The Moonshiner's Leghorns

[Amer]

This is something that happened to me
Spring/Summer
"Do you have pullets available?"
Me: "Not right now, but I can put you on the waitlist."
Fall
Me going down the waitlist: "I finally have pullets available do you want some?"
"No."
Winter/Spring
"Do you sell chicks or hatching eggs??"

whY dIdnT yOu neEd theM LaST FaLl

 

[Amer]

Okay maybe she was moving or something. I guess I don't know her life.

 

[KF0002]

Oh I know all that/have done all that
It just was interesting to know about the field dressing. I have cut just the breasts off birds but not the legs too.

The thigh and drumstick meat of a rooster is pretty tough and dark, especially if he has reached sexual maturity. We don't prefer dark meat, so the dogs usually get the leg quarters. Dogs can have uncooked poultry bones with no issues because they don't splinter. But if you like dark meat, you can pressure cook the thighs to shred for chicken taco meat or something similar. Rooster meat cannot be fried or roasted once the bird has gotten past 4 months old, as the meat is too tough. So the Instant Pot gets used pretty regularly around here to tenderize rooster breast meat for shredding. A rooster at 4 months old doesn't have much meat to him, unless he is a broiler so we let them fill out and butcher them once they are older.

We hope to order more broilers next year to fill the freezer. Whether you get pullets or cockerel broilers, they dress out very nice. The roosters just dress out heavier. It is best to keep them in a movable chicken tractor or in a wire bottomed pen because they are disgusting creatures though. lol

 

[Amer]

The thigh and drumstick meat of a rooster is pretty tough and dark, especially if he has reached sexual maturity. We don't prefer dark meat, so the dogs usually get the leg quarters. Dogs can have uncooked poultry bones with no issues because they don't splinter. But if you like dark meat, you can pressure cook the thighs to shred for chicken taco meat or something similar. Rooster meat cannot be fried or roasted once the bird has gotten past 4 months old, as the meat is too tough. So the Instant Pot gets used pretty regularly around here to tenderize rooster breast meat for shredding. A rooster at 4 months old doesn't have much meat to him, unless he is a broiler so we let them fill out and butcher them once they are older.

We hope to order more broilers next year to fill the freezer. Whether you get pullets or cockerel broilers, they dress out very nice. The roosters just dress out heavier. It is best to keep them in a movable chicken tractor or in a wire bottomed pen because they are disgusting creatures though. lol

Once I cleaned and skinned 6 bantam Buckeye cockerels, slow cooked them three at a time until they were so tender the legs started to fall off, and then peeled that meat off by hand. I used it for pot pie and soup
It tasted how it normally would

 

[KF0002]

I've never had a problem selling d'Anvers pullets for 35 each, what I have trouble with is people asking for birds when I don't have any (that's fine I'll put you on the waitlist.)
But what's worse is someone will ask about d'Anvers on the Facebook group and people will immediately throw out my name even if I'm not remotely close by nor do I have the requested variety and I don't sell eggs or chicks. It's nice being famous but... I don't think my birds are as good as you're making them to be. There are many breeders out there who are far better.

That is quite the compliment though! What burns me up is that I couldn't get any money for my Marans just a few short years ago, and they were good quality and laid nice dark brown eggs. But NOW people are coming out of the woodwork, messaging me asking for Marans pullets, chicks, or eggs, and I only have my old girls free ranging with the layers. I live in an area where poverty is pretty high, and there is a high volume of unemployed, able-bodied people who live off the government. They just think everything should be given to them for nothing, and they don't want to pay for anything.

 

[KF0002]

Once I cleaned and skinned 6 bantam Buckeye cockerels, slow cooked them three at a time until they were so tender the legs started to fall off, and then peeled that meat off by hand. I used it for pot pie and soup
It tasted how it normally wouldView attachment 4112972

Those little birds dress out pretty nice! How older were they?

