Raising your own meat Chickens and butchering classes.

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We are starting to plan out a rotation schedule for raising more of our own meat Chickens.Last spring/summer went just fine but we need to do a little fine tuning here and there.

The first thing we are changing from last year is the breed of birds we will be raising for our meat.Last year we raised Les Poulets also known as Amish Meat Chickens which are a heritage breed of chicken that take a bit longer to get to butchering size. Although the birds were fine and their meat was good, we want a bit fattier bird and one that grows quicker.

I want a fattier bird so when I make soup stocks I get the golden color I think of as a plus to raising your own birds,the Poulets did not have much fat to them so my soup still looked like stock made from a store bought chicken. Fat also helps make a cooked chicken moist and tender,just the way we like them to be.

The other point of the birds growing at a quicker rate is all about space for us.Since we live in a city environment and only have a larger city lot we can't raise to many birds at once.We figure 6-8 meat birds is our maximum and even that could be pushing our luck. If we add in the laying hens that would mean we would have up to 16 birds here all at once.Too m any to keep for long.By buying the quick growing Cornish Cross birds we can butcher the birds at 6-8 weeks.

I am not overly fond of the Cornish Cross Chickens,they creep me out.The Cornish Cross are the white chickens you see in all of the big mega meat plants.They have been breed to grow so fast and fat that they have awful habits that turn my stomach and make me a bit sad for the birds. Because of their rate of growth the Cornish's legs can not make muscle fast enough for the birds legs to support them; they end up being crippled by their own growing.Also because of their growth the birds just live right by their feed bins.So you have this crippled bird that eats,sleeps and poops in one spot from about week 3 on. When I think of these birds the movie Super Size Me comes to mind,if you have seen the movie you may get my point. I am not talking about Cornish Cross's that are living their days out in a meat plant here;I am talking about the Cornish Cross's living in my Dad's barn the same environment (on a city scale.) our birds will be living. But farming is not always pretty and sweet and we want our own meat.

So we figure we have room for around 6 birds at a time that was easy enough to work out.Now we are working on how to keep a rotation of birds going long enough to stock our freezer well. I figure we eat about 2 whole Chickens a week,that comes out to 104 Chickens a year. We are not going to be able to grow that many birds ourselves.We estimate,with much hopeful thinking,we will get in 3 rotations giving us 18 Chickens in the freezer or 9 weeks worth of meat.

Last years birds numbered 8 so the 18 will be a boost in our pantry. I have used those birds as a "treat" for us saving them for when we wanted an extra nice something for dinner.And I will most likely do the same with this years birds.

Now I want to talk about the cost of raising your own meat birds.Last year we added up the price per chick and the feed used while the Poulets were around. We did not include the scraps they ate from the kitchen,those scraps are a freebie in our home economy. The price we averaged per bird ended up being around $9 or maybe $10. I compared the price of a regular non organic chicken and an organic chicken at our local market.Our home raised birds landed right in the middle for price.We did end up saving $3-4 per bird because they were raised free range and organically. Not a huge savings but a savings.And lets not leave out the whole political conversation we could have about the benefits of our own meat.But I'd be preaching to the choir so I am moving on...

I want to go back to my comment about farming not being pretty or sweet.Many more people are looking into raising their own meat in an urban/suburban setting after watching the assorted movies or reading one of the many books out right now about the insecurity of the meat industry.I do understand the concern but I am asking you to think about your abilities,carefully and thoroughly.Can you really do this? Can you see it all the way to the end?

I want to point out raising animals for meat is a totally different world than having an animal as a pet.I even see this trend with urban/suburban chicken keepers,the birds are coddled and cooed over like they were a darling little child. Once you have made the choice to raise your own meat you have to look at that animal as meat,nothing else.Can you do it? Are you so sure of your politics that you can take a life?

Butchering a Chicken is simple and not as bloody as some may think.Chance and I found our students at our Chicken Butchering Class very interested in the whole process. We were proud of them for coming and just doing what we were asking them to do,take a life so theirs could continue in a way that fit the students beliefs. Many students did exactly what we asked, read up on Chicken Butchering,watch a video or two on YouTube and think it over. The students had thought it through and came to the class, they were ready.

So think it all through before you leap.

Chance and I have started to receive emails about wither or when we are holding any Chicken Butchering classes this year. We are but at this moment I have no dates to share with you.We need to talk some things over with our Chicken Guy first.But I can share this over view.

We do teach and this is what we ask:
You have your own bird,The age is not important,you can eat an older bird too.
You need a sharp larger kitchen knife.
Are you ready? See above.

The costs: $15 per person for a group lesson min of 5 people max of 10.
( if you can get a group together great,or watch here for our dates to come.)
Or : We will do a one on one lesson for $30.

You can leave us a comment here or email us with further questions.

