The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Bulldogma]

My less-impressive Dark Cornish roo - Brewster the rooster.

 

[DarkRedBird]

I haven't read all of the posts on this thread but I would like to mention buckeyes as a natural chicken. They are a great dual purpose standard bred chicken that will thrive in almost any condition. Very good foragers, deal well in cold climates, and taste great. A good line will produce 200+ eggs a year. Anyone want any more info on the breed you can visit my thread or pm me for details. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/736801/buckeye-chicken-breeders

 

[Marengoite]

I once thought I could never, ever Kill one of my chickens - or any other animal, for that matter. Then I had an injured bird and there was nobody about but me to put her out of her misery. It was hard, and I cried...

Fast forward a few months and, while killing will never be easy, I have a different view on it now. I believe I'd rather eat meat that I know came from a well treated, free ranged, happy bird than from some poor creature that lived its short life stuffed in a small wire cage with 4 other unhappy birds - never to have the sun shine on its back.

Oddly enough, over these past few months, that very philosophy has led me to want to raise my own meat birds, knowing that I could raise them well and give them a humane death.

From my perspective, I'd rather dispatch my own for the pot. I KNOW for a fact they were raised well and treated well the entire time I had them. And just as importantly, they died well because I make sure the knife was sharp, the cut was quick, and they went out on the farm they were raised on. No traumatic ride to some strange place. Dispatching your own birds is the ultimate humane treatment, in my opinion.

Now, for the record, I don't do my own turkeys because I don't have the equipment for a bird that big, but I stick with them the whole time. None of this dropping off and coming back the next day. It helps that these are Mennonites who raise their own poultry and do things cleanly and humanely as well as a family operation. It fits in with my overall philosophy. And someday I might have the setup I dream of and will be able to process the big birds too.

 

[PeepsCA]

Sorry for the late, multiple quote reply... I'm in CA, so I'm a few hours behind most of you (and I'm always out feeding watering and then cooking while you guys are posting away, lol).

Never pith killed. Sounds like something to look into or at least trying. So after you insert a knife into the roof of the mouth and hopefully brain kill them, can you miss? Does the heart continue to pump? It sounds like it might be instantanious at least from the birds point of view. How do you do this. What equipment do you use?

I use a fillet knife to pith my birds, tho they do make special tools just for the task... I open the bird's mouth, poke the knife up thru the slit in the roof of the mouth, (level with the eye and straight back), and then give it a twist. I think I have a link to pics showing the correct angle and precise instructions, if you are interested I can look for it. Actually the OT'r that taught me this method was a mobile butcher that I had come butcher 6 of my extra male Guineas back in 2011.. he (and his son) make a living making ranch calls to butcher/process turkeys (lots for the 4-H groups), chickens, game birds/pheasants etc. He piths all birds, but also scalds them and runs them thru a super fast plucking machine before butchering.

I have been considering pitching when I get my meat birds this spring. There is a farmer down the road who will train me first, and I'm grateful fr the lesson. If they truly do not need to be scalded if this is done correctly, then this would be my preferred method. Does it still work if you do the throat first? Have seen it suggested to do it either way.

I have been told by another OT'r friend that he slices the jugular first, gets them bleeding out, and then he piths them... I have never bled any of my Guineas out first tho, I prefer to leave it in my mind that the birds do not feel their necks being sliced after they are pithed (this is JMPO tho, may or may not be fact). Going by the info from my OT'r friend that I very much trust I'd say it will work either way. My main reasoning for pithing first is so they don't feel the knife cut...
And if I raise meaties, they are getting pithed.

Quote: Personal choice for me, but I figure it to also be a practical one... I sometimes sell my Guinea feathers to fishermen who tie their own fishing flies/make their own lures, or to artists that use them for artwork and jewelry... can't do that with a pile of messy, wet, matted up feathers, so dry plucking a few Guineas each season now pays for a bag of feed or 2. Sometimes I just pith, slice the jugular and then skin the bird if I am not going to roast them in the oven... then I salt/dry and sell those skins (with wings attached), whole. I actually get more money for a skin than I do for a live bird!

Quote: Sorry Angela, but X2 for Stormy's reply.

 

[delisha]

We're back home and no new eggs from our Blue maran. So she laid her first last Thursday, was singing an egg song on Friday morning for about a half hour and then say in the nesting box on Fri for an hour and nothing! I need some patience!!

Welcome home jen

How was the skiing for everyone else since you do not ski.

Yes..pullets can be wierd. It takes some birds months to get it together.

 

[Mumsy]

From my perspective, I'd rather dispatch my own for the pot. I KNOW for a fact they were raised well and treated well the entire time I had them. And just as importantly, they died well because I make sure the knife was sharp, the cut was quick, and they went out on the farm they were raised on. No traumatic ride to some strange place. Dispatching your own birds is the ultimate humane treatment, in my opinion.

