Texas

[ronniewayne]

This is a great article to read if you are thinking about raising your own Meat.

BackYard Chickens › Learning Center Articles › The Emotional Side of Chicken Processing

They have other articles on processing and they are helpful as well.
Reading these is a good step to prepare yourself for this venture and to make a decision on how to take the first step in processing which is the kill.
You will need to have everything planned out and mentally accept these steps before you purchase the chicks.

It is also important to look into what kind of Meat bird you would like to raise

if you get broilers and then decide you do not wish to eat them, These birds will not live a long happy life as they were bread for short term to be raised only for meat. You buy the chicks that you will raise / eat each year.

Dual purpose birds offer the ability to maintain your own supply of meat and eggs you can hatch your *crop* by incubating them or let them do it for you.

I have made the decision myself to raise SLW and BR as Dual purpose. HOWEVER, my family is not there yet so I will most likely wait until next spring to ready them for the Circle of Life.

I will have to handle the processing by myself and I know this ahead of time so I am prepared not to wine about not having any help.

I am actually looking forward to tasting a chicken that is Fed good feed and yummy fresh foods. No steroids or antibiotics, No GMO's
I also think I might enjoy a Home Raised Turkey or Goose for the holidays.

Due to upbringing in the city, I have been considering this for 2 years and finally feel ready.
I did however forget that preparing myself was a selfish thing to do, my family is very attached to animals of all walks of life and the Chickens are loved dearly here!
So now it is time to involve them which will put this on hold again. If I had planned and prepared with them we would all be ready now.
I hope this helps at least one of you
this is a great post with some research to back it up. from the other side of the spectrum raised way back in the country i well remember when we were 4 yrs old raised two bottle calves . named pete and repete to spotted holstiens . we slaughtered one and sold the other to cover the cost. in the country and poor and us kids didnt want to eat pete when he was served but we did. and growing up raised and slaughtered hogs and calves chickens rabbits and we hunted and fished and ate what we killed ....it really became a natural way of life the food chain is what it is life brings with it the inevitability of death . i love animals treat them well mine are always fed and cared for. when i raised 100 cornish for meat chickens my grandkids loved helping with the slaughter age 7,5,and 3 the one yr old didnt participate . but they helped catch them helped with the scalding and plucking. were there for the eviseration learned the parts .. heart lungs liver gizzard.. they really enjoy the process. all that to say it really is a mindset and we all get to eat a much better chicken,beef , whatever dinner. no steriods no arsenic no antibotics just meat the way God intended it.
on a side note it is a labor intensive job to process a large # of chickens if you cant get any help from your family i suggest you get someone that will help and take chicken in trade . i have done this if you dont know anyone go to the natural food store and put an ad on the bulletin board someone buying there will be willing to help with the processing for meat. good luck

 

[jajeanpierre]

I want to eventually have a "self sustaining" flock. Hatching your own eggs means extra roos, so I will have to learn to process them myself. DH has already said he won't help with that, he can't stand the smell! lol Thanks to jajeanpierre, I'm actually leaning towards skinning the birds instead of plucking them. That will eliminate one smelly, time consuming step.



I was wondering about that. Home raised Cornish X tastes better I'm sure than the store birds, but do they taste as good or better than a heritage chicken that has had time to grow?

My husband helps in a lot of ways when I process my chickens although I wouldn't trust him to do the actual killing. I'm no expert by any means, having only processed my extra roos and culling a hen in trouble with egg laying. He is there to give me support, clean things and clean up the mess after. His hug after I kill one is REALLY important for me. It helps when another person shares the difficulty of taking a life and appreciates what you and the chicken are going through.

I think the smell of wet feathers could be almost eliminated if the chickens were clean I think it is dirty chickens that smell so bad when dunked in the scalding water to loosen feathers. I've heard that a squirt of hand dish washing detergent in the scalding water cuts the smell. I haven't plucked a bird yet so don't really know. I don't eat skin--and certainly didn't want to look a the jet black skin of one of my dead Silkies!--so skinning seemed the right answer. It is really easy. I cut off the feathered wing tips and have had to use a knife to get the heavy feathers off around the hock joint.

