- Thread starter
- #31
aliciaFarmer
Songster
PS I would LOVE to try one of those rotisseries!
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
I butchered 13 broilers all on one day. It is a lot of work. My husband ended up helping me do the last 6. He dipped them and ran them through the plucker before he gave them to me to butcher. My first batch was only 4 Cornish X, and I was glad that I started with a small batch to figure out the whole process..
That was my first time doing this also with the 25. It was not bad at all. I would say the most work aside for keeping fresh water and moving the pen comes on processing day. We did all 25 at just over 9 weeks old took 3 of us 6 hours from start to finish granted there was also alot of beer consuming going on which may have slowed us down some. You could very easy split up the processing and do some every week or every other week nothing says they all have to go the same day. I to was thinking about doing some meat rabbits I have two females now and i may bring in a male in the future. I have never done meat rabbits but I hear its alot easier than chickens. Good luck with your venture.That's fantastic! I hadn't thought to keep so many in a smaller place like that because I thought it could be messy, but moving it frequently makes perfect sense. I had planned on them just being inside until about 3 weeks, then only in a coop at night and free ranging in about 1500sf from sunrise to sunset.
To start though, I decided that 12 is plenty for my first time around. Then I'll probably do 30ish or more twice a year. I just don't want to overwhelm myself the first time, especially because I want to do meat rabbits as well.
It was great, nice crispy skin. My mother is a sucker for all the infomercials. She buys all the stuff and it usually sits in the box unused later to be given to myself or my sister. I have it all from the pressure cooker to the Shamwows!!PS I would LOVE to try one of those rotisseries!
That was my first time doing this also with the 25. It was not bad at all. I would say the most work aside for keeping fresh water and moving the pen comes on processing day. We did all 25 at just over 9 weeks old took 3 of us 6 hours from start to finish granted there was also alot of beer consuming going on which may have slowed us down some. You could very easy split up the processing and do some every week or every other week nothing says they all have to go the same day. I to was thinking about doing some meat rabbits I have two females now and i may bring in a male in the future. I have never done meat rabbits but I hear its alot easier than chickens. Good luck with your venture.
Also YouTube was a great tool on learning how to eviscerate the chicken.
You could very easy split up the processing and do some every week or every other week nothing says they all have to go the same day.
She is more the "Meat comes on a tray and wrapped in plastic" type of gal. To give her credit, she is a pharmacist so being a germ-a-phobe is understandable.
I'm curious as to why she would think that the birds coming out of a factory farm and commercial slaughterhouse are more sanitary. The one thing I love about raising and processing my own is that I know that my birds were raised in fresh air, clean bedding and an open, and non-crowded environment, and that my butchering area is very clean.
I think I did read something about some people "resting" for a couple days before freezing. I guess it's to make it more tender? I really don't know. What we did was take a new rubber made plastic garage can, line with a heavy duty garbage bag. I put 2 of the large bags of ice in the garbage can and added some water. As I finished cleaning the birds I would drop them into the "icebath" always keeping an eye on the water level and made sure there was ice in it, adding more ice as needed.Once done with all 25 we had a few more beers then started the packaging into the heat shrink bags. I gave many away with great reviews from everyone. I don't know what the resting would do, they were not tough, nor did anyone else mention anything about toughness. By the way 25 birds fit perfectly in the large Rubbermaid garbage can. I will definitely do the same way next year.First, we can rest the birds in the fridge for a couple of days before further processing and freezing. Otherwise, I guess we would be managing the resting period in big coolers, which seems like a pain.