Thinking of trying an experiment.

[aart]

Sounds like a good plan!

 

[Mrs. K]

Butchering is hard, you have to just get to it. Once the deed is done, not so bad.

Last year, I bought the plucker attached to a drill head, my hobby cannot go to the $$$$ drum type. But for less than 60 bucks, this gismo really cleaned the feathers. If you are processing more than one bird at a time, it can really speed things up.

I am looking at my hens... I am pretty sure that I have 5 roosters in the chicks I have now, and 5 pullets, I need to decide on the hens who goes, and who gets another year. Butter gets to stay, she will be going on 5 if she makes the spring, but she has raised so many birds for me. That is the oldest chicken I have ever had. I don't expect too much longer. So 4 hens need to be processed.

Late October will be my harvest time.

Mrs K

 

[bobbi-j]

Butchering is hard, you have to just get to it. Once the deed is done, not so bad.

Exactly. It usually happens something like this -
Me: "We need to butcher soon. I'm running out of chicken"
DH: "OK let's do it tomorrow (or the next day or sometime very soon. The point is, we suddenly have *a day* picked)
Me: "Wait! I can't do it that day. The kitchen's not clean enough (or I have laundry to do or something else terribly "important")
DH: *sighs* "OK, we'll do it the next day, but it HAS to be done this week."
Me: "OK, I'll get working on... (whatever my excuse was not to butcher) and we can do it that day"
Seriously, I don't know how the man puts up with me...

It's the whole turning a live chicken into a dead chicken that I balk at. Once it's head is off, no biggie. Fortunately, my DH does the actual lopping - I have never had to do that, and admire those who do. If it came down to me having to kill them, I'd use a cone. Mostly because it would mean I'm doing it myself and if I tried the hatchet and stump method by myself, I'd probably end up chopping my foot off. (Let's just say I'm not overly coordinated...

) It's not even that I'm squeamish about it. It's just the whole killing of something that I've raised and cared for, even though I know that's WHY I raised and cared for it... Now - off to clean the kitchen so we can butcher tomorrow!

 

[Mrs. K]

This is so true. I have to do it myself, although most of the time my sister in law will help. I use the fish net, and a razor blade. I can catch them, and slit the jugular. If the blade is sharp, they don't even flinch, and they just get tired and weak. It works for me. I do not have the arm strength to hold a chicken and wave a hatchet, I know it would be in my leg.

Once I get that far I am ok. I start distancing myself from them as soon as I set up the bachelor pen. I don't watch them, I just feed and water and move on.

This is a tough part of this hobby.

Mrs K

 

[aart]

Hahaha..... bobbi-j.... funny post!

The killing is not easy(cone/jugular best way to go IMO), but the rest of the work (setup, cleanup, final cleaning, parting out, putting up, etc,etc,etc) that goes along with harvesting is really what puts me off, overwhelming without any help......
.....and this will be the first year I kill hens I have hatched, and gathered eggs from for a year or two, it's gonna be different.
Thinking of trying to sell some of them...might be able to trade older hens for fresh local turkey.

 

[bobbi-j]

This is so true. I have to do it myself, although most of the time my sister in law will help. I use the fish net, and a razor blade. I can catch them, and slit the jugular. If the blade is sharp, they don't even flinch, and they just get tired and weak. It works for me. I do not have the arm strength to hold a chicken and wave a hatchet, I know it would be in my leg.

Once I get that far I am ok. I start distancing myself from them as soon as I set up the bachelor pen. I don't watch them, I just feed and water and move on.

This is a tough part of this hobby.

Mrs K

Me, too! Also with my hens. Not that any of them are pets, but I do interact with them even less than I do now. There is a reason very few of them have names. It's easier for me to not name my food. Some do have names, but that's because they've kind of fallen into them. I used it to describe a bird, or it just seemed to fit.

Hahaha..... bobbi-j.... funny post!

The killing is not easy(cone/jugular best way to go IMO), but the rest of the work (setup, cleanup, final cleaning, parting out, putting up, etc,etc,etc) that goes along with harvesting is really what puts me off, overwhelming without any help......
.....and this will be the first year I kill hens I have hatched, and gathered eggs from for a year or two, it's gonna be different.
Thinking of trying to sell some of them...might be able to trade older hens for fresh local turkey.

Selling chickens around here is difficult. Most anyone who wants them has them. Trading for a turkey, though - that sounds like a great deal! I hope it will already be processed for you!

 

[bobbi-j]

On another note, the two boys I put back in with the hens/pullets have melded right back into the flock. They weren't out very long - maybe 1 1/2 weeks, and the hens could still see them and would hang around the run they were in, so maybe that's why. Anyway, Mr. Buff is running around with his little harem, and WG is hanging out somewhere. I can hear him crow, so I have a general idea of where he and his harem are. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a pretty crow. Sounds like he's being strangled. I hope he improves soon. I don't know that I've ever heard Mr. Buff crow.

 

[aart]

Yes, turkey processed and not frozen yet so I can part out before freezing.....was better than having chicken in the freezer.
Bartered for one last fall for building a goat stand.....may trade for a hoop coop build labor this year, not sure they'd even want the hens.

 

[bobbi-j]

I love bartering! Truly, I think it's becoming a thing of the past, though. We have some neighbors that we trade with. One of them was looking for a rabbit hutch. Lo and behold, we had two that hadn't been used in years. We called them up, offering to just let them have 'em to get them out of our way. We even hauled them over, and helped unload them. Before we left, the wife came out with 3 quart jars of stew that she'd canned. It was great! Another time, we told them about a fresh road-killed deer they could harvest. The next day, they gave us 2# of pork sausage from pork they'd harvested themselves the week before. Another neighbor has a salon in town where I get my hair cut. For several years, I did horse chores for her when she was gone in exchange for hair cuts.

I'd trade hens for an already processed turkey...


ETA - looks like I may have to turn my one flock into two flocks sooner rather than later. I saw Mr. Buff go after WG this afternoon. Nothing serious, and WG did back down, but you never know how long that will last. They will definitely be separated before winter.

 

[lazy gardener]

I had saved one of my cockrels, thinking his genes would color up my flock a bit. Well that boy was sowing the wild oats just a bit too much today. I thought one of the birds was in a serious molt when I saw a bunch of feathers on the ground. Then I caught him in action. He'd start tidbitting, (faking it, mind you!) and when one of the pullets came over to see what he had, he'd go into attack mode. So, tonight, I went out with red light head lamp, scooped that bad boy up, and he'd been deposited back in the cockrel pen before he knew what had happened! He's gonna have a very rough day tomorrow! If he gets beat up too much, I may have to process him tomorrow. That wasn't in my plans... but...