What do you do with the guts after you process?

[Denninmi]

Quote:
Sort of like scalding and then peeling a tomato or a peach. Just a little longer in the hot water to loosen the skin?

 

[Two Creeks Farm]

What we dont eat goes into several old nylon stockings.....tied to a rope...suspended in a favorite fishing hole....where by we stock up on cats LOL! Waste not want not!

 

[soap&eggs]

the necks, and feet i give to a lady who feeds to her dogs. everything else i bury. DEEP. we have too many preditors the smell would bring in so composting is out. when we butcher at end of table on ground we have several 5 gallon buckets , line assemby line each bucket holds certain parts. one for heads,one for gutts,another for feet,necks. big bowls for hearts and gizzards ..where we pluck feathers i have an old tarp on ground to catch as many feathers as possible .makes clean up easier. a blow torch for singeing feathers,,cold water buckets for soaking & cleaning. we use alot of papertoweling to clean hands off all the time. a box of disposeable gloves also...several buckets of water to clean knives off. .. my daughters & i along with grandbabies do all the butchering ourselves. if we can do it anyone can !!!

 

[bwmichaud]

A few years ago my wife decided that she was going to train the ravens that live in the woods behind the house to come when she called them. She would go out with any old bread that we had and whistle then throw the bread out and they would come and get it. Now the ravens have raised young back there for a few years and they do a great job chasing off the hawks that eyeball my little chicks. I take the guts up into a clearing near where their nest is and they eat everything but the feathers.

 

[quercus21]

We keep the heart, liver and giblets. The rest goes into the compost pile with a little bit of lime.

 

[MobyQuail]

we have a lot of chickens, have been eyeballing many threads for a culling and cleaning party.
lots of good ideas here.

 

[mangled]

My husband always gets a good fire going and burns them. Our ground is too rocky to dig a hole and leaving them out somewhere will just draw in predators like coyote or bear.

You may try posting them on freecycle as well. Here on our local freecycle, there's a lady who uses it to feed her dogs. Sometimes, if I know we're going to process on a certain day, I'll e-mail her so she can make arrangements to come get them. If she can't, into the fire they go.


Blessings-
Em

 

[erinchelsea]

Great ideas, everyone!

I could offer it up as fish bait as there is a big fishing lake a few miles down the road here.

I'm just imagining my dog dragging the chicken feet all over the yard for months...

Or do the dogs usually eat the whole thing? Mine probably would...I mean, I've seen him eat plastic bags and rocks.

 

[PeppermintHen]

If your processing a large amount of chickens what about the buckets of blood? Or do you just let it run into the ground? Isn't that bad?

 

[Denninmi]

Quote:
Well, bad, yes and no. In some ways it is -- it could potentially, in theory, spread pathogens if the birds had something infectious. It would attract flies and predators. It most likely could be against health codes if you're in a city or suburb (butchering might be illegal in some places, technically, but would they catch you, especially if you do it on a weekend, probably not).

OTOH, its another resource. If it were me, I'd just bury it along with the guts, pouring some in each hole. Blood is a great fertilizer for plants.

Some cultures use blood as a food source, since its high in protein and iron. Blood sausage and blood soup come to mind. Not my cup of tea, but some people like it.