What do you do with the innards and blood?

[trueblueshowgirl]

I agree with Damselfish!

We raise 40-70 meat birds every year and process them in small batches throughout the season. The range in ages also gives us a variety of cooking options- from some young bbg grillers to the big crock pot roasters.

28 is a lot- esp. if you're plucking by hand and don't have many helpers. You might consider just skinning them if you must do them all in one day. Or consider trading chickens for help from a friend or two.

As for the innards/feathers/heads/feet, we toss them in one of those large plastic storage bins as we process (rather than making a pile/mess that we have to pick up later) and drag it way out to the coyote trail where they're sure to get eaten up within 24 hours. Don't want that stuff laying around for long. I like the idea of burning it, though.

I pan fry and then freeze the hearts, gizzards, and livers for our two spoiled dogs. I didn't grow up eating those parts and just don't have any interest in them, myself.

 

[Sissy]

Bury it with some lime tossed on top
and coverd good with dirt.

 

[fledgling]

I think we'll have a crew of 6 total.

Very sandy soil here so I think the lime and burying it deep is best. Now, the blood? Not so sure if we should try to catch that in a container and then lime/bury it. Does that make sense? We have the very ugly and aggressive black vultures around here. We don't want them near our farm. We bury the cow's afterbirth after calving to keep them away.

Thank you very much!

 

[quercus21]

Quote:
As a suggestion and what I do. I let the birds drip into a 5 gal pail with a little bit of lime in and around it. It keeps the flies down as I am processing the other birds. Afterwards, the blood goes into the compost pile or into a hole.

 

[jaku]

Quote:
As a suggestion and what I do. I let the birds drip into a 5 gal pail with a little bit of lime in and around it. It keeps the flies down as I am processing the other birds. Afterwards, the blood goes into the compost pile or into a hole.

I'm SO glad I set my barn up so I can process inside now. No more very flies!!

 

[WalkingWolf]

Play with it for hours and laugh madly like a mad doctor on the horror show.

Really I feed the messy stuff to the dogs, feathers get burned or buried.

 

[The Chicken People]

So do you have to pluck the feathers or can you just skin a bird?

 

[jaku]

Quote:
If you're planning on skinning it, you don't need to pluck it first.

 

[weaveagarden]

Roses love blood. pour some of it on them for a treat.

[My mom the nurse used to be able to bring home outdated blood from the hospital to feed to her roses. Sounds gross now, but years ago not so many restrictions.]


Also, it can be made into blood sausage, so why not cook it up for the dogs too.

 

[Royd]

Feather meal is very high in nitrogen, and so is blood meal. Why couldn't the feathers be run through a shredder,and put on the compost pile, along with the blood?