MEAT BIRDS THREAD ~Plans, pics, pens, pluckers, processing! GRAPHIC!

[Beekissed]

******If this isn't the proper placement for this post, I apologize. I want to discuss them as one would with livestock but I know that eventually they will have to be processed and I hope to post pics of setups, methods, pluckers, etc. and you can't do that without showing a little gore and for that I won't apologize, so I'm not sure if this should be in the kitchen category or the hunting & fishing one.******

Please feel free to post about previous meaty projects and current ones and please show pics when you can so that others can use your good ideas. That includes turkeys, geese, ducks, and chickens. I'd love to hear about all the birds we raise for food and how best to do it so that others can learn from your good methods!

I plan to get 40-50 CX chicks in March. I've only raised CX one other time and it was only 20 chicks and I had the help of a good broody hen, so this time I will be in slightly different woods and I hope I don't get lost.

I do plan to feed them like I did my others~once a day and not with broiler feeds. They will be free ranged in the open and not in a tractor. They will have unpasteurized ACV in the water at all times to replace their electrolyte loss due to excessive and liquid feces and they will be documented via pics either weekly or biweekly.

I'll be doing pics and maybe even a video if I have anyone coming to the processing workshop I hope to host.

I hope to build my own plucker using the variable speed drill method but I will modify it slightly beyond the videos and pics I am seeing of such a plucker. I am also going to experiment with dry plucking to see if the scalding step can be skipped with these meaties. What a great thing if it can be skipped....no mess, no heating large quantities of water, no wet feathers, etc.

So...anyone else doing meaties this year? I know TTChicks is and I hope she will post her plans on this thread also.

 

[TanksHill]

Bee you should check out the Freedom Rangers. I had much better luck with them free ranging. They only took a couple weeks longer than the CornishX.

G

 

[rebecca100]

Unfortunatly I don't have the money for meaties this year or for the feed if I could get some. but I will be watching this thread because next year who knows? Lol

 

[Snowhunter]

We'll probably be doing a batch. We need some dense fertilization in the garden area and the most productive way we can come up with is a batch of meaties. They'll probably be tractored for a week or so, w/daily moving, before they get free run of the area (35'x100' approx) and I want to try a feed of barley w/clabber and see how they do, instead of the usual commercial stuff. Planning on the ACV in the water too.. same as my Dorkings get right now.

I'll go along w/ya Bee!!!

 

[Beekissed]

Great, Snowhunter! The more the merrier!

Gina, I'd really like to have the FRs but I'm trying to make this as easy as possible and the CX are more available and convenient, not to mention cheaper if I purchase at TSC rather than having them shipped to me.

I have found the CX forage very well if they are not presented with a full feeder at all times. That built-in hunger is directed toward other sources of food in their vicinity and my last batch foraged very well. When they got full weight and it was midday was the only time I saw them resting in the shade...the rest of the time was spent foraging right along with my layers.

I'll be getting this batch earlier in the year so they will be process age by the time they are affected by the heat too much.

Anyone who thinks CX won't forage should have seen me being chased by meaties when I was tilling the garden! I couldn't keep them out of the way and my layer hens just ignored the banquet.

 

[the funny farm6]

I will be getting @ 20-50 cornishX, and I have a bunch of strait run chicks on order too, so I will be butchering out all the extra roos. They will take longer to grow out, but that is ok.

We skip the plucking part altogether, we skin them!

I will keep them in the old horse stall in the barn, not much use for anything else.

 

[Beekissed]

I skin my layer culls, for sure. The CX has such tender skin and we like to freeze some of them whole for roasting, so we usually leave the skin on until we decide how we will apportion each bird.

I've got an idea this year that I want to try....I want to boil the heads, combine them with the left over bones and feet that I have after cooking down meat for broth/soup canning, throw in the raw organ meat and blood~ and put it all in the food processor until it's ground into a meal. Then I'd like to combine it with some raw eggs, oil, and cooked rice and make it into a dough.

Then I'd like to make homemade dog biscuits out of it. Think about the nutrients in all those ingredients that are so much better than store bought dog bones.

 

[pinkfox]

youll want to add a little more muscle meat to the cookies to balance out the calcium levels, but otherwise id say absolutly! (for this tounge or heart woudl work as muscle meat and are usually "cheap"

 

[CheerioLounge]

Unfortunatly I don't have the money for meaties this year or for the feed if I could get some. but I will be watching this thread because next year who knows? Lol

x2

 

[Beekissed]

Nah, Pinkfox...I don't care about the calcium levels. I have a real dog....if I didn't make all that glop up into biscuits, he'd eat it all in one sitting anyway. I don't buy the best dog food, I don't do the whole heart worm thingy, I don't vet him and I don't care about nutritional balance. He's healthy, vigorous and he eats anything that doesn't eat him first.

I'm just trying to find a way to eke it out in bits, to not have to take up freezer space, and to not have to buy him the basted dog bone biscuits he likes so well.