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

[BirdbyGavin1103]

How would a headless bird eat?

They were using a dropper for water and placing the food in his neck according to what I read.

 

[RoseMarie1]

I pick mine up the night before and truss them so that there is no drama in the morning and no birds full of adrenaline...and so mama doesn't have to raise a sweat!

Since I'm new to this I had to look up what truss meant. http://www.fifteenspatulas.com/should-you-truss-a-chicken-or-not/
Thought I'd share since I'm sure I'm not the only one.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: serious? why o why

 

[BirdbyGavin1103]

serious? why o why

Using the BB gun or the story about the headless roo?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Understood,
I thought it would be about preference and style.
I wasnt sure if the added fat would mess with the pickling process. I'm a complete pickle novice.

For me I do all the processing on the porch area on the first floor (remember I'm keeping my chickens on the roof of my apartment) so boiling water is easy to come by. When we cook 90% is skinless as well, but we always have uses for skin when we make other things.
Making a soup where you render the skin then get the onions and celery browning in there.... YUM
So many soups are greatly helped by some cracklings.

Best of all are the soups where we do that then boil out the rib and other leftover meats from the carcass.

We dont need to be so frugal, but our dogs love all the extra treats of rendered skin and bones.
Trust me, any dog can eat bones, our Pekingese loves them

EDIT: You dont boil the chicken inside the pot to get feathers do you?
Best way is to let it come to a hnard boil then take it outside.
We let it get down to well below boiling, as long as you dont want to keep your hand inside then its plenty warm
Usually one large soup pot (couple gallons) has enough time to do 2 chickens and one turkey before it losses its plucking power in the summer.

Its almost perfect to just add a normal pot of boiling water to the active batch and keep the temp right without having the work pot on the heat source.

I would love to see images of your rooftop chicken keepin!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I've always wondered why skin instead of pluck?
Its really quite easy with the right water setup.

Is there anything more to it instead of the ease compared to plucking?
(and all that yanking and stretching seems like more work)

Maybe its because I started out on fish and small game instead of deer?
I do my processing in a different order and I'm sure everyone has a system of their own
Gotta get out a camera next time.

ya !

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I cooked my first White Bresse on Sunday. It was very tasty:



It was a Brittish Recipe so it said to Joint them. This is the Jointed Cockerel frying in a "Generous Knob of butter"

Recipe:

yummy! Thank you for sharing! was there a huge taste difference? justifying the cash spent?

 

[ronott1]

yummy! Thank you for sharing! was there a huge taste difference? justifying the cash spent?

It was tasty and tender and as good as the Dorking Crosses(marans X Dorking was best) and a nice size at 18 week old.

I bought the hatching eggs from a person in Lodi, CA so it was ground shipping. I hatched 11 of them for $50.00 and sold three at auction for $25.00. I still have 2 Roosters and 4 pullets that I will be breeding soon. I might come out ahead on this deal....

 

[Kassaundra]

I do not understand the negativity every time dispatching our chickens w/ BB or pellet gun is brought up. It is a viable option, just as quick and decisive as the broomstick, or axe, or knife, or club. Other poultry and small game are dispatched this way all the time and no one even blinks. Wild ducks and geese are not trapped, and ambushed so they can chop the head off to kill, they are shot out of the sky not even in as controlled a setting as a killing cone and point blank to the brain stem. I have tried the knife and axe and if those were the only options I would be eating store bought chicken (I'm not even thinking about let alone trying the broomstick or club though they are decisive kills for those able). Not all of us come the "grow our own food" table w/ the same skills, experience or psyche. We all need to find a way that works for us so we can sleep at night and are comfortable w/ our chosen method. If someone choses a method different then ours that doesn't make it wrong, applaud that they are not contributing to the factory chicken horror.

 

[Beekissed]

I think they were questioning why someone would keep a headless chicken alive for viewing and feeding...