There really is almost no smell when skinning. Make sure you allow your processed bird to age in the fridge or they will be as tough as shoe leather.

Having just processed three 10 months old cockerels, I can tell you I will not be allowing unwanted cockerels to get that old. They were really hard to skin and gut.

If anyone is thinking of getting Cornish Cross, the birds the commercial industry uses, just be careful how they are raised. They are bred to be growing, eating and pooping machines and are slaughtered from 6 to 8 weeks old. If you raise them like the commercial places do, you probably won't be happy with them. A lot of people on the BYC group "Processing Day Support Group~HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!" like them but treat them like their barnyard flock and have them out free ranging. The Cornish Cross grow at an incredible rate, too fast for their bodies. Raised with unlimited feed available, they often die of major organ failure or are crippled by their massive weight on their inadequate bone structure by two months old. That is why someone earlier said that you really can't change your mind about slaughtering the Cornish Cross birds--they don't grow up healthy and kind of self destruct. The people who like them don't offer them food at all times. They kick them out of the brooder early, feed them in the morning and make them free range for their food. They have voracious appetites. If you put them in a pen with food, they would plop down beside the food and not move, just eating and pooping. By limiting their access to easy food, they grow slower and get more exercise so a lot of the problems commercial facilities have with them are eliminated. Plus, you can raise them to be older before slaughter which is where the flavor comes from. The mush you buy in the stores might only be 6 or 7 weeks old. A dual purpose bird will take until something like 14 weeks to reach a good weight. That's why chickens of yesteryear tasted really good--they were older.

I've been really tempted to buy some birds strictly for meat. I probably would choose something that is a much slower grower than the Cornish Cross so that I can put off slaughtering them for weeks or months without worry that they'll eat me out of house and home or die on my from heart failure. I'm THE queen of putting off slaughtering!

I've been checking my chickies the last couple days while it is still dark out. Yesterday morning and last night, they were not using the heat plate. It's in the low 40's here this morning, so fixing to go check them. They have been piled up in the corner instead of using the heat plate. Plenty of room for them to get under it. Just seems that they have enough feathers that they don't need it. My Orps have the least feathers, but they aren't using it either. Looks like it may be time to clean it up and pack it away for next time. They are 4, 5 and 6 weeks old.

I found that my Ameraucana chicks didn't get under the heat plate if it was too close to the ground and they got too hot. I found they weren't always smart about getting under the brooder to get warm and sometimes were very cold in a pile in a corner. Mama hen wouldn't have allowed it to happen. I finally pulled the heat source out of my brooder that they sleep in (I am hoping they are now out all day--I hate chicks in my office!).

 

[henless]

Is there anything I am missing beside lumber?

How about screws and washers to put up the hardware cloth and longer screws to put the wood together? Don't forget the hinges, door handles, and door latches. Also be sure and get a latch for inside the coop or run.

I went through a lot of screws/washers putting up the cloth. DH said it was overkill. I said better safe than sorry!

 

[jajeanpierre]

That is a really interesting color. It looks like she is carrying the blue gene which dilutes the black color.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Another one in Douglasville. It's a TSC coop, origional cost 220.00, asking 150.00.

http://texarkana.craigslist.org/grd/4382692748.html

I've seen that coop for sale brand new and it is really rickety.

 

[SlipsWife]

I've seen that coop for sale brand new and it is really rickety.

x2 its also tiny in person

 

[SlipsWife]

Awww

It's sad when our "kids" grow up and leave us behind!

On the bathroom! LOL

I have a question for you Lisa. Do you remember the pic of the brown looking EE you posted? I had one that was colored the same way. Do you know which one of your flock it was? I was wondering what color it was now. Mine is a funny color. Kind of a silvery/blue with red on it. I'll try and get a better pic today while she/he is out in the coop.

Then



Now

We had a couple in our last group that look similar. I only kept 1 that looks like her. I saw on another thread that hatcheries sometimes start breeding their EE's with their better layers to help with production. Since they are 'technically' mutts...they can get away with it. Now I'm a little concerned that the one we have may be part of that group, she looks almost exactly like our Cinnamon Queens as far as feather coloring with a little bit of blue undertone (which is why I kept her). She wasn't dark brown to start with though. She does have the darkish legs and pea comb, which is the only way I can tell her apart from the sexlinks.


