Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[GranolaGirl72]

Almost time to start butchering. Just waiting on the scalder to get up to temp. Once they're done they're going into a cooler of ice water. How long should I wait to bag em and get em in the freezer??

Am with Jim, you are long done. We kill, bleed, scald, pluck, feet/tail and then cold water bath all 120+ before we wipe down everything. Then we gut, gizzard/liver, whole/cut them all, send them in for final rinse and wrap. We like ours either backs out or cut up... wings in a separate package.

 

[corewassen87]

Maybe

you know you can borrow my plucker any time..

we put our whole chickens into large freezer ziploc bags.
but if you want to save space, cut them up .

you will end up with drum sticks, theighs, breasts, backs, wings
necks..

when we are going to cut them up.  we cut the backs off when we are gutting them,  makes the job so much more easier.

we package a few backs together for soup.

we have a recipe for drum sticks, so we make a few packages of drum sticks and/or thiegh.

you can bake a chicken in pieces just the same as if it were whole..    we don't bother stuffing our chickens..

to squeeze the air out of the bag, dip the bag of meat into a pail of cold water.  just don't let any water into the bag.
this works on all types of plastic bags.
you won't get any freezer burn in the plastic bags.

............jiminwisc..... 

maybe I'll take ya up on that next time Jim thanks

I'm headed to the Walmart for some 2 gallon freezer bags now. I can't wait to put one of these on the rotisserie

 

[kristip]

Anyone familiar with duramycin treating? I know dosage and 21 day withdrawal....but how long do I treat for? Cough from two of my young birds so I separated and treating now...

 

[chickendreams24]

Took a drive to the Mother Earth News Fair today. It was a lot of fun! I got to drive a tractor for the first time! So many fantastic ideas..... and no land to do any of it. I did come home with a purse made from old mail and seed bags, a basket woven in S Africa, and a book on cordwood construction.

I guess I will keep playing the lotto.

I hope to make it to the Mother Earth News Fair sometime.  Glad you had a good time!

Spent all weekend out at the Mother Earth News Fair! Wish I had known there were other BYCers there. It was great we had a wonderful time and learned so very very much!

Hello
I'm new here! We are in Walworth, don't laugh at me because it's just barely WI! May as well be IL, right?

We have 4 French Black Copper Marans, 4 mix Marans Olive Eggers and 9 Midget White Turkeys. We are very new to keeping chickens and so far so good. But I have sooooo many questions!

I have just recently come to terms with the fact that most of my little flock of chickens are roosters, just 2 hens out of the bunch. So I am looking for some advice about what to do with all these roosters?!?

Hi there and welcome! Were your birds sexed pullets? If they were ,against all odds, there is someone that got a worse accuracy with sexed birds this year than our own 4/9.

@corewassen87

What breed(s) and ages were the birds you processed?

We have some cockerals that are 14, 10, 7, 5(weeks) and down with a few in between. Amazingly the cockerals that seems to be trying to breed the girls already are 8 weeks and a pullet the same age I swear squatted for me on Friday. I know I know it's insane but I'm sure she was squatting but maybe not for the reason I thought, I just can't believe it!

 

[corewassen87]

Spent all weekend out at the Mother Earth News Fair! Wish I had known there were other BYCers there. It was great we had a wonderful time and learned so very very much!
Hi there and welcome! Were your birds sexed pullets? If they were ,against all odds, there is someone that got a worse accuracy with sexed birds this year than our own 4/9.

@corewassen87

What breed(s) and ages were the birds you processed?

We have some cockerals that are 14, 10, 7, 5(weeks) and down with a few in between. Amazingly the cockerals that seems to be trying to breed the girls already are 8 weeks and a pullet the same age I swear squatted for me on Friday. I know I know it's insane but I'm sure she was squatting but maybe not for the reason I thought, I just can't believe it!

They were 8 week old Cornish cross meat birds. Man do them little fluff butts pack it on and fast. The chickens in the fridge make the ones at the supermarket look like little game hens. Boy it would be cool to have a hen squatting that early assuming she followed the normal routine of laying a few weeks thereafter. You could make a fortune with boss's that layed at 11-12 weeks lol

 

[chikenscratch]

We spent all Sunday at Mother Earth Fair. We attended Build Your Own Wood-Fired Pizza Oven From Dirt with Chris McClellan,Extending the Season at Both Ends with Eliot Coleman, and
Timber Framing: Making round trees into square buildings with Will Beemer. Great times!

 

[bigzio]

Good to hear that the folks that attended the men fair had a good time! Just for information...they sell a plucker that goes on any electric drill..it has 6 fingers and is suppose to pluck a bird in 90 seconds. www.powerplucker.com.

bigz

 

[jvls1942]

good afternoon,

telephone guy was here for a few hours. the trouble is somewhere on their lines. He did find a lightning strike so he switched some wires. IDK if he has our problem fixed or not.
he was called away for a cut cable repair..

those drill pluckers really throw the feathers all over the place.
they are easy to build.. just a 4" pvc end cap a few fingers of some sort and a mandrel. If you are doing a lot of chickens I would clamp the drill firmly to a bench or you will wear yourself out.
my plucker can do two birds at a time in about 30 seconds . and you don't have to hold onto the birds. just drop them into the hopper and watch it spin..

GG72, do you have a plucker ?
if not, PM me.. I have a dandy one..

I got all the potatoes dusted this morning. I bought a pump dust applicator from Menard's.. It was just ok.. not OK ..
the out spout is way too short and I had to walk semi bent over to get to the plants.. really hard on my back..
I will try to tweak it before I use it again.. the 16 oz hopper didn't go very far down the row before it was empty.
but I got the job done, bad back and all.. crawled to the house and took a nap.
Now I hope the rain holds off for a day or so...
........jiminwisc.......

 

[jvls1942]

good news, bad news.

good news, my steering cable came in the mail today,
bad news, the air outside is thick enough to chew.
good news, I can put off working on the lawn mower,
bad news, the lawn is going to be waist high..

...........jiminwisc......

 

[GranolaGirl72]

good news, bad news.

good news, my steering cable came in the mail today,
bad news, the air outside is thick enough to chew.
good news, I can put off working on the lawn mower,
bad news, the lawn is going to be waist high..

...........jiminwisc......

Sounds like you are setting up for a safari or ticktopia.... better get those guineas growing.