Happy New Year! I’ve been so busy with end of the year stuff at home and back to school stuff at work, I’ve had zero time for blogging.
New Year’s Day, we harvested our roosters. We ended up with 10 roosters that were ready. It was a nasty, grey day and it got colder as we progressed. I was a bit nervous about the eviscerating, but after reading this blog post on having all the innards come out at one time, it was much easier than I anticipated.
There were several disappointing factors with the harvest. 1st off, we were under the impression that Welsummers were a dual purpose bird. At 20 weeks, they were crowing and should have been mature enough for the table. After plucking and de-heading, there really wasn’t much meat. I think, on average, I got about 2.5lbs of cleaned meat per bird.
The other thing I was disappointed in was the plucking. We followed the directions for heating up the water to between 160-180. The feathers themselves came out fine, but what was left behind was the feather point. Like what you would use if you were writing with a feather. This stayed under the skin. If I pressed upon the skin, it was like a blister was popping and some fluid would come out and it was really grossing me out. We decided just to skin the roosters rather than worrying about getting every little thing off. We made this decision since the roosters were so small and it would take 3 of them to fry up enough chicken for a meal for our family. Yeah, we really love fried chicken.
Here’s a few photos, but be forewarned, it’s pretty gross.
Rhys was a great helper. He plucked, he fetched things, and I think at one point he even bled one of them out. Ethan was the chicken catcher as he couldn’t bring himself to kill one of them. He actually did better than I expected as he is very tenderhearted.
As you can see, all of the innards come out attached to the butt. All I had to clean from the cavity was the lungs and the testicles.
After tallying up all the feed cost plus the cost of all the chicks but not including the cost of supplies to build the coop, we ended up paying about 2.45/lb for the meat in my freezer. I actually cooked one of the chickens for dinner last Friday night and I have to say, tastes like chicken LOL. Seriously, a bit meatier than chicken, sorta like dark meat turkey, but with a chicken flavor instead.
If/when we raise meat birds again, I’m very tempted to just go with a Cornish Cross. I was so disappointed in how little meat there actually was per bird. I understand that Tyson or whomever injects their birds w/growth steroids and the like and we didn’t, but at the same time, I’d love to only have to roast one bird and have it feed us for dinner. I don’t know, probably not. Maybe we’ll go with Freedom Rangers or Delawares. Even a Rhode Island Red or a French Moran would probably dress out bigger. Any advice from other chicken raisers?
Jan 10, 2011 @ 15:00:38
Well done Paula!
We were very pleased with the White Rocks we raised this year. They are still not as big as the Cornish Cross (which we also raised) but they were very nice. Much better then the Buff Orpingtons. Size-wise the Silver Laced Wyandottes were also good but they have the dark feathers which are harder to pluck (not a problem if you are skinning). I think though that with your warmer weather you mentioned the Wyandottes not working for you so I’m not sure the White Rocks would either. The Cornish Cross also have problems with heat so you might want to look into that too.
A farm down in Georgia (180 Degree Farm) showed some pictures on facebook of the Freedom Rangers they did. Those looked great! Still not as meaty as the CC but very nice and they said the flavor was wonderful.
I think this summer we will do a combo of CC, White Rock and try out Freedom Rangers.
Jan 10, 2011 @ 23:29:46
Everybody I knew who plucked chickens dipped the chickens in a full rolling boil water bath. I don’t actually know how long, but the bird was dipped, swished, removed. If I remember correctly, the bird was then immediately dipped in cold water. I might have dreamt this part since it has been almost forty years (YIKES, really?) since I’ve plucked a chicken. Anyway, I don’t remember having a problem getting out the little quills.
According to two of my books, to get large roasters (capons), the rooster needs to be castrated. Have fun!
On Sunday, Mom and/or my grandmas always fried or roasted two or more chickens. (One chicken was never enough. People used to go visiting more then, so having extra people show up at the last minute was normal.) That way, too, hopefully, there would be chicken left over for sandwiches, soup, and maybe a drumstick for lunch the next day.
Jan 11, 2011 @ 12:18:26
Millie, we were supposed to raise Wyndotte’s, but the extreme heat killed all of the guy’s breeding stock & chicks. That’s why we went w/Welsumers. Personally, I think he didn’t have enough shade, but that’s just me. I really don’t know.
I’m going to look into White Rock and see what they say about hot and humid.
Packie, I wish people still went visiting. That really is something that has fallen to the wayside.
Jan 12, 2011 @ 15:34:42
Paula
Yay for y’all!! I know how you feel about the disappointing size of the dressed birds. We still buy some chickens from a farmer at the market (really, I cannot raise them for the price she charges and she does all the hard work, too), and our favorites have been the Freedom Rangers. They are not as big as grocery store monster birds, but they are bigger than the heritage birds and are so yummy. That same farmer also raises Cornish X and dresses them as “game hen” at around 2 lbs. There is no comparison between them and Freedom Rangers in terms of flavor or texture. The Freedom Ranges win hands down. If we raise meat birds again, Freedom Rangers would be our first choice. I still cook two every time, but we have enough left to make a huge pot of soup (with lots of veggies).