Post by mrskk on Dec 2, 2009 8:14:59 GMT -5
I've finally finished butchering for this year. I learned a few things this year through some experimentation and also because I got my meat birds so late in the year.I started butchering in October, when the weather was colder than it turned out to be in November.
*It was nice to butcher without the complication of having flies everywhere.
*The rubber fingers on my chicken plucker tear the skin when it is cold outside. A properly scalded chicken really isn't all that difficult to pluck by hand.
*It was handy to use our carport for the scalding, plucking, and cleaning of the carcasses. On days when it was windy, I put large sheets of cardboard up as windbreaks. The torpedo-shaped kerosene heater really kept me nice and warm, too.
*That kerosene heater did a great job of burning the hairs off of the chicken carcass.
I did some experimentation this year with breeding of chickens. I had a Dark Cornish rooster and a Buff Orpington roo. The hens I bred them to were Buff Orpington and Black Australorp.
*The BO fathered chicks grew much more quickly than the DC fathered ones did.
*BO fathered chickens were much easier to clean up when butchered. The dark feathering of the DC chickens made for a messy-looking carcass.
*Even when meat birds are a bit scrawny, it worked to use several birds to make up all-dark meat packs, packs of wings, and packs of boneless breast meat.
*The remaining carcasses have been frozen and will be thrown in the stew pot with the old hens I butchered yesterday. I will can up jars of chicken meat and chicken broth.
I have new pullets that are Dark Cornish, Buff Orpington, and Black Australorp. I have three new roosters: Buff Orpington, Black Australorp, and Cuckoo Marans. They all seem to be good natured roos, with the Cuckoo being top roo of the coop. He did get a bit rough with one of the cross bred new cockerels one of my hens hatched out, but that was one rude young roo, too.
Next year, I am going to try covering all three types of hens with the three different types of roosters to see what I get for meat birds/dual purpose out of them. I don't know what I will end up with, but it is fun playing around with it anyway.
Yes, I can buy perfectly okay meat bird chicks from the hatchery, but I'm kind of a survivalist and like to try things out for myself. I always figure that I'm learning skills that could come in handy some day. Plus, I don't want to have to be dependent upon being able to get chicks, then the cost goes way up, or I don't have the money at the time, or PITA persuades the gov't that it is inhumane to ship day old chicks through the mail.
*It was nice to butcher without the complication of having flies everywhere.
*The rubber fingers on my chicken plucker tear the skin when it is cold outside. A properly scalded chicken really isn't all that difficult to pluck by hand.
*It was handy to use our carport for the scalding, plucking, and cleaning of the carcasses. On days when it was windy, I put large sheets of cardboard up as windbreaks. The torpedo-shaped kerosene heater really kept me nice and warm, too.
*That kerosene heater did a great job of burning the hairs off of the chicken carcass.
I did some experimentation this year with breeding of chickens. I had a Dark Cornish rooster and a Buff Orpington roo. The hens I bred them to were Buff Orpington and Black Australorp.
*The BO fathered chicks grew much more quickly than the DC fathered ones did.
*BO fathered chickens were much easier to clean up when butchered. The dark feathering of the DC chickens made for a messy-looking carcass.
*Even when meat birds are a bit scrawny, it worked to use several birds to make up all-dark meat packs, packs of wings, and packs of boneless breast meat.
*The remaining carcasses have been frozen and will be thrown in the stew pot with the old hens I butchered yesterday. I will can up jars of chicken meat and chicken broth.
I have new pullets that are Dark Cornish, Buff Orpington, and Black Australorp. I have three new roosters: Buff Orpington, Black Australorp, and Cuckoo Marans. They all seem to be good natured roos, with the Cuckoo being top roo of the coop. He did get a bit rough with one of the cross bred new cockerels one of my hens hatched out, but that was one rude young roo, too.
Next year, I am going to try covering all three types of hens with the three different types of roosters to see what I get for meat birds/dual purpose out of them. I don't know what I will end up with, but it is fun playing around with it anyway.
Yes, I can buy perfectly okay meat bird chicks from the hatchery, but I'm kind of a survivalist and like to try things out for myself. I always figure that I'm learning skills that could come in handy some day. Plus, I don't want to have to be dependent upon being able to get chicks, then the cost goes way up, or I don't have the money at the time, or PITA persuades the gov't that it is inhumane to ship day old chicks through the mail.