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

[Amina]

I'm so glad it worked out for you!! Happy Thanksgiving!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

What a weekend. We processed the 14 BBW Turkeys and 2 chickens of a friends.

Turkeys got a little too big... apparently 23 weeks is excessive for a BBW. Had two 41lb Tom's and one 45lb. The 45lb we cut in half. Smallest hen was 20.5lb with the largest 28lb. (Hurray for luggage scales)




Scalding the 30+ pound birds was quite the workout, as with them soaked and intact was more than I could lift repeatedly. Eventually we figured out to use a piece of pipe to lift as a team (between the legs which were bound by zip ties). The 160qt bayou pot and burner that seemed like overkill last year came in handy this year.

No cone big enough for these of course, so I used a 2x4 wedged in the bed of my truck to hang them from near the processing area.

HOLY WOWZA!!!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

We ended up cooking it, cooked fine, it was juicy, and tasted good. So we all ate it and we all survived lol. We made a second turkey also and deep fried it, it was a good day!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!!!!!!

LMAO!!!! ha ha ha

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER HAPPY TURKEYALATE DAY!

 

[rebrascora]

Well I'm psyching myself up to do two or three more cockerels tonight. They are pestering my hens and I'm just not having that. There are 5 of the same age (6 months) but 2 or 3 will get a reprieve till next week, as doing 5 at once is more than I can manage on my own and freezer space is limited.

I'm slowly finding what works for me and my set up and what doesn't, both processing and cooking wise. I hate not being confident of what I'm doing, so gaining a bit of experience is making the job much easier to tackle mentally.

I made some gorgeous soup out of one of my neighbours hens yesterday. There will definitely be more of that happening and I'm going to try an old recipe I haven't made for ages for chicken, peach and broccoli crumble using the slow cooked meat, I've also discovered that the gizzard tastes rather good once you get over the yuk factor and the liver, even on old hens, is fine. Just need to save a few up now to make pate for the festive season. I also made a point of rendering down that pad of yellow fat from the old hens abdomens so thanks to whoever gave me that tip off. It's amazing how it just "melts" in the pan!

Anyway, fingers crossed it all goes smoothly tonight and I'm a bit quicker at it than I was last time..

....I really can't get any slower!!! .

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to this thread as it really has helped enormously.

 

[fisherlady]

Well I'm psyching myself up to do two or three more cockerels tonight. They are pestering my hens and I'm just not having that. There are 5 of the same age (6 months) but 2 or 3 will get a reprieve till next week, as doing 5 at once is more than I can manage on my own and freezer space is limited.

I'm slowly finding what works for me and my set up and what doesn't, both processing and cooking wise. I hate not being confident of what I'm doing, so gaining a bit of experience is making the job much easier to tackle mentally.

I made some gorgeous soup out of one of my neighbours hens yesterday. There will definitely be more of that happening and I'm going to try an old recipe I haven't made for ages for chicken, peach and broccoli crumble using the slow cooked meat, I've also discovered that the gizzard tastes rather good once you get over the yuk factor and the liver, even on old hens, is fine. Just need to save a few up now to make pate for the festive season. I also made a point of rendering down that pad of yellow fat from the old hens abdomens so thanks to whoever gave me that tip off. It's amazing how it just "melts" in the pan!

Anyway, fingers crossed it all goes smoothly tonight and I'm a bit quicker at it than I was last time..

....I really can't get any slower!!! .

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to this thread as it really has helped enormously.

Glad you are getting a comfortable process worked out. One thing I do when only doing one or two at a time is strip all of the meat from the bone and tightly pack it into a bag and freeze it, then take the bones, cut apart the rib cage and freeze it separately or leave it mostly intact and make a small batch of broth. After we get two or three bags of meat we will then do a canning run and this helps reduce the freezer congestion and frequency of running the pressure cooker. Same with the bones, by saving a few carcasses you can do a larger run on the broth and possibly do enough to can it.

I gave a 'non chicken keeping' friend a couple of jars of chicken broth a while back, he used a jar to make gravy for Thanksgiving and he and his wife raved about it...they loved the texture and the lack of salt, he also took 3 more jars of broth when they were at our place for dinner Friday. I am slowly converting them!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Well I'm psyching myself up to do two or three more cockerels tonight. They are pestering my hens and I'm just not having that. There are 5 of the same age (6 months) but 2 or 3 will get a reprieve till next week, as doing 5 at once is more than I can manage on my own and freezer space is limited.

I'm slowly finding what works for me and my set up and what doesn't, both processing and cooking wise. I hate not being confident of what I'm doing, so gaining a bit of experience is making the job much easier to tackle mentally.

I made some gorgeous soup out of one of my neighbours hens yesterday. There will definitely be more of that happening and I'm going to try an old recipe I haven't made for ages for chicken, peach and broccoli crumble using the slow cooked meat, I've also discovered that the gizzard tastes rather good once you get over the yuk factor and the liver, even on old hens, is fine. Just need to save a few up now to make pate for the festive season. I also made a point of rendering down that pad of yellow fat from the old hens abdomens so thanks to whoever gave me that tip off. It's amazing how it just "melts" in the pan!

Anyway, fingers crossed it all goes smoothly tonight and I'm a bit quicker at it than I was last time..

....I really can't get any slower!!! .

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to this thread as it really has helped enormously.

