Three newbies attempting 8 Cornish rocks this Friday!!!

Today is the day! I have them separate from the other birds with no food, just water. One of them has a scab on her chest where something tore feathers out when she was younger. Can we still eat it? It was probably a possum. I had them in a pen on the grass one night and it must have slept next to the wire and the chunk of feathers was torn out. It was about a month ago.
 
Today is the day! I have them separate from the other birds with no food, just water. One of them has a scab on her chest where something tore feathers out when she was younger. Can we still eat it? It was probably a possum. I had them in a pen on the grass one night and it must have slept next to the wire and the chunk of feathers was torn out. It was about a month ago.
Good Luck on your endeavors today.

As far as eating the bird with the scab on her chest, you can eat her. However, if I were you, I would cut out that part of skin with 1/2 inch margin all the way around, then look under the skin to see if there is any trauma to the muscle. If so, I would trim that out as well.

Don't forget: Let the meat rest in the fridge for 2-3 days in plastic bags or in freezer-ready packages.....then put in the freezer or cook.....to prevent the meat from being tough.
 
Today is the day! I have them separate from the other birds with no food, just water. One of them has a scab on her chest where something tore feathers out when she was younger. Can we still eat it? It was probably a possum. I had them in a pen on the grass one night and it must have slept next to the wire and the chunk of feathers was torn out. It was about a month ago.
I butchered a hen who had been injured several months before by the over zealous attentions of my rooster. There was a scabby area on her skin, and the flesh under it had some tough, scar tissue. I'm sure that there would have been nothing wrong with eating the scar tissue, but for the sake of appearances, I cut it out after she had been cooked.
 
Ok thanks! We managed to do five. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The first one sprayed blood all over me, and they were too fat for the cone so we had to change our plans a few times. The Roos were too fat for the shrink wrap bags so I had to cut them up but the hens just barely squeezed in. My friend couldn't make it so it was just my sister and I with 6 kids.
 
Congratulations on "gettin' 'er done". I had a similar problem with the Cornish X I butchered this spring. Their shoulders were so wide and their necks were so short that the cone I had used with my Freedom Rangers the summer before didn't work very well. I have a bunch of Red Rangers in the brooder right now and more CX coming in the fall, so I have until then to figure out a better alternative. How many more do you have left?
 
Only three. Finishing tomorrow with my friend. She wants to know how to do it so we saved a few. 25 more cornish are coming on Wednesday.... I ordered them last week thinking they would ship at the end of the month or later. Considering selling them as chicks though. I'm already raising 45 chicks for my aunt (only until Father's Day) and a dozen ducks for my mom.
 
Congratulations on "gettin' 'er done". I had a similar problem with the Cornish X I butchered this spring. Their shoulders were so wide and their necks were so short that the cone I had used with my Freedom Rangers the summer before didn't work very well.
I ran into this problem with a couple of the bigger CX I did earlier this year. My solution was to use a rope with a slip knot to hang the bird next to the cone, cut the throat, then quickly lift the bleeding bird into the cone to bleed out. It worked well. There was some splatter getting the bird into the cone, but after that it was just a normal bleed out. I left the slip knot on until the bird was done moving. It is not perfect, but it is a lot better than sticking my hand up into the (bloody) cone to try to find the bird's head, and then feeling like I was going to pull the head off trying to get it low enough to get a good cut.
 
To assist in getting the heads down in the cones, I tied a cord to a heavy fishing sinker and looped the other end around the bird's neck. Then just drop the sinker through the hole in the bottom of the cone and guide the chicken through. The weight of the sinker helps hold the bird upside down pretty well and makes bleeding easier.
 

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