Now, for the record, I don't do my own turkeys because I don't have the equipment for a bird that big, but I stick with them the whole time. None of this dropping off and coming back the next day. It helps that these are Mennonites who raise their own poultry and do things cleanly and humanely as well as a family operation. It fits in with my overall philosophy. And someday I might have the setup I dream of and will be able to process the big birds too.

I agree with everything you say.
I'll be getting my first turkey poults soon. My family will be going in on the feed and butchering. We are tentatively thinking about butchering at about 26 weeks. Heritage Bronze. This is the set up but with a much larger pot for the scalding. Do you think this will work?

 

[delisha]

I apologise for those who are sensitive about killing. It is hard to be realistic and flower coat what happens to the chicken on my plate. I am not being cruel or hard. I am being a responsible chicken lover. I love my chickens. I kill my chickens. I eat my chickens. It is in my chickens best interest for me to learn every thing I possibly can about them, including killing them. I have used the same method for killing for 30 years. I am always open to new ideas. If it makes sence I like to try. Sometimes even if it does not make sence I like to try. Chickens do not live forever. They have a really short life span. Planning for there death is as important as planning for there life. My chickens serve my purpose. I have them to lay eggs. If they stop, there is something wrong. I can pretend there is not, and keep feeding them. I can hope they will be ok, and keep feeding them. I can even get upset they stopped laying and keep feeding them. I can waite and hope they will start again, while I keep feeding them, or I can feed my family. They are my yard decorations and entertainment. I do not want to see a bald, limping, wheezing, scraggly chicken. i want healthy, vibrant, dirt flinging chickens.That is not going to happen with out killing.

 

[delisha]

Mumsy,

I have never killed a turkey. I have never raised a turkey. I purchased some back in I think 1980. they did not last 2 days. I was told from the people I got them from they would be ok with my ducklings. I decided they were not for me to raise.

 

[Mumsy]

Mumsy,

I have never killed a turkey. I have never raised a turkey. I purchased some back in I think 1980. they did not last 2 days. I was told from the people I got them from they would be ok with my ducklings. I decided they were not for me to raise.

I have never raised a turkey or killed one either but my oldest daughter and family want to do it together with us raising them. I only know one story about turkeys from my dad. He is 84 years old and he was in charge of his families turkeys when he was a boy during the Great Depression. His story goes something like this. My dad: "I kept that flock of ten turkeys and would send them out to forage all day when they were young. Then I would bring them back to the coop. Every day, this is what I would do. Then one day those stupid turkeys figured they could fly. So up they all fly in one big flapping mess of a flock! Around the property they flew! Over the house! Over the barn! Then they all flew into the trees and broke thier xxxx necks! Every blasted one of them! I hate turkeys. They are the stoopidest of birds."
True story. Still makes me laugh to hear my dear old dad tell it. Umm...My run attached to my turkey hoop coop has bird netting firmly set on.
No xxxx stoopid turkeys will be flying into the trees if I have anything to do with it! Seriously though...I plan on raising four to butcher and two to keep as breeders. All hands on deck on butchering day.

 

[zinia8]

I apologise for those who are sensitive about killing. It is hard to be realistic and flower coat what happens to the chicken on my plate. I am not being cruel or hard. I am being a responsible chicken lover. I love my chickens. I kill my chickens. I eat my chickens. It is in my chickens best interest for me to learn every thing I possibly can about them, including killing them. I have used the same method for killing for 30 years. I am always open to new ideas. If it makes sence I like to try. Sometimes even if it does not make sence I like to try. Chickens do not live forever. They have a really short life span. Planning for there death is as important as planning for there life. My chickens serve my purpose. I have them to lay eggs. If they stop, there is something wrong. I can pretend there is not, and keep feeding them. I can hope they will be ok, and keep feeding them. I can even get upset they stopped laying and keep feeding them. I can waite and hope they will start again, while I keep feeding them, or I can feed my family. They are my yard decorations and entertainment. I do not want to see a bald, limping, wheezing, scraggly chicken. i want healthy, vibrant, dirt flinging chickens.That is not going to happen with out killing.

X2 one day I will work up enough nerve to butcher. And with all the info I gather from here it may make that day easier.

I have never raised a turkey or killed one either but my oldest daughter and family want to do it together with us raising them. I only know one story about turkeys from my dad. He is 84 years old and he was in charge of his families turkeys when he was a boy during the Great Depression. His story goes something like this. My dad: "I kept that flock of ten turkeys and would send them out to forage all day when they were young. Then I would bring them back to the coop. Every day, this is what I would do. Then one day those stupid turkeys figured they could fly. So up they all fly in one big flapping mess of a flock! Around the property they flew! Over the house! Over the barn! Then they all flew into the trees and broke thier xxxx necks! Every blasted one of them! I hate turkeys. They are the stoopidest of birds."
True story. Still makes me laugh to hear my dear old dad tell it. Umm...My run attached to my turkey hoop coop has bird netting firmly set on.
No xxxx stoopid turkeys will be flying into the trees if I have anything to do with it!  Seriously though...I plan on raising four to butcher and two to keep as breeders. All hands on deck on butchering day.

Love the story. Made me laugh.