Bee~ Journal of then...

[Beekissed]

I've froze them before when I have nice, young and tender roos to butcher. The last few times have been older meat chickens that my niece put off doing because she didn't think she could do it and culls from my flock.

This time is culls, so not really tender enough to freeze and use in any kind of recipe that they won't be dry and tough. I've tried crockpotting these old birds and they came out overcooked, dry and tasteless. When I can them, they are real tender and seem to hold in their flavor better.

The BBQ of the younger roos the time before, they were skinned, chilled for two days in the fridge, frozen and thawed out later. Marinated for a few hours in BBQ sauce, spices, red wine vinegar...basted on the grill and utterly delicious! I only got one piece!!! :/

 

[Beekissed]

Well, folks.....put two more broodies on nests tonight! If everything goes right, they should hatch out on or near my birthday!

The mama and chicks went outside for the first time today and had a ball. I supervised closely, as the flock hasn't seen her for a month, so they tried to peck her. She fought one Dom off her babies and I was sooo proud of her.

She headed right for a dusting spot and, if a chicken could make these sounds, this one would have been groaning with pleasure! She was purring and rolling around and fluffing up a storm....and the babies emulating her right along side...it was the funniest thing ever!

The two chicks are comical, as one is the offspring of my little old roo and the other is definitely from the thunderbuns grey one. The little roo is half the size of the huge grey chick! She is still pretty fluffy, whereas he is fledging out pretty quickly~little tail all sticking up in the air already!

Got the roof on the sheep shed! You never saw so many pieces of tin on one little roof....we had to do quite a bit of piecing in and overlapping of used tin that had holes cut out and irregular sizes. It turned out okay and will serve the purpose, so I see it as a success. Now we have a snug and dry place for hay and sheep. We left plenty of gaps in the walls for ventilation and have still to build the gates. I hate building gates! BUT...



I just love this life I'm living!

 

[freemotion]

Glad to see you are still making those boys work! Sounds like things are coming together for you and your goals.

Hope to join you soon in watching a hen raise her kids naturally!

 

[Farmfresh]

Remember all if you are going to freeze chicken you need to hold them in a refrigerator for at least two days. This gives the carcass time to go through rigor mortise and become tender before freezing it. If you stick them in the freezer immediately even a tender young bird will be tough.

I have a good step by step write up for cleaning chickens on my website, but I could sure use some good pictures to go with it. (hint hint Bee)

 

[Beekissed]

Glad to see you are still making those boys work! Sounds like things are coming together for you and your goals.

Hope to join you soon in watching a hen raise her kids naturally!

Yeah, Free, the working thingy with the boys is really going well. Everyone is enjoying their sojourn into low tech living and the house has been very peaceful. We are going to get so much done here~I'm budgeting for some exterior white paint this next month!

The landlord is going to reimburse me for half of what I spend on the place, so soon I'll be adding up a few things and deducting this from the rent.

You will be tickled to see those babies being raised like they should be....no lights, no brooder....just mama and peeps doing their age old act. It never gets old to me and I just watch and watch them. I'm fascinated that God made something so perfect in motherhood.... so loving and protective. I can't wait to see it again!

 

[keljonma]

I don't pluck but I do skin mine, as we don't normally eat the skin. I may pluck a few in the future to freeze as roasting chickens, but for now I usually use skinless chickens. Not to mention, its faster, easier and just less stinky!

Are you saving the feathers, ala Martha Washington??

 

[Beekissed]

Actually, I plan to start....I want to make some feather pillows with the down and softer feathers. This big, grey roo has some beautiful fluffy feathers, so I'm eyeing him big time!

 

[lorihadams]

I saw an episode of Dirty Jobs where they went to a waterfowl processing place. This little old lady and her sons ran the place and they put all the feathers from the geese into a room for a year so that they could "cure" and then made pillows out of them and sold them. It was a really neat process to watch. I love that show.

 

[Tallman]

Actually, I plan to start....I want to make some feather pillows with the down and softer feathers. This big, grey roo has some beautiful fluffy feathers, so I'm eyeing him big time!

Hey Bee, A weed eater will help you get all the feathers you could possible want.

 

[Farmfresh]

Isn't it interesting that many of the jobs that we simply love to do seem to be featured on that "Dirty Jobs" show?

I have seen a compost episode and a chicken farmer episode.