The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Quote:
They will be slow cooked most of the time. We love using ours. Throw everything in and walk away. Maybe once we are having lots to process and what not may try the plucking thing. Time will tell.

 

[Bulldogma]

I got a good start on it. My brain is kinda fried tonight.... so I may take the night off

I'm stuffed from our delicious chicken dinner

LOL - enjoy your evening!

They will be slow cooked most of the time. We love using ours. Throw everything in and walk away. Maybe once we are having lots to process and what not may try the plucking thing. Time will tell.

Y'all are making me hungry... and I already had dinner! My mouth is watering for fresh chicken now - LOL!

I plucked the birds I processed... it was a lot easier than I had anticipated. I missed a few of the tiny little pin feathers, but barely noticed them once the birds (guineas) were cooked.

 

[stonykill]

I kind-of thought that if I did them at my house I wouldn't use the torch either. We just went with what they were doing. In fact, the guy torched his way more that we did ours. He ran the torch enough that is shrunk the skin down tight on the bird. I didn't really like that and thought I'd try doing it totally without the torch at all. So...good to hear you do it that way!

Leah's it just takes practice to find the technique that works for you. I had a lot of practice as a teenager plucking 25 to 30 turkeys in a day every year.

Turtles for years after plucking all of those turkeys as a teen when I killed any bird hunting (usually a turkey) I would skin it. Then I just perfected my plucking technique. I really don't blame you. Plucking is the worst part of the job. But with practice it doesn'tt take that long.

 

[pcappy2]

Very interesting pictures of your butchering process. Thank you for posting them. Ordered some meat chicks and have been trying to learn what I can on the whole process. I do work with a gal that takes them in for processing. Hoping we could save some money if we do it ourselfs, so thanks for posting your experience. One question,,,,,why did he torch the legs?

 

[aoxa]

is H for heritage or hatchery? I so despise acronyms.... lol

H is for heritage. PQ is hatchery quality (or pet quality)

Yeah it's a lot to take in!

 

[Bulldogma]

H is for heritage. PQ is hatchery quality (or pet quality)

Yeah it's a lot to take in!

Will there be a pop quiz??

 

[Leahs Mom]

Very interesting pictures of your butchering process. Thank you for posting them. Ordered some meat chicks and have been trying to learn what I can on the whole process. I do work with a gal that takes them in for processing. Hoping we could save some money if we do it ourselfs, so thanks for posting your experience. One question,,,,,why did he torch the legs?

I'm not sure.

I do know that when I looked at those legs I thought they had scaly leg mites. They were huge legs so maybe I was just mistaking that. But I was thinking that if I were going to use those legs it was probably better that he did torch them. Perhaps that's what he was thinking but I didn't ask! Maybe I can ask him the next time I see him.

I would have taken the legs from ours except for the fact that I thought they had mites.

Something else I didn't say before. I always hear folks say how much they stink when they put them in the pot to loosen up the feathers.
I actually thought they smelled like wet dogs!

 

[aoxa]

I agree, I am only steering clear because I know if I buy non-hatchery birds they are usually better treated(not crammed into a space) and can usually see the conditions the parent stock are raised in. My rooster and my wife's Silkies are from breeders, and I have one chick from my own back yard eggs. After a couple of more culls in the future and new acquisitions, I will be pretty much self sustaining my flock from there(unless something wipes out a large portion of the flock). Extra boys will be processed and eaten.

Trust me, you do not want to get silkies from any hatchery. They look terrible, and are prone to crooked beak and all sorts of defects.

I like the way Ideal treats their birds best out of all the hatcheries I've researched. They don't cram them together, and I've seen more breeders that do that than Ideal.

 

[aoxa]

These are my pure Araucanas. I only have two ameracauans and they are a brow/black color and lay a green egg. One is a crossbeak but she lays pretty green eggs and gets fed in a special deep feeder. I have some pure blue ameracauna hatching eggs coming this week. Their parents have the beards/muffs and are just gorgeous! I can't wait to get them. From what I understand, they lay a blue egg.
Angela

You have a hen with the same name as my ewe! hehehe

(Fancy)

 

[aoxa]

Fantastic post! Thank you for sharing!

Agree! I found them burning the feet odd. The outer part just peels away after boiled, and that's what you make stock with (though both my MIL and my fiance refuse to use chicken feet for soup).