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

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:
You know whats funny, when I first started incubating I had to "get around" the fact that I looked at eggs in a whole new way.

Fat end UP thinking!

But I still love me some dippy eggs, even though I check fertility in the pan!

 

[fisherlady]

You know whats funny, when I first started incubating I had to "get around" the fact that I looked at eggs in a whole new way.

Fat end UP thinking!

But I still love me some dippy eggs, even though I check fertility in the pan!

It will be very much like it was with the egg thing. You recognize the good, despite what else may have been. And understand that you can't hatch them all and they can't all live in your coops forever. Some must go to keep the flock at it's best and happy balance. We also felt better after a couple of the butcherings when we realized how much happier the flock seemed when the balance was better.

It is up to us to care for the whole flock, and since mother nature isn't able to remove some of the population like she normally would then you are responsible to make the hard decisions to keep that balance....

 

[Gardeningmama]

Quote:
I have no plan at all, LOL! Haven't from day 1, I just wanted some chickens, then I wanted to hatch. Hatched, ended up with too many roos, no one else wants. I haven't thought about processing, maybe because I just don't think I can. Mental block, you know? Heck, that chick I asked about, how to cull? Still screaming in the brooder. I keep saying I'm gonna do it tonight. As far as eating them, it took me a while to eat my own eggs, Sally. I'm a wussie too.
oh Mich! you still have the mite? we need to discuss her, take some pics and go back to the diary thread! we need to figure this poor stinker out for you! I didn't know! why didn't you tell me!

and is that how you spell wussie? I couldn't figure out how to spell it



Nope, no discussion necessary. It's got to be culled. It has completely deformed legs. I tried banding the legs together, and it somewhat worked for one leg, but the other is stiff and sticks straight out. Poor peep can't move an inch by itself. All day I give it water, put it in the food bowl, and on, and on, and on.I just gotta do it, and keep thinking one day I won't mind because it's yelling is gonna irritate me bad enough to want to do it! Besides, IT'S ANOTHER BOY!!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

You know I am sitting here thinking, I cant even begin to imagine the world 100 years from now, look how displaced we are in such short time periods! not sure displaced is the right word but you know what I am saying! We have gone to raising our own food, or at least close by, to not even knowing what the animal looks like we are eating!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Nope, no discussion necessary. It's got to be culled. It has completely deformed legs. I tried banding the legs together, and it somewhat worked for one leg, but the other is stiff and sticks straight out. Poor peep can't move an inch by itself. All day I give it water, put it in the food bowl, and on, and on, and on.I just gotta do it, and keep thinking one day I won't mind because it's yelling is gonna irritate me bad enough to want to do it! Besides, IT'S ANOTHER BOY!!!

Mich you need to do it or call someone close to come do it for you.

 

[chicksooner]

I'm here. The deed did not get done today. Maybe next weekend.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I'm here. The deed did not get done today. Maybe next weekend.

oh chicks! He didn't want to or it got too late? Are you sad or happy

 

[Gardeningmama]

You know I am sitting here thinking, I cant even begin to imagine the world 100 years from now, look how displaced we are in such short time periods! not sure displaced is the right word but you know what I am saying! We have gone to raising our own food, or at least close by, to not even knowing what the animal looks like we are eating!

My mother will not even eat a cupcake that I've made, or anything I've used my eggs in. She hates my chickens and thinks farm fresh eggs are disgusting. There is no rationalizing with her. For Easter I bought white eggs to make deviled eggs so she would eat them. At least I'm not as bad as her, LOL!

 

[CayuseRanch]

Thank you! I can envision this method yes. Do they not flop and fly or is it because they remain head down feet tied?

I haven't seen a thread that shows how to skin a bird, have you seen any? We also dont eat the skin, only on a turkey
Do you have to skin it like a dear or squirl? or do you rip it like a dove or something?

Skin it like a dove. My hubby is better at it than I am. Actually he is better at all of it. He says cut the skin at the neck then peel back to joints of wings then cut off the limbs. We throw out the wings, skin the legs. I will see if I can find a video
They don't really flop around. Maybe a little but with them hanging upside down. They are calm when you cut the head off, but the muscles do twitch around after that over the bucket but it isn't like they are flopping aroundon the ground.

 

[gryeyes]

Sally, I don't have a problem eating my chickens because my friends give me the carcass back all nekkid, headless, feetless, neatly tucked into a freezer bag. Looks just like meat to me.

To get to that stage, I ate some home grown chicken I didn't know, first, with friends, at their house. So tasty! So when I took some processed chicken home, I just anticipated that flavor - or at least something close to it, as I am not a cook. I can roast chicken, though.

I just have trouble with the making them dead part.

Here's something in my history which I think contributes to the ability to eat home grown chicken: I already know the personality or soul has gone.

I observed three autopsies in my career. As soon as the pathologist uncovered the corpse, I knew it was a corpse and not a person. The person was no longer there; the corpse was merely a learning tool, a visual aid, not unlike a very detailed Resusi-Annie. With parts.

I think I could actually clean a chicken carcass, with instruction. I just cannot kill them myself. I have culled ONE hatchling which I helped and shouldn't have - that was upon me to stop its suffering. With a pair of sheers. Awful. But just a dead chick right afterwards. No time to develop a personality - the spark goes out like that.

My dear friends also come over when I have an ailing, injured chicken which needs to be put down,
and the husband does that deed for me.

One evening, I ate dinner at their house (which I do from time to time) and afterwards, somebody said - I think, rhetorically - "Wasn't Rusty tasty?". Yeah, he was.

Consumption isn't the problem, killing them is. For me. I am a wuss.