Cornish Cross Spring 2019

[baymule]

I ordered 50 CCX chicks through Tractor Supply on April 8,2019. There was very little information, such as, where they were coming from or when they would ship, like you get when dealing directly with a hatchery. I finally got a notification that they were shipping and would be here on April 12. That's a LONG time to be bounced around in the mail, but they got here on April 11. Great.....a day early! I opened the box, it already stunk with the odor of dead chicks. NINE were dead, SIX more died within a couple of hours with 2 MORE looking sickly, that died too. I contacted their customer service, got a reply a couple of days later. By that time, more had died. I was disgusted. The upshot is, they gave me credit for the 17 that were dead/died right off the bat. Whoop-de-doo. I think there may be 20 left living now. Worst. Chick. Experience. Ever.

So today we got 20 CCX chicks at the TSC store. They are bright, healthy and look good. Why the difference? Durned if I know.

So my 2019 CCX has started.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I get you @Beekissed !

My setter found a gopher the other day, he happened to be between it and the tunnel entrance so it ran. He chased, but a 12 year old setter with bad hips is not the fasted thing out there, lol.
It happened that we (DH and I) were just out throwing the ball for our GShepherd - who was oblivious to anything beyond the ball in his mouth at the time.
The stupid gopher headed straight towards me - I had nothing to kill it with so I did the "don't climb my legs dance" and it ran around me and headed to DH. All he had was the stupid thrower for the dogs ball - so he took a swing and wacked the gopher sideways and then held it down with the thrower. I headed to the barn to get a shovel to kill it with. By the time I got back, DH had to shift position to step on the gophers head because setter had got there and wanted to "Smell it". Gopher was pretty mad and trying to bite anything close, and dog noses are easy targets for mad gophers. That dog is a sweetheart and will "FIND" for you but doesn't kill anything... Our Irish Setter was the same way.

 

[baymule]

This is what my chicken money paid for.

 

[Beekissed]

Bay, I picked up 10 bargain CX at TSC this year for $1 ea., along with some $.50 NH chicks...letting a broody raise them. They seem to be from a good strain this year, foraging fast and hard and growing well.

Figured I couldn't go wrong for $13 and they will add some more meat to my winter stores.

I started out using the heating pad brooder with these chicks, but since they were older by the time I got them, they couldn't learn how to use it....had to switch them to a lamp, but without the heat lamp bulb. Just used a regular 100 kw bulb for them for a week until I could turn them out to forage, along with a broody that needed some babies to raise.

 

[Beekissed]

I have to do it alone when butchering. No one wants any part of that portion of "farm to table" Because of that lone worker situation, skinning is where I am going. Rarely eat any fried anyway. A few will be left whole to bake....maybe. I dislike plucking.

Same here. I can all the chickens, even the CX, and don't see the point in saving their skins for stock when their stock isn't the best that can be found.

And no one is interested in farm to table here either, so I'm always alone in butchering. Skinning makes things so much simpler and easier, so I can get 5-7 done of a morning and resting in the fridge for deboning later. Especially now that I have my handy dandy DIY butchering station set up, complete with a neck vise mounted to the killing tree to make it easier for me to shuck the skins using my own wt for leverage and yielding a very clean carcass. Butchering has never been easier.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I toss the testicles into the chicken run when I'm processing my birds. Seems like a bit of justice to me. Those cockerels are downright nasty to the pullets and hens. so... let them gals turn those mountain oysters into eggs.

 

[baymule]

Ok here it is......drumroll please!



Out of 50 chicks ordered, after the initial die-off, I had 23 left and 3 of those were grotesquely stunted. I put them down. Ordering chicks through TSC was a dismal experience, will never do that again. Since I didn't have enough chicks, a week later, I bought 20 more from my local TSC store and they were all healthy. That brought me to 40 chicks, 2 died along the way.
I got credit for the first 17 that died from the ordered chicks, 10 more chicks died that I did not get credit for.

