feet up in the air. This is an extraordinary sight and it beggars belief that a live chicken will remain in such a condition. However, I recommend you don't just walk away and leave it. Two minutes is plenty, and will adequately prove the point that you can definitely hypnotize a chicken.

RT: It is during this time the chicken is easily butchered...or given a post-hypnotic suggestion that it stop smoking. If you kill the chicken, you succeed in both goals. If you kill the bird, there is no step 10, either.

10. At some point, the chicken is roused and will resume its usual right-way-up state, with the feet on the ground, and will walk around almost as if nothing has happened. If anyone says "it still looks a bit dazed" then you're probably showing off your chicken hypnosis technique too much. Go easy on those chickens!

I so have to try this. I am going to try without my husband around too!! But once mastered I will have to show him I am the chicken nerd he thinks me to be!!