Well, Issac is studying for Finals this weekend and needs the computer to look something up and since I'd like to see him do well I must go for now.I have a few more postings brewing in my mind that I am hoping to post this week so check back soon.

Rois

Chicken Butchering Day,5minute Ice Cream and more.

Top left: Veggies from the garden,cucumbers, green bell peppers and yellow crook necked squash.
Top middle:The chicken tea cozy my friend made me.
Top right: Chicken guts to be tossed.
Bottom right: Giblets from the chickens we butchered today.
Bottom left: Chicken feet for soup stock.Our apples on the counter.

I feel like this photo is a good summary of our life and the bounty we are growing.It also shows a good days worth of work.

Whew,it was busy here today.After getting my morning routine done it was time to butcher the Poulets once Chance was home from work.
But before we went to work we had lunch first,BLT's made with our own tomatoes and home cured bacon.(I love bacon and who dose not?) We were fairly happy with the bacon Chance cured and smoked,it was a bit salty for us and we'd like it to be a bit sweeter.Both of these are easy to fix,Chance will have to tinker the recipe next time.
Last night Chance and I had separated the meat birds from the layers. We don't feed them for the 24 hours before butchering to allow time for their Gizzard and intestines to empty,so you have to put them in a safe spot.We kept Big Red though,he has earned his life,is an endearing dork and maybe come spring we will have some of our own chicks.We butchered 5 hens,it took around 1 1/2 hours.I took a bunch of photos that just did not work.The one above worked best it summed the day up,food harvesting.

After this next paragraph there will be a photo with blood.


Below are a couple of photos showing the mess after.It seems that most people have this idea that Chicken Butchering is messy, it's not.Each bird only bleeds out about 1/2 cup of blood,if you leave your bird in one place after the neck is slit, the blood stays in one small puddle.We put a plastic tote with wood shavings in it under our Culling Cones to catch the blood.The photo is after all 5 birds were done.The other photo shows the feathers.See its not all that bad.






I am not going to show the rest of the process,I feel like it's one of those things you need to see and do as a hands on thing.And explaining the gutting photos,what a nightmare! Forget it!If you are wanting to learn we do teach others.
Young Sol came to me as I was plucking the Chickens and asked to make "5 Minute Ice Cream, all you need is....." Well he read me the list but I was a bit busy.Once we were done with the chickens I asked Sol about his ice cream idea.It was so simple I thought "well, why not?"Here is the recipe he found on Instructables.com,
All you need is Heavy Cream,Sugar,Vanilla, some Fruit, and a blender.I bought a pint of the heavy cream and we ended up being able to make 3 batches equaling maybe a little over a quart of ice cream.For the fruit we used some of our frozen blueberries.The bag of berries did not have quiet enough berries for the third batch,we made Vanilla for the third batch.We pored all 3 batches into a carton and mixed it all together with a handful of whole berries.I made the boys wait until after dinner to have some, by then the ice cream was kind of like soft serve.I added the recipe to my notebook.
I was just saying to Sol that he comes up with some of the best things to try out.Last fall we made Lollipops part home school science part Halloween goodies.We just made that excellent Coconut Milk Cream Pie and now 5 Minute Ice Cream.
Somewhere in my day I had Issac grate some Zucchini for the freezer.He was intrigued by the whole idea but thought it was clever.He also put some tomato sauce in the freezer for me.Once I can get Issac to stay home for a day,he actually likes working with me in the kitchen.
Oh,the boys and butchering.we gave them the choice,to help or not.Chance and I chose this life style and parts of it we don't push.Issac went away to run errands.Sol stayed indoors but did get interested once he saw that the gutting of the birds did not involve blood just some cool looking stuff.
We ended up not working at the Urban Farm Store yesterday,we were rained out.I guess most people are fair weathered farmers/gardeners and don't go to the feed and garden store when it rains.I did go into the store to shuffle around some chicks.I am still not totally clear on the whole story but I now have 10 chicks here but only until their owner picks them up on Sunday????? See I am a bit puzzled about this deal and will come back to it when I find the missing piece namely the owner of the chicks. I suppose I should be more firm and assertive.
We have pushed the Cobb Oven building farther out.We need to rebuild the chicken coop,it needs revamping and repairs.There's also some fall chores to do,like find,cut and stack more firewood, to do before the oven can become the latest feature here.The boys will return to school,even Sol is looking forward to returning to a new public school.Oh and I need to find work for pay outside of home some where in there.The To Do List just never ends, we get one job done and there's another to take the first's place.
It has been raining here,HOOPLA, I am loving it.I am not to sure if people who don't live here get it but the Oregonians who are born and raised here LOVE RAIN.My bones were starting to dry out and I was getting a bit cranky but now I am clam and full of spitfire.Ok so those two go against each other but that's where I am at.
Rois