Butchered 4 roosters; unexpected adventures

So, had some pretty interesting although catastrophic adventures yesterday.

It was a nice day, I thought "OK this one reader person has asked for photos of the butcher process, I'm feeling OK, & I need to stop putting this off... let's get this done."  Got all the stuff around for it, started boiling the water, and headed for the barn to catch the intended "victims".  I think they must have sensed that their time had come because although I was able to catch 2 of the 4, the other 2 evaded me to the very end, even after using my pistol to try to take them out.  Finally, I thought "Fine, I'll just do these two, maybe I can catch the other two later after I've gotten these done...", however in the meantime I handed my dad my pistol (because I got frustrated and fed up chasing birds..) and even my dad got fed up. 

While Dad was chasing down the other two, I got my gloves and went for the kill cage (an old dog crate used to isolate them until they are ready for death) to catch a roo.  There were two in there, both were larger than I normally like to butcher, both with long long spurs, but I thought this would be to my advantage for an easier time cleaning them.  It was not.  These two big roosters ganged up on me and rushed me at the door as I went for them, both flapping their wings, attacking my head and face.  I got spurred in the arms, chest and back as I ducked from their barrage attack.

After that, I was 100% done with messing around on a humane kill business.  And of course by not doing a humane kill it wouldn't be clean either, so I knew I wouldn't be able to get photos.  But regardless, I needed these birds gone, so I turned my husband, dad & brother loose on them.  Told them to take them out however they wanted as long as they were dead.  The three men thought this was an awesome idea, since they all hate my chickens, but specifically my roosters with a passion.

After locating them all, they were successful, but there was one rooster in particular that was very good at evading us, even though we shot at him he would keep running.  Once we finally did take him out and I took all his feathers off I realized that we had all hit him when we were shooting him, he just had like... 9 lives. lol  The other three roosters went down a lot easier.

However, interesting facts (to me anyway) was that when I tried to shoot the escape artist rooster several months ago, I thought I missed him, I did not.  I did indeed hit him, and not only that but I hit him exactly where I was supposed to to take him out.  I had just missed his internal organs by mere millimeters. When I finally opened him up, he had 5 bullet holes, (4, 9mm & 1, .22) plus the healed hole from my original 9mm several months back.  Tough old bird was way too good at staying alive!! 

After all of that, I ended up only getting one bird that was usable out of the 4, mainly because I was just so tired I couldn't finish.  My hands were shaking and I was close to collapsing, ended up nicking the gall bladder on the last one I attempted which means I had to throw it away.  Asked my brother to take care of all of the guts, feathers, carcasses etc. which he did, while I showered, then colapsed.  Mom even texted me that she needed me to help her, with my kids, and I didn't even hear my phone.  THAT showed me this morning just how utterly exhausted I was.  

Duckies

On the Saturday between Easter & Good Friday, I bought my son's 5 peking ducklings from TSC.  I thought "My sons are 2-years 6-months & 1-year; they're old enough to begin learning about animal husbandry & the responsibilities of owning and caring for animals" knowing full well that M, my youngest, wouldn't do anything of any consequence with them other than possibly petting them or something.  I wasn't certain that A would be able to handle it, so it was a small gamble, but I figured that if he couldn't deal with them, they got to be "old hat" or he stopped caring for them, I just butcher them and we have roast duck for supper or some such.  However, my gamble seems to be paying off. Because A is doing very well with his new adventure.  M, thinks the ducks are toys, so I can't let him touch them without supervision, but A has taken his job very seriously.  I told him he must feed them every day, change their water, clean their brooder etc. and every morning so far except yesterday (because he had outpatient surgery yesterday) he has asked when it's time to feed & water the animals (chickens, ducks & horses), & helps me get the eggs from the chickens (both boys have been doing this for quite awhile now).  Both boys are doing very well with all of this.  I couldn't be prouder of them!

I also was recently informed by A that it is "Time to eat the roosters Mommy".  LOL!!  I didn't realize he understood when I was butchering the chickens last year!  My husband & I had been sure to keep him back & away during the killing stage, but I had let him play in his sand box during all the other phases so apparently it sunk in more than I realized, and as he is completely chill about the whole thing I'd say it doesn't bother him all that much. 

When he told me it was time to butcher the roosters, I told him "OK we'll butcher them once Mommy catches them", not realizing just how serious he was about doing it right then and there in that moment... so he proceeded to chase my roosters all over the barn for the next 10 minutes.  I told him he shouldn't chase them, because they could hurt him, but he listens about as well as any normal, active 2.5-year old, so it took a little bit to corral him and get him to stop chasing the roosters.  I did end up catching 2/4 & stuck them in the kill cage (I pen them up overnight so I don't have to worry about having a full crop to work with), but then the weather changed overnight.  It got cooler than I really wanted to deal with for butchering so I let them go again.  Their days are most definitely numbered though because I have chicks from last year which are potentially being bred with their father...

Also, I've been asked by a reader to post photos of my unorthodox way of butchering, so although my husband is squeamish about the thought, I may have to enlist his help in taking photos, because once I begin butchering, I tend to get rather covered in blood and feathers.  Not the sort of thing that you want to be picking up a camera all the time, and perhaps if my husband or someone else helps me take photos, I can get some better ones than if I were to do it myself.

The goings on in our world over the last week

SURPRISE rex bunnies!

Lacey

Rusty

Lightning

Roger

Roger being roger.  Very cocky, very strutty

Buff Orpington Rooster - also for sale if anyone is interested, although he will be a stew pot guest if no one is.

