Thanks to all - first butcher day complete

[RUNuts]

I want to express my appreciation for all the folks who offered advice, opinions and encouragement on this list.

We hit 16 weeks with our DP Barred Rocks and the coop was getting tight and hormones raging with the soon-to-be-hens. So the deed is done. I find it interesting, we have some serious pecking order issues we are working through. The coop had been pretty calm up to about 15 weeks. The girls are putting on their war paint (red faces, combs and wattles) and getting serious.

Critique for me and anyone it may help in the future:

• Mind set. I miss the hens already, but this was the deal in the beginning. I am thankful.
• Sharp knives - have several. You don't want to sharpen in the middle cause everything is messy.
• Plucking - we hand plucked 6. All those years of plucking ducks wrong. The details to make plucking easier amazed me. 140-150°F for 90 seconds and try a feather, then try several. If releases easy, you're done. If not, back in the bath for another 60 seconds.
• buckets - have extras handy. Have extra food holders ready. It'll either be too small or have too much.
• Ice bath - it was warm and the ice melted quick with the birds in it. More ice. Ice chest with lid worked well.
• Water - you will get thirsty.
• Killing cone - made mine too big for the birds. Next one will have a smaller hole. 1 gallon bleach jug worked great for the small birds. Have it secured. I did pull on it more than I thought I would. Mine was nailed to a board and that was nailed to the tree. Bucket hung under it. Bird should be at shoulder height for best working arrangement. You need to see what you are doing.
• Friends and helpers - invaluable. Daughter and her boyfriend got involved.
• Set up time - Got called in to work yesterday and wasn't as prepared as I wanted to be. Keep your calendar flexible.
• Work area away from dogs. I used the kennel as a work area. The dogs still wanted to help.

I'll add to this list if something else comes up.

 

[RUNuts]

Skinned weight was 25 ounces?!? I knew these looked small, but here we are at 16.5 weeks. I was expecting more? Um.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

• Work area away from dogs. I used the kennel as a work area. The dogs still wanted to help.

lol

 

[Cajun_MikeR]

A suggestion on knives...
Rather than having multiple that you have to sharpen, use a Havalon or similar. The blades can be swapped out (takes less than half a minute) and the blades come razor sharp.
http://www.havalon.com/piranta-edge-skinning-knife-xt60edge.html
I use them on everything from birds, to rabbits, to small wild game, all the way up to mediums sized game (deer and hogs). It's my primary when processing small game.

On the size of the birds, we wait until 5lb live weight which usually ends up being about 20wks. This gives us a skinned, processed carcass of about 3.5lbs on our BSL roos (out of our RIR roo and BR hens). Our birds aren't anything special, they're hatchery stock we picked up at a swap. You can give game bird crumbles (our local feed store has it as 26-28% protein) to help with growth on birds you're going to slaughter.

 

[RUNuts]

After 2 days of resting and brining for 3 days, first one was wonderful from the rotisserie. The red ranger that was bought last week was too tough, but I think I over cooked. Lesson learned. The barred rocks have more texture than the grocery store ones.

I call this a success. Only challenge is needing more. And the crazy lady that lives here liked it too! Bonus. Good news, it's almost deer season.