 

[The Moonshiner]

Slow start today. Got up started my morning routine. Started the coffee pot went and laid down for a few to watch TV while I waited on it. Woke up 2 1/2 hours later. WTH
I work weekends so Fridays are kind of like my Sunday. Extra getting ready for the week BS.
Got chores done and 2 more pens ready. Probably should go ahead and get one or two of my bigger pens ready soon. Tried to do some more inventory to decide who to put with who but kept getting distracted by..... I should just eat you, and you, and definitely you, lol.
I've got a couple splash silver duckwing girls so need someone to cover them. Thinking of this single barring gene silver duckwing male I kind of like. That should give me a bit of variety plus I can throw in some regular SD females.
Also got some solid splash girls. Probably just use a black rooster with them.
Two larger groups I need to set up is blue gold duckwing and then sort out the blue/black situation. I think for the largest group I'll do blue females (and maybe some splash) with two black roosters.
Got a few of that chocolate project I started cockerels. Extended black/gold duckwing split to chocolate. Probably throw one of those with a few gold duckwing girls and see if I can hatch a couple chocolate gold duckwing pullets. I'd like to see how they look to decide if I should toss the idea or continue with limited numbers. I think I'm gonna scrap the solid chocolate idea. Too boring.

 

[KF0002]

This is something that happened to me
Spring/Summer
"Do you have pullets available?"
Me: "Not right now, but I can put you on the waitlist."
Fall
Me going down the waitlist: "I finally have pullets available do you want some?"
"No."
Winter/Spring
"Do you sell chicks or hatching eggs??"

whY dIdnT yOu neEd theM LaST FaLl

Guess why people want birds in the spring versus fall? Because they don't want to take care of them over winter. People will bum the fire out of me for turkey poults and grown turkeys in the spring, but you can't sell anything in the fall. Because they don't want to have to feed them over winter when they aren't laying. I won't sell grown birds in the spring for that reason. If I can't sell the extras in the fall, we eat them.

 

[KF0002]

Slow start today. Got up started my morning routine. Started the coffee pot went and laid down for a few to watch TV while I waited on it. Woke up 2 1/2 hours later. WTH
I work weekends so Fridays are kind of like my Sunday. Extra getting ready for the week BS.
Got chores done and 2 more pens ready. Probably should go ahead and get one or two of my bigger pens ready soon. Tried to do some more inventory to decide who to put with who but kept getting distracted by..... I should just eat you, and you, and definitely you, lol.
I've got a couple splash silver duckwing girls so need someone to cover them. Thinking of this single barring gene silver duckwing male I kind of like. That should give me a bit of variety plus I can throw in some regular SD females.
Also got some solid splash girls. Probably just use a black rooster with them.
Two larger groups I need to set up is blue gold duckwing and then sort out the blue/black situation. I think for the largest group I'll do blue females (and maybe some splash) with two black roosters.
Got a few of that chocolate project I started cockerels. Extended black/gold duckwing split to chocolate. Probably throw one of those with a few gold duckwing girls and see if I can hatch a couple chocolate gold duckwing pullets. I'd like to see how they look to decide if I should toss the idea or continue with limited numbers. I think I'm gonna scrap the solid chocolate idea. Too boring.

Oooh the chocolate gold duckwing and even silver chocolate duckwing would be so lovely! I can't wait to see those! I love chocolate in chickens and turkeys.

Definitely try to eat a few cull roosters this year. Practice on one and get a feel for disarticulating the joints of the shanks and hips. Field dress them and pull off the skin off the areas you need to expose the edible meat of the breast and leg quarters, then dispose of the carcass. No gutting necessary. It's not hard at all. You just need a sharp knife. I love chicken and dumplings with rooster breast meat, it makes it more flavorful. And turkey and dumplings are *chef's kiss.*

 

[The Moonshiner]

That is quite the compliment though! What burns me up is that I couldn't get any money for my Marans just a few short years ago, and they were good quality and laid nice dark brown eggs. But NOW people are coming out of the woodwork, messaging me asking for Marans pullets, chicks, or eggs, and I only have my old girls free ranging with the layers. I live in an area where poverty is pretty high, and there is a high volume of unemployed, able-bodied people who live off the government. They just think everything should be given to them for nothing, and they don't want to pay for anything.

Preach.
Someone same here but probably not as bad. I remember after Covid was in full swing Missouri made it easy to collect unemployment and tacked on like $500 a week extra.
My brother was bringing in $900 something a week and like many was whining about no jobs available. Well ya none for someone not looking and hanging at someone's lake house fishing everyday while I'm getting up at the @sscrack of dawn, working my butt off to clear half what you're getting.
They eventually cut the benefits but him and many drew it for 2 years.
We were raised by a single mom that never took help unless things got extremely desperate and she lost a job or transportation or something and then she'd go over the top to get back to not receiving it. Pissed me off at the time that my brother took the lazy route.
End rant.