| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| BlueRoseMama |
Posted - Oct 03 2007 : 10:26:48 PM
I know I know... I just started getting eggs from mine and I am thinking of when they stop laying. lol! How silly huh? But it takes thinking and preparing if I am gonna eat the old girls and so I wanted to be prepared if that is the way I want to go. What do you all do?
Val
Val ~ I am a whole food cooking, swing pushing, boo-boo kissing, paper crafting, breastfeeding, creative sewing, attachment parenting, woodworking, guitar playing, gardening, constantly reading, artistic and lovely full time, granola lovin' mama to my three sweetlings, Alex (7/20/96), Cyan (7/13/01), and baby Logan (1/22/07).
http://goddesshobbies.blogspot.com/ |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Bee Haven Maven |
Posted - Nov 12 2007 : 04:32:22 AM
Oh my, our girls are still good layers.....the fox is the only one who has had a taste of our poor dearies. We made the mistake of naming them, so we probably will not be able to eat them....they will just live out their retirement years with free food!!!!
Visit my workshop at: www.beehavenmaven.blogspot.com
Visit our farm at: www.beehavenacres.blogspot.com
Aprons and other fun things for sale at: www.honeybeez.etsy.com |
| small graces |
Posted - Nov 11 2007 : 8:46:52 PM
We do! The ones that the bear hasn't gotten. Some chickens refuse to go in our coop at night!! We have favorites that we can never let go of! They die a natural death. Some of them my daughter has even had weddings for, but the rooster is a polygimist!!! The ones that we don't ever eat are the fancy breeds, not worth it! We can usually find homes that want a chicken or two for yard deco/pets. Not sure if that would work everywhere!
"Think about this day for a moment, Charlie Brown"... http://fmnfarm.blogspot.com/ |
| peggysue |
Posted - Nov 10 2007 : 02:15:53 AM
growing up we always ate ours.. usually after the hens stopped laying, and if we had too many roosters.. we had chicken for a while.
peg |
| FarmerSadie |
Posted - Nov 09 2007 : 3:00:21 PM
Not me! I'm a vegetarian and couldn't bear the idea. When I do get roosters I have them killed and dressed for my CSA clients. But I can guarantee my hennys will live LONG past their useful lives
Farmer Sadie says, "Eat your veggies!"
www.artfarmoregon.com |
| paradiseplantation |
Posted - Nov 06 2007 : 07:30:13 AM
I haven't yet, as I sell the fresh eggs and need as many as I can get. But one of these days, I intend to use my birds for meat as well.
from the hearts of paradise... |
| La Patite Ferme |
Posted - Nov 03 2007 : 7:28:19 PM
We'll see if this works 
My chicken experiment - raised in a field box I got at smart & final.
 |
| La Patite Ferme |
Posted - Nov 03 2007 : 7:13:19 PM
Well, the chicken butchering went great. We had a great little assembly line going and the girls talk didn't slow us down a bit.
This morning I cut and wrapped the birds for the freezer. They looked wonderful. Even sis was impressed. The smaller ones were left whole and the big ones were cut in half, so I will get plenty of meals out of this batch.
Can't wait to do this again - especially since sis told me chickens were $9.00 at the store. Can't believe it.
When I figure out how to post a picture I'll put up my chickens in a box. It worked great.
|
| SheilaC |
Posted - Nov 01 2007 : 06:10:13 AM
I'll completely agree also! The meat ones are just eating growing machines with NO personality! Our hens definitely have personality and we'd have a hard time eating them, but the meat chicks? No problem there! |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Oct 31 2007 : 11:06:59 PM
I agree Jenn...the meat birds I have raised are nothing like my little hens. Not even my daughters get attached to them.
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
| La Patite Ferme |
Posted - Oct 31 2007 : 10:52:51 PM
We are butchering a small batch on Friday. I don't think meat birds are anything like our regular girls. They are fat blobs that just sit and eat and poop, with no personality like the henhouse girls. I will have no problem eating them.
BTW - my little experiment with raising them in a giant field box has worked out great. I found an automatic feeder that someone had given me and when the chicks were big enough to use it I just poured a bag of feed into it. Worked great - very cool. Now the plan is to raise a bunch in the fall when the sheep are gone, we are home more and have weekends free.
