What age do you slaughter?

[justusnak]

Well....yesterday my "freezer pops" ( CornishX) turned 7 weeks. Im not sure whats the dress weight will be, but right now they are weighing in about 7 or 8 pounds each. they have had a great life...and will be great in the freezer too!

As far as butchering....we will opt for the chopping block and hatchet. It is a lot of work...and messy..but to us...they are food...and it would be wrong to make them suffer the summer heat. We will not skin them...as some do...plucking these cornishX is not as hard as say a dual chicken. Good luck to all you first timers....the first one is the hardest...after that, it does get easier.

 

[silkiechicken]

Quote:
Are you serious! You got cornish x to get to 6 mo old AND they were only just over 6 lbs dressed!

As for dressed weight, figure it will be about 75% of their live weight, with live weight measured after 12 hours w/o food.

 

[4H kids and mom]

I am raising the Cornish X now too, and I'm glad. I had fallen in love with our extra Ameraucana boys and dont think I would have had the heart to cull them, so we sold them. They weren't meaty anyway and would have been a disappointment and waste of time to cull IMO.

I am a little worried about culling these Cornish. I will be all on my own to do it, with DH away much of the time, and I'd really like one of his meals home with us to be a chicken I raised, culled, dressed, and cooked! But, seriously, how hard is it to do the deed when its time? Also, should I skin them or pluck them? Which is easiest on a first-timer?

 

[bmarshall61]

It is tough but you have to do it, otherwise your hens will be broken down from to much attention. I have some really hard choices to make but what I have done in the past is do it all in one day, put them in the freezer and forget it for about a month. It easier if you wait awhile and you sure can taste the difference for the medicated things you buy in the stores.

 

[pueawjapygrta]

you have to treat as a job that has to be done, and you'll be fine.

it's not what I'd call "fun", but not many jobs are fun. I plucked my first batch, it wasn't too bad, it all depends on what you want. a lot of people skin because it is easier..

 

[4H kids and mom]

I was thinking of skinning just for that reason, that its easier. But my DH loves the skin on when grilling, so I may have to just get over it and pluck half of them to appease him...lol

After all, he's been so sweet about all these chickens everywhere! lol

I've looked in Storey's guide, and yes the section on butchering is detailed, but it doesn't go into plucking that much. Is it easy to do with the Cornish? Will I end up with little "hairs" that I'll have to scorch off?

I personally, dont eat the skin, anyway. Too high in fat for me...lol

But I do want DH to be happy too....

 

[silkiechicken]

Cornish are about the easiest things to butcher. Hairs aren't reallyy a problem. some pin feathers will bring a bit more greif though, just scratch thoes out.

 

[dntd]

If I don't have the heart to do butcher them I'm going to get my BIL to do it, he's a hunter and has worked on a farm I'll just allow him to take a bird. I don't think I will have too much of an issue as i kill rats for my snakes and have no issues with it. The only one's I won't eat are my banties they are better eationg alive for the eggs then a single person's meal

 

[Santa Walt]

Some of these posts remind me of an ad that is circulating around the net these days. It is supposedly from the classifies of a Calif. newspaper. It says:

To all your hunters who
kill animals for food,
shame on you; you ought
to got to the store and buy
the meat that was made
there, where no animals
were harmed.

I have lived in major cities around the world, have more that what is probably my share of formal education, but have always been very happy to have been reared a country boy. I am now retired and still glad to be a country boy. My only regret is that we didn't buy more acreage with our retirement home.

 

[Ibicella]

I think it depends really on what you want to use them for. I normally butcher when they start to crow, because at that time they are still young enough that you can still do some extra things with cooking like frying, roasting, or grilling.

If you wait till they get bigger, they get tougher. That can be fabulous too, if you want to crock pot the birds for broth and have plenty of shredded meat for adding to various recipes.