 

[BantyChooks]

double post

 

[LeafBlade12345]

Well, I'm glad things worked out for you regardless. I'm sure if they are for meat that they will be slaughtered humanely. I am still in the process of educating myself about meat birds, so we can learn together I suppose.

 

[rebrascora]

I'm afraid things didn't go well for me this time, just after I thought I was building my confidence up a bit.

It all started relatively smoothly. I lifted the first bird down off the roost after dark and he was quite quiet and calm. Carried him to the feed room, held him by the legs, placed his neck under the broom shank, stood on it and gave a sharp pull... all done in a few seconds. He flapped as expected and I dropped him into my carpet cone to contain the death throws whilst I bedded down the horses in the adjoining stable. Came back a minute or two later and there was still some struggling, so I waited a bit longer and it stopped but I was horrified to see that he was still breathing and I realised he was still alive. It took me all my courage to grab his feet, pull him back out of the cone and give him a second and thankfully this time, effective "yank under the shank"
I really wanted to walk away at that point but I had set myself a target of at least 2 or 3 as it has become a welfare issue for the hens and I couldn't let it go a day longer. I went back and got the next one. He was in an awkward place to get to but I had him ear marked as being the worst offender against the hens. I have chased him off one or two of my favourite hens several times in the past couple of weeks and he has been really wary of me as a result. Of course, the moment I got hold of him he screamed blue murder. My horses who had been happily munching, came clattering out of the stable to see what the commotion was.... if there hadn't been a storm raging, I'm sure half the village would have heard. None of which did anything to calm my nerves of course. Thankfully I made a better job of necking him, but by then I needed to be home with another very large glass of rum and coke sliding down my neck. Even after that I had real trouble getting to sleep that night agonising over my incompetence at dispatching them quickly and quietly. I still haven't brought myself to process the carcasses but I must do so, otherwise it will all have been in vain.
Processing the next ones will now be even more challenging mentally and emotionally, knowing that I had that fail and the rum and coke may need to be consumed before hand for "Dutch courage.

On a positive note, the chicken peach and broccoli crumble made from my neighbour's hens was absolutely delicious. I hadn't made that recipe for years and it really hit the spot. The slow cooked meat from the hens was really tender and moist and I will be cooking that again in the very near future. so maybe that will give me a bit more incentive to dispatch the next ones.

@fisherlady

Thanks for the info re canning the meat in bulk but it seems that the equipment necessary is expensive and not readily available here in the UK. I had not even heard the term used before until joining this site, as it is not a technique widely used (if at all) over here.
I am finding the slow cooker is doing a really good job though and I'm happy to continue using that or maybe even two together to cook the main torsos after removing and freezing the leg portions. I love the fact that the meat just falls off the bone after it has been in the slow cooker and the stock makes such great soup.

 

[ronott1]

I'm afraid things didn't go well for me this time, just after I thought I was building my confidence up a bit.

It all started relatively smoothly. I lifted the first bird down off the roost after dark and he was quite quiet and calm. Carried him to the feed room, held him by the legs, placed his neck under the broom shank, stood on it and gave a sharp pull... all done in a few seconds. He flapped as expected and I dropped him into my carpet cone to contain the death throws whilst I bedded down the horses in the adjoining stable. Came back a minute or two later and there was still some struggling, so I waited a bit longer and it stopped but I was horrified to see that he was still breathing and I realised he was still alive. It took me all my courage to grab his feet, pull him back out of the cone and give him a second and thankfully this time, effective "yank under the shank"
I really wanted to walk away at that point but I had set myself a target of at least 2 or 3 as it has become a welfare issue for the hens and I couldn't let it go a day longer. I went back and got the next one. He was in an awkward place to get to but I had him ear marked as being the worst offender against the hens. I have chased him off one or two of my favourite hens several times in the past couple of weeks and he has been really wary of me as a result. Of course, the moment I got hold of him he screamed blue murder. My horses who had been happily munching, came clattering out of the stable to see what the commotion was.... if there hadn't been a storm raging, I'm sure half the village would have heard. None of which did anything to calm my nerves of course. Thankfully I made a better job of necking him, but by then I needed to be home with another very large glass of rum and coke sliding down my neck. Even after that I had real trouble getting to sleep that night agonising over my incompetence at dispatching them quickly and quietly. I still haven't brought myself to process the carcasses but I must do so, otherwise it will all have been in vain.
Processing the next ones will now be even more challenging mentally and emotionally, knowing that I had that fail and the rum and coke may need to be consumed before hand for "Dutch courage.

On a positive note, the chicken peach and broccoli crumble made from my neighbour's hens was absolutely delicious. I hadn't made that recipe for years and it really hit the spot. The slow cooked meat from the hens was really tender and moist and I will be cooking that again in the very near future. so maybe that will give me a bit more incentive to dispatch the next ones.

@fisherlady

Thanks for the info re canning the meat in bulk but it seems that the equipment necessary is expensive and not readily available here in the UK. I had not even heard the term used before until joining this site, as it is not a technique widely used (if at all) over here.
I am finding the slow cooker is doing a really good job though and I'm happy to continue using that or maybe even two together to cook the main torsos after removing and freezing the leg portions. I love the fact that the meat just falls off the bone after it has been in the slow cooker and the stock makes such great soup.

Sometimes it goes like that!

What you do is pull up and twist to one side. Then lay over the stick. I hold them there until they are for sure gone and then hang them for bleeding.