Jenn
|
| EnchantedWoodsGirl |
Posted - Oct 31 2007 : 4:39:10 PM
Can't bring myself to killing anything that has a name hehehe, some of my older hens hardly lay, but they are still my pets. My rooster, Emeril (he is always kickin it up a notch in the henhouse) has been here with me forever. Hehehehe!
Kathy of the Enchanted Wood
Kathy of the Enchanted Wood
http://enchantedwoodmusings.blogspot.com/
|
| Tina Michelle |
Posted - Oct 30 2007 : 10:59:55 PM
I have a hard time thinking about skinning chickens...I guess partly because as a young girl I had a pet hen that wound up being chosen for dinner one afternoon and I watched as my grandmother prepared her..why I watched I don't know..silly girl that I was. But my task was to always hold the water hose when animals were being butchered .
From cows to rabbits to chickens to even soft shell turtles,and pigs.
I guess also my not so fondness for handling raw chicken also stems from when I was a teen I desperately needed a new job and found one at a deli...my first day my boss dumps bags and bags of raw chicken into a large industrial sink..I'm talking a really big sink and tells me to "get in there and clean em" ...I had never cleaned chicken a day in my life before that day..and there I was up to my elbows in chicken parts at a mere 18 yrs old kid. ..having never done anything like that before in my life, but I did what I had to do..but it certainly turned my stomach against ever wanting to do it again. And I simply buy frozen chicken at the store now and hate handling it to this day..but we eat alot of chicken though.
I guess if I absolutely "had" to pluck and skin a chicken I could..but it's not a thought I'd cherish that's for sure.
yeah yeah..I know..wimpy farmgirl..ha.
~Seize the Day! Live, Love, Laugh~
visit me at:
http://gardengoose.blogspot.com/
and at www.stliving.net
you can also check out my etsy shops at:http://GardenGooseGifts.etsy.com |
| LadyCrystal |
Posted - Oct 13 2007 : 1:38:46 PM
My hubby build the whiz bang chicken plucker. We love it.It cost us about 200.00 to biuld and it was well worth the money. We process about 100 chickens at a time. It usually takes us about 2 days.
http://fromcitytocountrygirl.blogspot.com/
follow your dreams |
| Annab |
Posted - Oct 11 2007 : 03:21:12 AM
I may take a few to market next year. Our neighbor down the road has done this for us when we had waaay too many roosters. Poor roosters were barely 2 pounds. The neighbor will be moving next Spring though, so hopefully she'll be able to to this before leaving.
I have just a handful of hens who are way too personable. So I'd let them live out their lives.
A culling fine by me as long as the quickening is fast
|
| MullersLaneFarm |
Posted - Oct 09 2007 : 05:58:24 AM
If your handy at tinkering, you can always build one.
Herrick sells plans for the Whiz-Bang Chicken Plucker. Just do a search on the name and you'll find it!
Cyndi
Muller's Lane Farm http://www.mullerslanefarm.com
|
| La Patite Ferme |
Posted - Oct 08 2007 : 8:56:30 PM
I think most good poultry suppliers carry the "pluckers" and they do work in seconds. But, gosh they're expensive - over $800. I wanted to buy one so I could butcher at home instead of going to my friends who has all the fancy equip. I think I'll just keep going and trade her firewood, avaocados and oranges. Seems like a better deal. |
| BlueRoseMama |
Posted - Oct 08 2007 : 09:51:30 AM
I 've seen them... the chicken pluckers. I dont have one, but I have country (real people who live in the country... lol, as opposed to me, who lives in the city) have them. I think I would just skin them though... since I usually only buy skin off anyway.
Thanks for all the great input ladies! I will have to go through and comment more specifically later. :)
Val
Val ~ I am a whole food cooking, swing pushing, boo-boo kissing, paper crafting, breastfeeding, creative sewing, attachment parenting, woodworking, guitar playing, gardening, constantly reading, artistic and lovely full time, granola lovin' mama to my three sweetlings, Alex (7/20/96), Cyan (7/13/01), and baby Logan (1/22/07).
http://goddesshobbies.blogspot.com/ |
| abbasgurl |
Posted - Oct 07 2007 : 1:59:29 PM
We always take our old hens to the sale barn-a monthly auction house for all kinds of farm goods. IF we keep a few, they get canned for soup & casseroles.
