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

[Kassaundra]

So, to get those little mini pieces, do you think they would be processed at - what - 5, 6 weeks?

Guess I'm not familiar w/ "mini pieces"?????


At first I thought you were talking about the mini drumsticks which are actually wings

 

[dutchbunny83]

This touches on something I've wondered about. So, the "chicken wings" you eat in a restaurant are usually the mini wings and drumsticks, right? So, I'm guessing those are just meat chickens that have been processed REALLY young? Does anyone know about what age they process them to get those mini wings and drumsticks? I'm curious...

I think they're the same size no matter the age... The drumstick chicken wings are a piece of the wing not an actual drumstick. The wing cuts into 3 pieces-- the tip which is trash or stock material (think hand), the flat part with the 2 bones (think your forearm), and the drummette (which would be the upper arm)

 

[jajeanpierre]

The decision to caponize cockerels is a personal one, so there is no "we" in that. There is "You" and "I". Nothing more, nothing less.

Let me correct my wording: I don't think anyone should perform abdominal surgery on animals that aren't anesthetized.

Housing sexes separately and/or slaughtering the obnoxious ones solves a lot of the problems. This is a thread about raising/slaughtering chickens for food, and keeping roosters well past six months is not economic.

 

[Kassaundra]

Let me correct my wording: I don't think anyone should perform abdominal surgery on animals that aren't anesthetized.

Housing sexes separately and/or slaughtering the obnoxious ones solves a lot of the problems. This is a thread about raising/slaughtering chickens for food, and keeping roosters well past six months is not economic.

This is something the two sides will never agree on. Those of us that do this procedure have our reasons and it works for us. Those that don't find it objectionable for whatever reasons. No post will change the other's mind or practice, so no need to beat a dead horse either way for or against.

 

[Elke Beck]

This is something the two sides will never agree on. Those of us that do this procedure have our reasons and it works for us. Those that don't find it objectionable for whatever reasons. No post will change the other's mind or practice, so no need to beat a dead horse either way for or against.

Except for the sheer joy of it...beating a dead horse, that is.

Sorry, I have not had a day off in a couple of weeks, and I think I am a little punchy!

 

[Elke Beck]

With most folks I've observed who don't get a good cut, it wasn't so much the knife but the decisiveness of the cut that was the issue. Maybe bearing down more on your blade as you cut, while doing a quick slice? It also seems to matter where you are cutting..some of the vids I saw, folks were cutting way down on the neck where the guard feathers(hackles)were and just doing a sawing motion as the feathers and the skin there are loose and easily moved with friction, but it doesn't make for the best cutting.

If you can feel for the jaw of the bird and cut just back of it and below it, you will be cutting in the right place and it has very little feathering there, plus the skin can be drawn taut by pulling down on the head a tad.

Tautness makes a huge difference. I hold the chicken's head with my thumb around the back of the comb, and my forefinger under the lower mandible. Kind of a pistol grip. I then tilt the head back so that the throat is pulled taut. The skin is tight sothat the knife can make a quick, clean cut. When I don't pull it tight, on some birds the skin on the throat has a lot of play in it, so the skin just slides back and forth with the knife instead of cutting clean.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

My take on the Caponizing.... Again this is "Me" not we

My grandfather used to caponize and to be honest it wasn't a big deal he went through the flock like a madman and I didn't see any ill effects on the roos at all.

HOWEVER... If I am going to raise Cornish or whatever meat birds in the short time they live before slaughter sometimes early as what 6 weeks? Why bother? For taste? Not worth it in "my book" why? First of all, even though I plan on killing them, I have no clue of pain level on the bird, and also the BIGGY is because when we processed our older "not bred for meat" roosters (cochin and brahma) earlier in this thread, they tasted so delicious after brining I wouldn't even bother with the caponizing for taste that's for sure! And this is the reason it is done correct? They were simply AMAZING! I can only imagine the mouth watering meat from a real home raised meat bird, now if I was a Fine dining restaurant, sure I would buy some bresse or something that is known to have top flavors and texture, it could bring in more cash for the business, but I am not a fine dining business. Our older roos were such a step up from the groc store meats, I mean BIG STEP UP!

Just my thoughts!

 

[dutchbunny83]

I actually didn't even know what caponizing was, I had to google it. My personal take on it would be I wouldn't enjoy the quality of meat more (even if better) if I thought the animal suffered. But I'm still one of those people who don't see any animals just as food.

Side note-- I remember a couple years ago there was a big thing, probably with PETA, exposing the castration of hogs in factory farming. I think I remember it being for behavior versus meat quality, I don't know? But now they CHEMICALLY castrate the hogs by giving them high amounts of estrogen to effect the change without cutting them. Which means the meats are now full of all these hormones (among hundreds of other things wrong with factory farm meat) so obviously feeding this to your kids it carries over in the meat, which I'm sure at some point will have a negative effect on growing boys. My mom is a school nurse in an Elementary school & she said she's had 3rd graders start their period which in my opinion is coming from things like this and growth hormones in milk.

Anyway, things like this are what made me suck it up and realize as traumatizing and horrific as it is to me to kill something after 2 decades of on again off again veganism, there's no way I can condone the treatment of animals in factory farms by buying store bought meat or more importantly letting my kids continue to eat foods that we don't know exactly what went into.

 

[Darkangael]

thought of you guys

Mwahaha love it. Hi there was going to wait to post til after I finished the thread but couldn't when I saw this.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:
LOL Hi DarkAngel!