Total feed cost...……………………..$293.88
Total chick cost...…………………….$99.28
Chick losses...…………………………..$27.64

Total expenses………………………..$420.80

Total sales.....………………………..$464.00

Profit...………..………………………..$43.20

Sold 20 chickens, cut in parts, vacuum sealed.
Total weight of dressed chickens 119 pounds, 3 ounces
Total weight of chicken parts 92 pounds, 13 ounces

We slaughtered 18 chickens for ourselves.
Total weight of dressed chickens 111 pounds, 14 ounces
Total weight of chicken parts 83 pounds 8 ounces

Total weight of whole dressed chickens 231 pounds, 1 ounce
Total weight of chicken parts 176 pounds, 5 ounces

We gave a whole chicken to a neighbor with an ice machine and we gave a cut up chicken to another neighbor in trade for cutting some trees. So we are left with 16 chickens and will give some of that to our DD and family.

This was stretched over 11 weeks. We could have finished up sooner, but life got in the way.

I canned 18 quarts of backs, necks and other parts mixed with rice for the dogs, plus 2 quarts of broth. I have 3 one gallon bags of parts to can for the dogs in the freezer and will probably get that done in the next day or two.

Last year, when the dust settled, the cost for the meat we kept was 50 cents a pound. This year, our meat cost nothing and even got a profit of $43.20, not bad. We're just glad that we are DONE.

 

[Beekissed]

Ditto that!

Killed the meaties this morning....easier for me as I only had 10 to do and these CX are so tender and easy to butcher compared to my usual retired hens and cockerels.

Started around 6 am, finished up around 8:30....dry plucked the last one, instead of skinning. Figured I'd freeze him and use him for the next family get together....been a long time since I did that. Had time in the middle of that to feed and water the other animals and such.

It was raining when I started, so the morning was cool enough for comfort and the sun didn't hit my station until I was doing the last 2 birds, so all in all it was a great butcher. I'm pleased with the size of the birds and the overall health of their carcasses.....were all free ranged until a couple of weeks ago, when I was tired of being mugged every time I walked to the coop. To the relief of everyone, especially the other chickens, they were then penned and fed twice a day, plenty of water, etc.

Don't remember how old they are but I got them near the end of April and they were over a week old when I bought them, so were on sale for $1 ea.

Normally I'd keep them as long as possible, but I need that pen....converting it to a sheep shed...and they were really bugging me while out on range. Underfoot all the time, mooching for food. They ranged and ranged well, but still ran for the food bringer every time they saw me. What with the ducks, this year's chicks and other additions, I had 47 fowl on hand/ranging....too many with this wet weather.

The big feet of the CX and the ducks were making a mud pit around my shed, where I do most of my working....had to spread big sheets of hay to even walk there. Someone had to go and the CX were the likely candidates.

Will likely finish detailing the carcasses and remove meat from the bone this evening, if possible. Will freeze everything until I get time to can it up....likely be a couple weeks from now.

 

[Beekissed]

I like your gutting technique! I've been cutting from the end of the breast bone to the rectum, cutting around the rectum, then reaching up in the body cavity and dragging the guts out. I'll try this when I slaughter old layers this fall. Do you leave the head on when you clamp the chicken in the vise? Do you preskin the neck then clamp down on it? I'll be skinning old layers and this looks interesting.

No, the head is off and the skin is slit from the breast bone clear to the neck, with the wings removed. Then, neck in the vise, facing away from me. I use my hands and some of my wt. to then pull the skin down off the body...with old layers, this has been invaluable. I have arthritis in my hands and it's become nigh impossible to shuck those older birds without the use of this vise. This makes for hands free working of that skin off the bird, while not having to hold it for leverage to pull the skin downwards, as the vise holds it for me.

The old way of gutting, the reaching in and pulling out, is sometimes hard on smaller carcasses if you don't have tiny hands and it often puts pressure on the colon, expressing feces out as one pulls. Some people tie that off prior to pulling the guts but we've never taken the time to do that, so this method of not having to pull on those guts is real handy. Makes for a cleaner removal of the innards, IMO.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Ugh.

Am fortunate to have Meyer 90 minutes away. 90 minutes of non stop peeping on the drive home definitely puts a smile on your face