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

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: ME too! I love those deep dark beautiful RIR! ok well I love my hatchery bird too! lol

 

[Sally Sunshine]

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!

Moved from that to the city! oh wow! at that age you probably loved it though LOL


I def will need a plucker with these RA phalanges

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:
I can actually see showing my DH and then at a picnic him trying to show off! LOL

 

[Sally Sunshine]

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!! Hi waffle!

Oh my goodness not a good experience!

so do you think the horrible toughness was from not brining and setting for a day or two before cooking?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Cockerels need to be eaten by 4 months old to be tender. Older ones need to:

1. Rest for 48 hours in the fridge
2. brined
3. moisture cooked. I cook mine in a Pressure cooker. They can also be braised.

At four months many will be close to 3 pounds dressed or smaller. That does not matter. The monsters at the store are not natural.

It is funny that you look at them as dinner. The ones that were going to be processed were like that for me. One thing I did was pick them up every once in a while and feel how much meat they had on them.

Do you think the brahama will taste bad as they are 7 months old? Heck they only now got the rest of their feathers, I will assume you mean meaties right? Glad I am not waiting longer for them!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: I agree wet feed is better than dry, but so worth the FF! I don't ff my dog feed but I do add water when I feed it to them. I learned my lesson after having urinary issues with one of my dogs and reading and researching, I was like DOLP! I should have known that and am surprised by the amount of people that just put that dry food in front of their pets!

Quote: I do have a pressure cooker, do you add stuff to the pot with a bird? and I always have trouble with water amounts when I use the Pcooker as well as time to cook! I ruined a great roast by cooking the dickens out of the poor hunk!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

This is my plucker I made from countless hours or searching for ideas or a cheap way , it is good for a few birds But Like I said you really need a tub style for a lot and I am going to build one My arms are still soar from doing all my birds I did make a few changes to this plucker this year I cut out that front piece of wood so it would be easier to hold the bird I added a few feather shields

When I Built this last year I was trying many different things and finally came up with this , it isn't the greatest looking thing But for me it works better than hand plucking I pluck a bird in about 2 minutes
OK This time I did sell some of my birds 10$ each because this meat bird process is not cheap from start to finish its well over 300$ the past 2 years I was stupid and gave them away But no more freebies its bad enough the people I give the eggs to don't even give me a few bucks My freezer now

YAY! Thank you so much! Now we can really see the plucker!

I SOOOO wish my freezer looked like that, plus a few steaks of course! lol

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:

You know I am so guilty of not being able to fry chicken

DH mom is from Montgomery AL and she has yet to make it that I seen either!
I told her she aint no southerner! I demand fried chicken, fried okra, and hush puppies and some of that spicy soup (whats it called with all seafood and stuff!)


I can cut chicken into strips dip in flour and egg and then bread crumbs and fry kids love that, but not the real chicken I order out! and then there is that BBQ chicken that isn't wet on the outside with BBQ they use some sorta dry spices! anyone have recipes I would love one!

 

[fisherlady]

Do you think the brahama will taste bad as they are 7 months old? Heck they only now got the rest of their feathers, I will assume you mean meaties right? Glad I am not waiting longer for them!

Sally we butchered numerous roos at about that age, we tend to keep them till we know for sure who has the right attitude... and though they can be a tad stringy on the thighs otherwise the meat tasted great! I cooked them in broth on the stovetop for chicken and dumplings and Radioman loved it!
Some of them I stripped the breast meat off of the carcass and stashed it seperately and then boiled the rest of the frame for soup. When I did this I would slow simmer the bird for a couple of hours till all meat is off of the bone, then seperate the bones, crack the bones open with a pair of pliers and place them in a pot with another few cups of water and simmer them for another hour or so... then strain and pitch all solid and add the broth back to the other for the soup.

Older birds may need a bit more time and effort when cooking but the end result is more than worth it!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: you know I can easily see this! and please do! its good for the 10 year old to know what we forgot!