Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[3dognite]

Welcome to the newbies! I can't remember the name of the one that is in Walworth. Was it the one with lots of W's? You are pretty close to me & Cind. I am in SW Waukesha Co. What breeds do you have if you don't mind me asking?   

Not sure if there's more than one newbie in Walworth but I think you're talking about me, so Hi!

We have some Marans and some mixed Marans/Legbar. We also have some little turkeys. Not too many, 17 birds total but soon to be a lot fewer since we figured out most of them are roosters and toms. We'll probably take care of the roosters this weekend and wait awhile for the turkeys since they're still very young.

Does anyone have any advice for us since we've never butchered chickens before? We've read over the latest article here on BYC and I think we've got everything we need ready but there's nothing like the voice of experience. Any little tips or tricks you've picked up would be appreciated.

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
we have butchered thousands of chickens over the years.
my advice is, DON"T DO IT !!!! just kidding..

if you are doing a large amount of chickens. go big on the volume of water you heat to scald, the more water, the longer it will stay hot..
shoot for about 145F to 150F water temp.. too cold and the feathers won't let loose, too hot and the skin tears ..

kill only as many as the plucker team can keep up with.

don't try to gut them as you pluck them, put the plucked ones in cold water until they are all killed and plucked..

If you are limited to freezer space, cut them up into pieces.

If you plan on cutting them up, start doing it when you are gutting them,
cut the back from the rib cage and break it open, then remove the entrails.. much easier than pulling them out of the rear vent area.

a good heavy pair of scissors is a handy tool for cutting raw meat.. and some bones.
we also have a "bone crusher".. it is on the same order as a branch pruner. handy for cutting off the legs and head. (make sure the chicken is dead for this part of the job).

don't be bashful about what containers you cool the chickens off in.
we use large plastic silage tubs we got from Fleet & Farm.
easier to clean up than a galvanized garbage can..

I have an electric chicken plucker if you want to use it.

quite a long way to go to borrow one, I know, but it is here.

If in the future you think you will need one, I build them. I can help you build one, too..
they are a bit pricey, but it will last you a life time..

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

 

[Daethen]

Picked another bushel of tomatoes today. Canned 17 quarts of spaghetti sauce yesterday and made another canner full of salsa today. Mild this time. Made 2 batches of fridge pickles yesterday and they are yummmmmmy. Mowed the lawn, picked the rest of the garden down, and moved the chicken tractor again. The girls are LOVING the scraps this time of year.

 

[Daethen]

Jarred up that salsa today. 31 pints and 1 quart (ran out of pint jars). Filled the canner back up with stuff for more spaghetti sauce. Tomorrow I will have to pick tomatoes again. Probably have to pick beans as well.

 

[jvls1942]

good morning, coffee is just about ready, and I am about ready for coffee.

It just started raining lightly about a half hour ago.

I guess it would be a good day to work on my chainsaw.
I hope I don't have to clean the carb.
Has anybody here ever heard of a chain saw tachometer?
I ordered one from ebay.

Annie has enough black berries for a second 5 gal batch of wine. we use 20 pounds of berries for each batch..

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

 

[corewassen87]

good morning,  coffee is just about ready, and I am about ready for coffee.

It just started raining lightly about a half hour ago.

I guess it would be a good day to work on my chainsaw.
I hope I don't have to clean the carb.
Has anybody here ever heard of a chain saw tachometer?
I ordered one from ebay.

Annie has enough black berries for a second 5 gal batch of wine.  we use 20 pounds of berries for each batch..

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

Never heard much about the tachometers but I'm sure they're an awesome tuning tool. Homemade wine is awesome. Ik pretty jealous of that. All I can hear is geese out in the field, I can see the feathers flying and smell the gun powder already. Next Thursday can't come soon enough

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
I have 4 ea 5 gal carbouys of old wine to check out. maybe will dump them if I can't sweeten them up.

Annie started the second batch of black berry wine.
she was F$%^&ing it up so badly I took over.
Instead of asking what to do, she does it and then asks if it was OK to do.. bass akwards..

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

 

[corewassen87]

Lol my wife does the same ****. Rather than ask go for trial by fire. Unreal!!

 

[Daethen]

Funny, around here it works just the other way around. My hubby does things without asking how first and screws it all up. HMMMMM.......

 

[corewassen87]

Finally pulling the trigger on a new cc pistol. Gonna go to ciminos tomorrow and pick it up. Went with a glock 19. Pretty common piece. There's a lot of customizing to be done now to it. Pretty excited. I love things that go bang