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

[ronott1]

Okay - I've been second guessing something all night. By 6 birds are currently resting in our shop refrigerator. My plan was to leave them in the fridge for about 3 days before putting them in the freezer. Each of them are inside a gallon size freezer bag (I never got around to ordering some of those neat shrink bags that someone showed early on in this forum). Is this right? Are they supposed to be inside the freezer bags right now? Or are they supposed to be able to "breath" or something? Since we skinned them, I didn't want the meat to get all icky looking, but now I'm worried they may have still been a little too wet from rinsing when we put them in there.

If you are freezing them, they can go into the Freezer sooner. The time in the freezer counts as resting.

 

[aoxa]

Okay - I've been second guessing something all night. By 6 birds are currently resting in our shop refrigerator. My plan was to leave them in the fridge for about 3 days before putting them in the freezer. Each of them are inside a gallon size freezer bag (I never got around to ordering some of those neat shrink bags that someone showed early on in this forum). Is this right? Are they supposed to be inside the freezer bags right now? Or are they supposed to be able to "breath" or something? Since we skinned them, I didn't want the meat to get all icky looking, but now I'm worried they may have still been a little too wet from rinsing when we put them in there.

I put mine in freezer bags, but I pat dry before I do. Just because it looks better. The bloody water in the corners of the bags are not appealing to me.

If you are freezing them, they can go into the Freezer sooner. The time in the freezer counts as resting.

If you put them in the freezer right away, you'll still have to rest for 48 hours before cooking. They don't go through the right rigamortis process if put directly in the freezer. I have come across that first hand. Really tough unless rested.

 

[mollybuck]

we processed our first birds last Saturday. We had 6 cocks too many, 4 cockoo marans and 2 buff orps...they were only 15 weeks, but they were relentlessly pecking my hens and not letting them eat and fighting with the wyandottes and silkies...so... anyway, it started with myself and all 4 of my kids. After the first one... one of my daughters left, but the rest of the kids helped out to the end and my youngest son (7) helped my gut 3 of them. I was quite worried about howw they would handle it. I grew up with it.. so it wasnt even an issue with us as kids. But I think it actually was a good experience for them. My daughter that left still eats it.. and the rest seem to have more appreciation for it now. my oldest (13) told me that when we buy meat.. to him it almost seems like "fake" stuff.. that it wasnt ever alive...but since we hatched these guys and we knew all along it was going to happen, they seem ok with it.

 

[wlhtx]

If you are freezing them, they can go into the Freezer sooner. The time in the freezer counts as resting.

I put mine in freezer bags, but I pat dry before I do. Just because it looks better. The bloody water in the corners of the bags are not appealing to me. 


If you put them in the freezer right away, you'll still have to rest for 48 hours before cooking. They don't go through the right rigamortis process if put directly in the freezer. I have come across that first hand. Really tough unless rested.

Thank you both!!

 

[3 NH reds]

Take pics, Dave...if you get a chance, that is!

I'll be processing a bird tomorrow too, so I'll be sending supportive thoughts your way. Sounds like you will have a lot of fun..don't be surprised if they want to do the killing but not so much of the gutting. That's the way my boys were..only one really enjoyed helping me with the actual gutting, though they all had experience in gutting deer.

I'll be killing my favorite bird tomorrow. She's just too old and heavy and it's starting to affect her, so tomorrow is supposed to be very cool. I placed my killing cone this evening and the dog started giving me dirty looks.

He used to love getting his share of bird but in the past few years he has become distressed when I kill birds, whimpers and paces, gives me the stink eye, mopes around all day and basically just lets me know I have offended his sensibilities.

Tomorrow will be my the hardest cull I've ever done...me and this ol' gal have been together for some years now and I admire her over all others I have ever had.

My Labs give weird looks when they see a deer hanging. They sulk around and look scared, kind of like someone just left a fresh pile in the living room look. I think they must think if the deer gets it, am I next?

Good luck with the favourite hen That is the worst for me. The hens..

I found a plucker! My friend is letting me borrow it :O I was so glad I asked around. This will make life so much easier...

I love our plucker. Last night we processed 5 cockerel. They were getting beat up by a rooster, Friday I saw how bad it was and decided they needed to move on. I had seen chicken wire pulled away from the coop and wondered how that happened. Well I saw the rooster do a fly, drop and tackle them into the wire. I got better at gutting them last night, finally got quick about cutting out the vent. One of the birds is going to be stew, I scalded him and set him aside while another bird was plucked. When I scalded again he did not pluck well and the plucker pulled skin, never happened before so now I know to scald only when ready to pluck.

