Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 25 systematilcally executed in Minnesota.

Brings back a lot of smelly memories

mmmm, hot wet shicken fedderz...

my favorite smell in the world.

lol.

Some sort of fast growing butcher chickens. I can't remember the name.


The smell brought back a lot of memories from my childhood.

Shot'em with .22's and chopped a few, as singles for dinner.
Nothing like burning your fingers on scalding hot chicken feathers.
Lovely smell too.

WB, for chickens, gallon milk jug with the bottom cut out work well. They can't flap their wings and it's got the handy handle too, as blood is slippery.

that's how we do ours anyway

My Mother in law has one of the wickedest hand wringing motions i have ever seen.

Lots of wrist action.
When done the best fried chicken around.

they're called Cross??? something

we raised some to butcher as well and waited too late, the fat bastids some couldn't run away when we went to butcher them. And as hard as it is to believe they're even dumber than a standard chicken.

White chickens matter! !

I have 31 of them going to the butcher in 4 weeks. They will be 9 week old chickens. I can buy chickens cheaper, but I can't buy a better tasting chicken anywhere. I get them butchered for $3 bucks a pop, all bagged up and no feathers left on at all. I don't bother doing it myself cause I can go to work for a few hours and make that money . I think it would take me all day to butcher 31 chickens.

Yup, in addition to what my granny raised, we raised a bunch one summer as kids to make some money. Granny was hell with that hatchet and a stump. Last 10-20 or so we're so wild we couldn't catch and they hit head-shot.

Good times!

Traffic cones work in a pinch for killing cones

[/quote]


they're called Cross??? something

we raised some to butcher as well and waited too late, the fat bastids some couldn't run away when we went to butcher them. And as hard as it is to believe they're even dumber than a standard chicken. [/quote]


We raised and butchered some of those last year. Goofiest chickens I ever raised. They couldn't hardly get up they were so fat. We didn't butcher them soon enough. Some of them weighed 13 pounds dressed out. Took the wife and I 8 solid hours to butcher 23 of them. Not my favorite sport. They were good though.





They were old enough to have eggs.

Brings back a funny memory. My buddy wanted his 5 year old son to come out to the farm and see what butchering chickens was all about. The boy's mom didn't think it was a good idea but my buddy insisted. He took the first one, chopped it's head off and let it go, it ended up heading right for the boy who took off running. My buddy was thinking he was going to be in huge trouble for traumatizing the boy but the young lad ran in a semi circle and yelled "Get him dad, get him!" We all thought it was the funniest thing and I still laugh everytime I think about it

Doing 30 tomorrow. Call me a sissy, but I rented a chicken plucker.

I surely didn't get these chickens to save money. WAY cheaper to get them in the store.

I want my little 3-1/2 yo bear cub to be around animals, have chores and understand that meat doesn't come from the grocery store. Start him off young.

We will be using a chicken plucker for the next batch.

I still have the big knife my grandma used to lop off heads when butchering chickens. Granpa make a row of mounted cones for the recently decapitated to be dropped into. Used to love fresh fried chicken.

Look like Cornish Cross meat chickens to me.

They grow so fast that they end up as lazy lumps that done do much moving around except to eat.

If you want to keep them from being too fat , just let off on the feed a little bit every day. They will thin down. If you keep them so fat they can't walk they will die when it gets hot, like 90 degrees. I hate having big dead rooster Cornish Cross chickens die when they are 6 lbs and just a few days before I take them to the butcher.

Cornish Rock Cross or something was the breed.

We only let them eat 12hrs/day. I guess the legs break if they are allowed to eat at will. 25 birds were drinking 5+ gallons of water per day.

It was impressive to see them get bigger everyday.

Get the float bowl controlled auto water hooked up to a hose.
Only let them have food for 15 minutes a day, or it attracts rats.

I used to raise 50 cornish cross a year, but did not kill that at 8 weeks and 2 pounds. I would let them grow until they were twice the commercial frier size. It was a day's work for me and the wife to get them in the freezer.

I would:
0) Don't feed them for a day. The guts are empty and they are easier to catch.
1) cut off the head with pruning loppers.
2) Hold the wings back [so they can't flap, which makes the meat tough] with one hand and hold the legs together with the other and let their neck stump spray my shoes with blood for a minute.
3) I would pull off the skin
4) I would pull out the guts and save the liver and hearts [the cat loved the hearts, but would not eat store bought]
5) I would cut through the ankle joints and throw away the feet.
6) I would cut through the hip joints.

I would get ~ 6 chickens in a big pot and carry it to the house. The wife would pick off any feathers I messed, cut them into smaller pieces, wrap them in plastic and freezer wrap, weigh the package, mark and date the package, and put it in the freezer.

By the end of the day I was covered in blood and talking to the chickens, "Hold still this will be over fast.."

Could you detail your method.