That may not be her, but the 2 looked pretty similar. She has a little more red now and the blue coloring on her head is gone.

She's one of the 2 on the left.

I can't get over how yours started off so dark and yet we have almost the same coloring!!!

 

[A1momof3]

How about screws and washers to put up the hardware cloth and longer screws to put the wood together? Don't forget the hinges, door handles, and door latches. Also be sure and get a latch for inside the coop or run.

I went through a lot of screws/washers putting up the cloth. DH said it was overkill. I said better safe than sorry!

DH has a LOT of screws and washers. It seems every time we do a new project we buy a box of screws, so I will make him check to see what we have and then put down what we need. Good thinking, because I always forget to have him check. LOL Hinges, door handles and latches, that would have been one of those.... ooops got to run to the store moments. What is the latch inside the coop/run for?
Hey when to comes to safely, I'm not sure there is an over kill. The only Over kill I could see is if I didn't and something got into my coop.... then Over kill is what would happen to who ever told me not to use to many screws and washers...

x2 its also tiny in person

ok I have seen more than one person use this x2.
Please explain.

Well, today I finished and got my sons application to the Naval Academy completed and summited. He is also applying to go to the Summer Semester this year so we are Praying he gets selected for the summer semester and then the work begins for the other things we have to do for the Academy selection.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

Ok ya'll with way more experience than I have help me out here.....
I am trying to make sure I have all the special things that I need for my coop and run, so that way when DH gets here this week the only real things we have to go get would be the lumber type items and I am not even going to try to guess.... besides he like to do the lumber part.

But I am talking about the important stuff every coop needs.

I have ordered the motor for the coop door, I have ordered the nipples for water system, I am going to get the rain barrels, I have the buckets and supplies to make the feeders, I have already gotten a good amount of hardware cloth and chicken wire purchased, .....

What else is important to make sure I have, something that isn't easy to find that I need to go ahead and order??? I am trying to make sure we don't run into something that will stop progress and I want to make things as simple as possible for DH, he doesn't like to have to stop a lot and run to the store.

Is there anything I am missing beside lumber?

Do you have hardware cloth?

DH has a LOT of screws and washers. It seems every time we do a new project we buy a box of screws, so I will make him check to see what we have and then put down what we need. Good thinking, because I always forget to have him check. LOL Hinges, door handles and latches, that would have been one of those.... ooops got to run to the store moments. What is the latch inside the coop/run for?
Hey when to comes to safely, I'm not sure there is an over kill. The only Over kill I could see is if I didn't and something got into my coop.... then Over kill is what would happen to who ever told me not to use to many screws and washers...

ok I have seen more than one person use this x2.
Please explain.

Well, today I finished and got my sons application to the Naval Academy completed and summited. He is also applying to go to the Summer Semester this year so we are Praying he gets selected for the summer semester and then the work begins for the other things we have to do for the Academy selection.

The latch inside keeps the door closed so the chickens can't get out if you don't want them too.

 

[tjo804]

Ok ya'll with way more experience than I have help me out here.....
I am trying to make sure I have all the special things that I need for my coop and run, so that way when DH gets here this week the only real things we have to go get would be the lumber type items and I am not even going to try to guess.... besides he like to do the lumber part.

But I am talking about the important stuff every coop needs.

I have ordered the motor for the coop door, I have ordered the nipples for water system, I am going to get the rain barrels, I have the buckets and supplies to make the feeders, I have already gotten a good amount of hardware cloth and chicken wire purchased, .....

What else is important to make sure I have, something that isn't easy to find that I need to go ahead and order??? I am trying to make sure we don't run into something that will stop progress and I want to make things as simple as possible for DH, he doesn't like to have to stop a lot and run to the store.

Is there anything I am missing beside lumber?

This is a time thing not an order thing
My DH really likes things done right the first time and it is important to him with any building project from fences to buildings to have a level prepared surface. As well as a VERY CLEAR idea of what I want.

without those two things projects can seem to take forever even if they didn't.