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

[Amina]

How accurate is comb sexing? All their combs are the same, and that first bird is *clearly* a cockerel.

 

[ronott1]

How accurate is comb sexing? All their combs are the same, and that first bird is *clearly* a cockerel.

Plymouth rocks can be sexed by the color and then hackles and saddle feathers.

boys are a lighter color than the girls and they do not get hackle and saddle feather.

So big red combs and wattles at a young age
light gray
pointed feathers at the saddle but older than yours

Of course the crow or the egg really is the final thing but not usually with barred rocks.

 

[Happy Chooks]

All males, sorry!

Ditto and I'd wait until they are a bit older to process. They will have more meat on them.

For the future, the presence of maggots does not mean the wound won't heal up well. Maggots do NOT eat healthy tissue--they eat necrotic (already dead) tissue. Their presence does not mean the wound/infection is getting worse. Maggots are used in modern medicine to clean up nasty wounds that aren't responding. In modern (human) medicine, the maggots are raised to be sterile so they won't bring in new pathogens to an already difficult infection in a person. Maggots actually help clean up a wound. The maggots in the wild might bring in new pathogens, so are best kept out of a wound. If they haven't introduced a new pathogen, maggots actually help heal up a wound. I know, gross. I couldn't imagine having a doctor put maggots into my own wound, but it is done with very good results.

I know it's not necessarily a death sentence. Without going into disgusting details, I can say is this male was not saveable. His tail deformity hid the wound, so it was really bad.

 

[Kassaundra]

This week I processed my first ever rabbits. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be (cuteness factor) They are brining now I did 6, and they were sooooo much easier then chickens, and almost no smell unlike chickens. I did them same as I do chickens, w/ a pellet gun, only no cone.

One thing that was a bit freakier then chickens is how long their muscles continue to "twitch" after death. I'm not talking full on death throes but muscle twitching for an hour or so after death, skinning, processing and in the brining bucket.

 

[hennible]

This week I processed my first ever rabbits.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be (cuteness factor)  They are brining now I did 6, and they were sooooo much easier then chickens, and almost no smell unlike chickens.  I did them same as I do chickens, w/ a pellet gun, only no cone.

One thing that was a bit freakier then chickens is how long their muscles continue to "twitch" after death.  I'm not talking full on death throes but muscle twitching for an hour or so after death, skinning, processing and in the brining bucket.

Wow good job. Don't think I could do rabbits... The cuteness factor of ducks is hard enough.

 

[jajeanpierre]

These birds were the same age, clearly.. he's the man. Loved that boy, but I inadvertently killed him with a no-crow collar

Can you explain what happened with the no-crow collar?

 

[jajeanpierre]

Ditto and I'd wait until they are a bit older to process. They will have more meat on them.

I know it's not necessarily a death sentence. Without going into disgusting details, I can say is this male was not saveable. His tail deformity hid the wound, so it was really bad.

Not questioning your decision to cull when you did--after all he was going to be culled anyway--just pointing out that maggots being present is not necessarily indicative of a poor outcome.

 

[Tomtommom]

Can you explain what happened with the no-crow collar?

He choked. Found him dead with food on his face and in his mouth. He could still crow too, with the stupid thing on

 

[jajeanpierre]

Question about brine--how much salt do you use?

When I processed my last bird, an 8.5-month-old cockerel, I nicked the rectum a little bit. I don't think anything spilled out and I rinsed like crazy after processing. I decided to brine him in salt and I think I used too much. I changed the brine after a day and left him in brine for a total of four or five days. I used him for soup. I pulled the meat off the bones after slowly cooking until the meat was just tender, and continued cooking the bones to make the stock. The meat was really salty, even though I didn't add any salt to the soup other than what came from the brine.

That is the first time I've ever used a brine and I didn't like the result. What do others do? What did I do wrong?

Thanks.

 

[Kassaundra]

I soak in a 5 gall bucket (food grade only used for this purpose) I never measure, but us "Bee's" method of glug, or splash etc..... so I just freely pour / sprinkle until I think it is enough. If I were forced to put a label on it, I would say somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 cup.