One of the 4 red pyle old english roosters for sale

Spazzy, being very photogenic

Larry, being cocky.

Ms. Bunny's rex had another surprise litter.  9 of them this time! 

The beeplas playing & scratching under the elderberry's

First attempt at chicken mash of sorts

My husband has 4 roosters & a hen he intends me to butcher out.  They are all bantams, and since I have zero experience butchering chickens out as of yet, Daddy Frog is saying that working these out will be good experience for me, because even if it doesn't work out and I totally screw them up, that by the time I get through all 5 I should have some idea of how to do it correctly when I try to do it on the adults!  :-)

Anyway, these 5 bantams love to waste TONS of food.  I got sick & tired of it.  They are costing me money (because they are in a rabbit cage and keep beaking their food out of the feeder, allowing it to fall through the cage floor to the ground below.  The guineas clean up after them, but the whole purpose in keeping these birds alive in the first place was to fatten them up.. and all of the "fat food" (meat bird food) keeps getting kicked out and they're only getting part of it... so aggravating!!  So, I poured water all over it and crammed their feeder full!  It worked!!  :-D  Yay!!

It worked with them, so then I did the same thing with my beeplas, and it worked even better with them!  I think this may be the way I feed them from now on!  I am so stoked!!

I've been buying 50# of feed every two weeks (32 birds eat a lot...who'd have thought?), then combining it with the free cast off (straw, cracked wheat, buckwheat hulls, corn shells etc) from the mill, and the corn meal unsuitable for  human consumption, also from the mill.  The chickens love it, but there is a lot of waste when this mixture gets put into the feeders.  This mash idea... this could really work.  It is A LOT messier for me, because I don't have a system down yet, but so far there has been no waste, and the beeplas seemed to be able to eat it a lot easier.  What with the food having been partially softened with the water and so forth. :-)

Beepla's @ 3-weeks old

My mom went out to the brooder room with me tonight to help take photos and look at all of the beeplas.  She hadn't seen them for quite awhile, but knew they had grown a lot.  She just didn't know how much.  It's really fun to watch them as they grow & mature.  It's a little bit staggering just how quickly they are doing so though.  :-)  Such pretty feathers some of these babies will have some day!! 

 

Unusual coloring isn't it?

I believe this to be a Silver Lace Wyandotte... but I'm not sure.  Either way, my husband believes it to be a rooster; or a very pushy female! lol

1/7 Dark Americauna's

1/3 Light Brahma's.  So pretty... each of them have unique coloring... it's going to be so much fun keeping these babies

1/4 Jersey Giant's

1/4 Jersey Giant's

1/4 Jersey Giant's showing off her newly clipped wing. 

1/3 Buff Orpington's.  I'm not thrilled with them so far, but they are pretty so far...

A lighter Americauna

She got comfortable on my hand... I wish all of them were this calm...

"Ooooooh what's that thing??"

Mom thought I needed to take a photo of the brooder tank so you all could see how much room they do (or don't) have lately.

This is an Americauna, but she is the only one like her.  She looks "brown" here but is actually more grey than anything. :-)  Really pretty.

When chickens stop laying - what to do

When your chickens stop laying:  Do you prefer to butcher them and let them serve another use, or do you prefer to allow them to continue on as pets?

If you choose to butcher:  Do you prefer to do it yourself, pay someone else to do it?? 


Here in our family, it has never really become an issue of raising an animal and then having a case of "the guilts" and being unable to follow through.  However much of that has been due to the fact that our animals (cattle, sheep, pigs, rabbits) have always been taken to the meat packing plant to be processed out, or to someone else who would be willing to do it as in the case of the rabbits because it was too costly to take to the packing plant.

When it comes time for me to make the decision for our girls to either be put to another use or kept as pets, I will most likely choose to put them to another use.  I will need to learn to process them either way, and it seems like a shame to let good meat go to waste if they were to die of natural old age.

Mom & I were discussing all of this earlier today in fact, but I didn't know how to phrase things, and also didn't think anyone would actually hear me if I did put this out there.  I am currently considering the idea of learning to process chickens etc. well enough that I could potentially make money at it.  Traveling around to this farm or that in the area and helping to butcher out the birds as needed.

There are two problems with this idea though. 

• I have never butchered them out 100% start to finish. 

• I've helped Amish ladies do it from the beheading part on, using the scalding method, but never all the way through.

• I do not have a chicken plucker.  This is of course not a requirement but, it would be a lot easier to do the "dirty work" if we had one.  

• I've found plans for my husband to make one, pieces can be purchased through Amazon, or a step-by-step book on how to make your own, and all of the parts to do it with, can be ordered through the author of the book.

On Craigs List there was an advertisement for a man who travels around doing just this, but is from the Lansing area, so although there is someone in the 3-hour radius vicinity who already does it, if I did follow through with this idea, I don't think I would be too much competition for him.

The issue with doing things like he does:

• I don't want to copy him.  Copying always leads to problems.

• I believe he charges too much to do this service for people.  

• He charged a set fee ($85 to even just start his truck.  $5/mile after 10-miles, and $2/chicken 6-weeks & under, $3/chicken 6-weeks & over.) 

• I'm thinking more along the lines of $20 - $25 to start the truck, $5/mile after 10-miles, $2/chicken for standard 6-week old, $3/chicken for larger breeds, up to $5 per bird if they're especially difficult? I don't know.

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Thanks to Mindie Dittemore for helping me get over my "writers block" through her own post about this topic.