As far as plucking...We blanch each hen, then hold it close to this contraption we call the "chicken picker". It is a rotating drum covered in rubber "feelers". It takes out the feathers, but leaves the skin (unless you get too close). Works like a charm, you only have to pick out the few feathers it may miss. Now, where to get one...I can't tell you. We inherited this. It may be a one of a kind thing, I'm not sure. Anyone else use something like this?
I find that I can't eat chicken for about two weeks after slaughter day. The smell of the raw meat is not appealing to me for a while. 
Rhonda
I'm a one girl revolution. |
| Alee |
Posted - Oct 06 2007 : 1:15:18 PM
Annika-
Do your dogs not scare away the coons?
Alee
The amazing one handed typist! One hand for typing, one hand to hold Nora!
http://home.test-afl.tulix.com/aleeandnora/ |
| Annika |
Posted - Oct 06 2007 : 1:07:46 PM
So far the coons have out smarted me and gotten my girls before they ever got that old. I'm working on a few chicken and turkey "tractor" plans for the spring, but I need to make much more secure and cozy winter housing for my flock to be. I miss my own eggs in the morning and chickens are a delightful little bunch of personalities.I guess IF I ever our smart the coons, I will cull out the really old ones. My dogs love all parts of just about any kind of beast and I love making my own stock and demi-glace. So nothing to go to waste
Annika
http://people.tribe.net/58d06a60-1cdd-4357-b4e3-bc523ed51ff5
http://dredweezul-madramblings.blogspot.com/ |
| Alee |
Posted - Oct 06 2007 : 12:06:18 PM
Jenny- can you believe it- My dog won't eat any of the internal organs!
Alee
The amazing one handed typist! One hand for typing, one hand to hold Nora!
http://home.test-afl.tulix.com/aleeandnora/ |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Oct 06 2007 : 11:32:24 AM
I always save the hearts and liver for cooking up for the cats...my dogs get broth from cooking up whole chickens over their food often..they love it.
I wish I could say I was fast at processing mine..but I am not. I usually have someone around to talk to when butchering and that for sure slows me down too. I try to do about 10 at a time..since that is enough to manage cooling and then roasting or boiling and then canning the next day..any more and I can't handle it. I usually freeze about 2 out of the 10 and can up the rest. This year anyway.
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
| therealshari |
Posted - Oct 06 2007 : 08:21:56 AM
Jennifer,
Nah, the "city-girl" side of the Four Country Girls has no use for such stuff. It's a crying shame, too, because I was raised to use absolutely everything possible. Our dogs get real table scraps, not something cooked especially for them... well, unless Mom is wanting to spoil them.
Shari Thomas
farmer, web copywriter, blogger
Shari's Gone Country
Vote for me at "Blog for a year" |
| goneriding |
Posted - Oct 06 2007 : 07:58:43 AM
Oh geez...you guys are sooooo strong! I can't eat anything that I've seen alive! My mom killed my pet hen in front of me when I was about 8 yrs and the poor hen just flopped around and scared me to death. I can't eat beef from any calf I've seen either, only from under plastic at the store. Just can't look into those baby browns...if I do, it's all over and the poor thing either dies of old age on my place or has to be sold. Under true survival conditions, I could but for everyday...nope.
I guess I'm not the country girl I thought I was!! I have to keep a distance from farm animals and not think of them as pets. *sigh*
Winona :-)
Don't sweat the small stuff...
|
| La Patite Ferme |
Posted - Oct 05 2007 : 10:37:34 PM
Shari,
Just curious - do you cook down the carcasses for soup base? Do you use the gizzards, liver, heart for dog food?
When I picked up the chicks my friend was butchering 25 birds today. The process seemed pretty fast - about 5 minutes from start to finish. Probably would have been faster if we weren't gabbing |
