processing leftovers

[fostermom55]

What do you do with what is left after you process your chicken. So far I have been processing one every few days. I have buried the parts left over. Wondering how others dispose of the remains, so it doesn't attract predators.

 

[Battlepants]

Here's my plan for when I process my chickens:
Meat with skin - Freezer (obviously)
Bones and cookable organs - soup/broth
*After being spent in making soup/broth, the bones would then be burnt and the ash put on the fruit trees.
Feet - Dehydrator, then given to the dogs as a treat
Blood - ideally, I would be working over a future garden bed, so just let right into the ground
Feathers, head and other organs not fit to eat - burned and then the ash spread around the fruit trees or in the garden

One of my motivators is finding a use for every piece of the chicken. Even if it just goes to growing future food or given to our dogs. That being said, I welcome any other suggestions on useful things to do with remains.

 

[raingarden]

A lot of our feed cost goes to produce those pieces and parts that are wasted in the end. It's too bad there is not an easy way to up-cycle it. Black soldier flies perhaps? Feather meal?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I burn my "extras" - head, feathers, feet, bones after soup/stock, then mix that ash back into the run where it joins everything else in the deep litter becoming compost. Or I use it to top dress an existing raised bed.

 

[3KillerBs]

I haven't done processing on a larger scale, but so far I have just sent all the stuff I can't use for stock or feed back to the chickens into the trash the same as I would after processing grocery-store chickens.

If you're not using the feet check this out: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-to-knock-a-chickens-socks-off.77405/

 

[Isadora]

We use the bones for stock, dehydrate the chicken feet for our dog, save the hearts as treats for our cats/dog, and keep the liver for ourselves. Actual guts I bury in the garden or throw in the trash.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Wondering how others dispose of the remains, so it doesn't attract predators.

Like others I save various parts for the dogs or to make stock in addition to what we eat. When I butcher I keep two buckets handy. One bucket gets the parts that I feed back to the "survivors". In that goes fat, bits of meat or bits, the lungs, gonads, and the guts cut into 2 to 3 inch pieces. I only keep enough that they can clean it up before dark. When I'm cutting the guts I check them for roundworms or tapeworms to see if the flock is infected.

I bury the head, feathers, and such either in my garden or the orchard. Usually in the garden which has a fence around it that keeps dogs, foxes, and coyotes out. I don't worry about that getting dug up. If I bury it in the orchard I put a section of wire mesh over it and weight that down with pavers to keep critters from digging it up.

 

[K0k0shka]

There's very little left over here, because we eat what others might consider waste (head, feet, all the organs, etc.) The only ting left over is the feathers, crop and intestines. Not much so it goes in the trash.