Mental Preparation For Processing

[McGoo]

YOu guys are amazing. I don't have birds that I need to process, but if and when the time does come, I'll be looking for your help.

Congratulations PC. And especially for teaching your son. Most kids his age think that chickens come from the grocery store.

Now will those roos be used for stew/soup? Or will you roast them?

 

[bantymum]

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Can you use the feet to make Christmas decorations.

 

[carugoman]

Mental prep for processing day? When I played football,in college,three decades ago,it was called "putting on" your "game face." Or when I was headed into war, I had to put on my "combat" face. One has to just zone out the extraneous and concentrate on the task at hand. Having said that, if the smell gets to you, try some Vick's Vaporub around the nostrils and upper lip...at least that's a familiar smell! I was wondering; are all y'all using killing cones or just chopping heads off? With a killing cone,you would slit the jugular vein on both sides of the neck,but not sever the head. The bird bleeds out,there's less trauma to the animal;after several minutes hanging head down,then you sever the head and proceed accordingly.

All y'all take care!

 

[Queen of the Lilliputians]

Congrats PC and Drum!! Great job!

I had a roo to process.. got myself psyched up for it. Read STOREY'S GUIDE section about butchering about 15x... then wimped. Re-psyched myself up, came down with a stomach virus the night before. RE-Re-psyched myself up, RE-read storey's chapter... and day before d-day my loving dh found the bird a new (permanent) home.. guess Fate intervened, and little Womy still has something left to do (like er.. crowing and scratching dirt in someone else's yard??)

Meghan

 

[McGoo]

Can you use the feet to make Christmas decorations

 

[PurpleChicken]

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P.C ! I was reading along just fine till then thank you

Great son you have there.a find young man he is......... poor mom

He's a chip off the old block.

 

[PurpleChicken]

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I try to explain the chicken exposure thing to many people. Some get it, some don't.

11 was a lot but they were all 12 to 16 weeks and mostly Leghorn. I'd say 3lbs
on average. My son helped a lot and I'm very proud of him. I know some kids
take a different path on this and that is fine. Everyone is different. We do have
some hens he won't let me process. Those are his babies.

I'm fascinated by the raw chicken thing and your dogs. Do you cut the chicken up?
How do you prepare and present it to the dogs? Do they go crazy? Do you think
feeding them chicken makes them more prone to attack your chcikens?

Thanks, Don

 

[PurpleChicken]

I like the "game face" analogy. It makes sense.

Many people here said it gets easier the more you do. That's true.
I do all the chopping first then the processing.

As for killing cones I've never used them. I have an Italian friend who
cuts the tongue and bleeds them out. Yuck.

I have two long screws in the stump. I place their head in it, pull them tight,
and with a swing of the hatchet it's done. I've learned to hold the body until
the heart stops, if not the chicken does run around with no head and makes
a mess. This may sound strange but I sorta feel I owe it to the bird to hold it
until it's all over. (Ya I'm humanizing the bird but it is a life).


Waiting to respond to feet... Where's the camera???

 

[silkiechicken]

Three lb leghorns are a pretty big leghorn. Was that before or after dressed?

My two roos today were 5.5 lbs and 4.5 lbs dressed. Got about 75% of live weight from them which isn't that bad. Both were cochin crosses and 6 months old.

Good luck with the soup stock. After a day of boiling, the tendons are still a decent crunchy if you're into that kind of texture.

It's great your son is learning early on where food comes from!

 

[PurpleChicken]

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3 pounds is a guess. I don't have a scale. We feed them really good and they are
crossed with Australorps, Orps, & SS's. I was surprised how much meat were on
them. The legs were small.

Right now they are soaking in brine. I'll slow cook them tommorrow and we'll have
soup a few nights next week. We'll freeze 6, deep fry 3, & roast 2. I'll break up
the carcusses and slow cook them in the crock pot.

Every time we eat one of our chickens it's a new experience in textures.