My kids were started on seeing dead animals, watching them gutted and then processed for food as soon as they could walk on their own. Then they started hunting as soon as they could pull back a bow and get good accuracy(around 7-8 yrs old) and have been bow hunting ever since. They have killed all my bigger livestock for me(heifer and lamb) and helped in processing those as well. They've also killed nuisance dogs for me and any injured wildlife we find that needs mercy.


Well...Big Bertha got a reprieve today, folks!

Last night I penned her into a nest box and prayed as I walked away for the Lord to show me if I should really be culling this bird, as it was weighing on my heart more than culling normally does~WAY more. I told the Lord if she is still there in the morning I will take it as a sign that she was to be killed, if not, no killing.

Now, for the life of me I don't know how she got out of that nest box as the wire was really securely done across the front of it...but who should come strolling down the yard this morning when I went out to do the deed? She had somehow pushed the wire loose and got out of an impossibly small opening with her big ol' body~no WAY I thought she could ever get that wire loose. Bertha gets to live and I'll let God decide when she is ready for culling. Normally I truss a bird's legs the night before, but Bertha's legs are so big and she's so calm, that I didn't think it would be comfortable or necessary to truss her as well as pen her...and it's those little decisions we make in life that really turn the tide on many issues. God wants Bertha to carry on and so that is good enough for me and I'll have faith that He will let me know when it's her time to go.

Good for her! Some birds are harder then others. We got sick of all of our cockerel as noted above but one was tiny and not worth processing. My wife set him loose to free range. I don't know if he can make it on the outside but at least he has a chance and we are not paying to feed him.

I just started to read this thread about processing chickens.

Lately, I have a very strong urge to learn how to do this. I feel that raising, butchering, and processing our own animals is a trade going by the wayside. I have never seen it, but I want to learn. It is in the blood, I think. Hard to explain, but there is a strong desire to learn.

The only thing I will say is if something drastic were to change in our environment, we could not live with out a supermarket.
I have a small garden that I have harvested and processed via freezing or canning (a minimum amount of bounty), but I feel I am learning
how to be self-sustaining. Key word: Sustainable Farming, which includes learning how to raise, butcher our animals. No one needs acres and acres of land to learn. I have .69 acres. I have 6 layers so far. I want to raise two dozen meat birds and some turkeys. I want to learn to raise dairy or meat goats.

I saw an email from GRIT about International Homesteading Education Month. In the email there was a highlight to a link called Homesteading events in your town. There was an event offered called 'Raising your own Roasting Chickens'. The work shop was being offered today, 9/14/13 at a farm in Freeport, ME. I was very interested, so I called and was disappointed when I was told the work shop was cancelled due to low registration. I was ready to drop everything for today just to go and learn.

Unfortunately, in Mass. this sort of work shop is not offered, at least not in a public advertising kind of way. I will keep the rest of my comments to myself. I guess I will just 'jump in and do it'. I will do my research, of course.

No kidding, we looked around for any workshops and found nothing. I want to learn how to canonize but I don't see that anyplace in Mass. I don't even know if its offered anyplace in New England.

 

[ronott1]

Thank you both!!

Leave the in the refrigerator one day and then let them thaw for a day.

 

[MyLittleRedCoop]

Thank you all for all the posts. I appreciate not only the practical how-tos of the processing process, but also the words of wisdom in regards to us "newbies" crying despite knowing we're doing the right thing.
Also I appreciate the reading material, while sitting in a gas station parking lot, waiting for my first 5 roos to get done.
On a slightly dark humorous note... The gas station is right next to the meat shop. So when I came in to buy a bottle of tea, blubbering, the sweet lady at the counter knew why. Evidently it is common to have people parked in their lot, crying and waiting to pick up their birds.
I just hope it gets easier. I didn't name them, purposely. And honestly, they were stinkers, chasing my kids and beating up the girls. But it's still hard. However, I feel like they were far more fortunate than the meaties I saw in cages at the drop-off. They were all beat up and sickly looking. I'm comforted knowing that while they were alive, they were cared for with compassion and allowed to do all the things chickens like to do...

 

[Kassaundra]

In the middle of the boys, so no time, but just had to come on and say I am a plucking convert, had no idea it was that easy!!!!!

 

[aoxa]

In the middle of the boys, so no time, but just had to come on and say I am a plucking convert, had no idea it was that easy!!!!!

That plucking is that easy?

It's not bad. Can be a pain if you have a lot of pin feathers.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I have two Ameraucana cockerels (just about 6 months) that I want to process soon. I intend to pluck them.

What kind of a pot does everyone use to scald? My biggest soup pot won't be big enough.

Thanks.