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

[fisherlady]

And the quiet.  Less crowing is a good thing when you have so many males!

X100!! We now have only 7 mature roosters right now and a few teens and it gets pretty darned loud when they start one of their crowing contests
...which is usually when I am cleaning the coop!

 

[hennible]

Blog post about butchering duck. It's good.
http://frankiemakes.blogspot.ca/2012/06/butchering-at-eight-weeks.html?m=1

 

[ronott1]

Blog post about butchering duck. It's good.
http://frankiemakes.blogspot.ca/2012/06/butchering-at-eight-weeks.html?m=1

Thanks for posting the article!

I have some 9 week old trader joes chicks and they are starting to get heavy so it will be processing time soon again!

 

[hennible]

I'm shocked at how fast my boys are growing, I may have to process them before they get to see grass
They are just starting to crow. About 4 months old.

 

[ronott1]

I'm shocked at how fast my boys are growing, I may have to process them before they get to see grass

They are just starting to crow. About 4 months old.

They do grow up so fast!

 

[fisherlady]

They do grow up so fast!

That is for sure! We have 7 in isolation tonight which will be processed tomorrow, 4 barnyard mixes and 3 light sussex. The nice thing is we have finally gotten most of breeds right so even our barnyard mixes are making decent butchering birds by the time they crow or become a hormonal pain in the coop!
We have 30 more barnyard mix chicks from 2 to 5 weeks old which hatched under broodies and will soon be old enough the hens will leave them, processing out all of these other young cockerels will quiet things down quite well around the coop so the youngsters will be able to move up onto the shelves/roosts without hassle

 

[tjo804]

That sounds like a solid plan

 

[fisherlady]

Well the meaties are growing fast! We have 6 which are 11 days old and another 50 that are 7 days.
We had a problem hatch chick who we brought in a companion for 3 weeks ago. The pair were doing well so we put the first 6 meaties in with them and they got along great. The older 2 taught the meaties to scratch and act like normal chicks, so we began adding the new meaties to their play pen during the day after they were a couple days old and now each morning we put them all in the playpen. They seem to like playing on the logs. They are near our pot bellied stove so the area is very warm and they some times rotate through under the Brinsea also...

Sherlock was the problem hatch chick, he is the scruffy yellow with the dark wing feathers coming in who is in the front right of the picture, his 'sober companion' Watson is the black one to the left. Watson spent his first 5 days out in the coop with a broody, so was already a well educated little chick when he came in the house to keep Sherlock company.

 

[JulieNKC]

Picked up 8 Cornish x today. Now that I have these little guys, knowing how fast they grow, I have the motivation to process my Muscovy drakes that I've been putting off forever to make room for the chicks.
I usually use the broomstick method, but these guys have super strong necks. It didn't work so well on the last drake. I do have a pellet gun and was planning on using it on the drakes, but am not really clear on where to aim. Help please?
Thanks!

 

[Tomtommom]

Picked up 8 Cornish x today. Now that I have these little guys, knowing how fast they grow, I have the motivation to process my Muscovy drakes that I've been putting off forever to make room for the chicks.
I usually use the broomstick method, but these guys have super strong necks. It didn't work so well on the last drake. I do have a pellet gun and was planning on using it on the drakes, but am not really clear on where to aim. Help please?
Thanks!

They are strong... I wonder what would work. Let me do some searching for both of us!





Seems small hatchet and a chopping block is the correct answer. Not sure if that'll be the way for us, come that time.... Mine aren't all TOO friendly.