whew - did it, I can do it, have done it, but always a struggle

[Mrs. K]

Got my extra roo, and an older hen on the stove cooking now! I need to go with someone who butchers a bunch at a time, cause the second bird went better than the first!

For my flock, I needed to do this, in the summer, you can run more head of chickens cause the days are long, the nights are short and your new chickens are chicks! But as summer comes to a close, you got to get room for those chicks to keep growing, and if you want an ongoing multi-age flock, you need to cull.

But it does take working up to, at least for me! Even though this is my 8th time, it still is a little difficult.

Pressure cooking them, then to can up suppers for the long cold winter.

Mrs K

 

[iwiw60]

Good for you! Yes, it's always a bit of a struggle, but will be well worth it this winter with some nice dinners....wishing you well!!

 

[Mrs. K]

I use fish net to catch them and it works so well. It keeps them from flopping and beating their wings, and you can catch them first time!

Mrs K

 

[donrae]

I'm a recent convert to the fish net thing, myself! I started using a smaller butterfly type net to catch chicks this spring, and now use one for grown hens. Love it!

I also don't like butchering, and have to work myself up to it. I hatched a crapton of cockerels this year, so we're going to be doing a lot of butchering. I'm going to sell off my hens, I don't have any over 2 so I don't want to butcher them, but I need to make space for the up and coming pullets. It's that time of year, to look ahead to winter......

 

[aart]

Congrats Mrs. K!! Good to have that job done, huh?


Getting ready to cull and/or merge junior and senior flocks here too....not looking forward to the butchering, mostly because of gathering equipment and clearing room for the setup. Have only done 2 so far, can't imagine doing more than one at a time yet. I've put the intended into a wire crate off the roost after dark, works well for one at time. I work alone and that makes it a bit harder....and it's my first full year(in September) of keeping chooks so not quite sure how I want to handle 'replacements' .....there are multiple options I've been mulling over for months.

Still haven't decided which older hens to cull, of course now all of a sudden laying in the senior coop has surged....wish I could figure out who is only laying 2-3 times a week.A couple I can tell from egg shape but the rest is just crapshoot guesswork.

Think I'm going to cull the old roo, might even just skin him to try and save his hackle and saddle so I don't have to borrow the scalder again.....then just remove coop partition wall for the merge of existing five 2 1/2 yo's, three 1 1/2 yo's....with..... the new Wellie roo and his six pullets, two of which just started laying within the last two weeks, the other four are 4 weeks younger.

There's just room in my main coop for 15 birds to over winter...I think...so might as well take the opportunity to test my space and can always cull one or two at time later in the fall/winter.

Sorry for babbling out my situation on your thread Mrs K.

 

[Mrs. K]

I thought I would skin too, but really on the older birds(?) the skin is tightly attached to a lot of the bird.

I have a propane outdoor burner, and used a canning pot at 150 degrees, and really the feathers came off well. Course they were both dominiques that suppose to have nice skin for the carcass and did so.

Mrs K