I reduced these beautiful girls to parts yesterday and today:
After all, parts is parts.
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
I wanted to save some to make schmaltz, but I wasn't that enthused after the butchering work.
Even after washing my hands twice, the whippets wanted to lick my hands.
One goes on the grill tomorrow, another in the freezer for me and the wife, and the third will go to the neighbor who provides us with wahoo, bluefin, yellowfin, yellowtail, and he says he's got some rockfish waiting for us in the freezer when he gets back.
Experiment with some Freedom Rangers (ironbender recommendation as I recall? ) but I've decided I don't like all the work, set up, etc. Maybe if I went big and did a dozen or so, but then I'd need to expand the Gulag even more.
Easier to do a mammal of some size I believe, for the amount of meat gained.
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
Rabbits are easier. At least you can skin em fast.
Exactly what I told my wife.
A did a javelina a lot faster than these birds what with the setting up the boiling water and plucking and stuff. Wife would have been OK with me skinning them as she usually doesn't eat it, but I love chicken skin, so plucking was the order of the day.
Might have to build a rabbit Gulag???
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
I wanted to save some to make schmaltz, but I wasn't that enthused after the butchering work.
Even after washing my hands twice, the whippets wanted to lick my hands.
One goes on the grill tomorrow, another in the freezer for me and the wife, and the third will go to the neighbor who provides us with wahoo, bluefin, yellowfin, yellowtail, and he says he's got some rockfish waiting for us in the freezer when he gets back.
Experiment with some Freedom Rangers (ironbender recommendation as I recall? ) but I've decided I don't like all the work, set up, etc. Maybe if I went big and did a dozen or so, but then I'd need to expand the Gulag even more.
Easier to do a mammal of some size I believe, for the amount of meat gained.
Yessir, and you’re welcome.
Lots of setup and cleaning for three. Are you familiar at the term “economy of scale”? 👍
We kilt out 20 last month.
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time. --Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice. --ironbender
I was discussing that scale thing with the wife this afternoon. We like our few hens and the eggs they give us. What little surplus we get I barter some with another neighbor for sausage he gets from his kid's pigs.
I've got a hen brooding a batch right now as replacements for the 3 we've lost out of the eight "hens" we started with, one of which turned out to be El Feo. But we're pretty sure we don't want to set up to do a dozen or more every year. If we went that route, I'd have to have her out there helping and that would never go over. My department you know, along with the grill, shoveling snow, and the like.
I really wish the gooberment wasn't so involved and maybe someone out here would start a chicken operation for the farmers market crowd. No one wants to go through the permitting stuff. I'd love to buy some good local chickens, already plucked etc. We can get pork, I got a 1/4 beef from the neighbors' ranch this year, the one neighbor fishes long range boats and spreads the wealth. I wish there were more pheasants around too. I've thought about raising a bunch to release around here. On the ranch. If they "escape" the confines and end up on the BLM land......................oh well?
Oh, I think they were 13 weeks or so. I wanted to get to them last week but dragged my feet trying to see if I could integrate them into the flock as dual purpose birds. Failed experiment, so I set up the new cookstove in the garage, got a pot of water going, and said goodbye to them.
If the brooding hen is successful, we'll have some new layers in a bit and I can tackle the one hen that is rarely laying now and any male chicks that pop up.
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
I handle the neck whack and the scald. My wife is fully trained and certified on catching, plucking, and gutting. Then while I clean gizzards and hearts, she does the tertiary pluck in the kitchen sink. Gotta have assembly line production.
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time. --Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice. --ironbender
Wife's golden-doodle mutt got in the chicken pen yesterday. "oh lawd, she's done kilt a chicken, oh lawd oh lawd oh lawd, she ain't breathing, she ain't moving, she ded".
I get done doing whatever I'm doing, thinking we are going to have chicken for supper, get back there to start the cleaning process, and all of all the dang luck, its a Christmas in July miracle, all the chickens are standing at the feeder eating.
But instead of death by shotgun they die by a knife.
Either way, they are dead and turned into tasty bits.
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
I handle the neck whack and the scald. My wife is fully trained and certified on catching, plucking, and gutting. Then while I clean gizzards and hearts, she does the tertiary pluck in the kitchen sink. Gotta have assembly line production.
Mike,
no can do. She will not do it. I raise 'em, I kill 'em, I butcher 'em, I cooks 'em.......................
She eats 'em.
It's OK, she's richer than I am and does other stuff around the place.
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
Mesquite coals and marinated chicken drippings make for some nice smoke
Well, these look tasty:
And plated with some local (farmed) wild rice with steamed broccoli, that bird made for a very nice meal:
The desert is a true treasure for him who seeks refuge from men and the evil of men. In it is contentment In it is death and all you seek (Quoted from "The Bleeding of the Stone" Ibrahim Al-Koni)
Butchering chickens is nasty work. They sure don't make it easy like a cow or pig. Then there's hot water, stinky wet feathers, and finally the cold water that's soaking you. Guts smell real special.
When you are done, you smell like all those smells. And you only have one done.
We used to take poultry to a former private producer. He was big into it by local standards, nothing by today's places.
But they had a Mom and Pop slaughter set up. 5 kill cones, a scalder an automatic plucker, And a cutting room with a bandsaw.
He killed 5 at a time. Once he got going, 5 went in the scalded while five bled out. He dumped the plucker, pushing them done the line to his wife to dress and cut. Then he transferred the scalded ones to the plucker, tossed the ones from the cones to the scalded, and 5 more got cut. His wife kept right up with him, knife, bandsaw and chicken pieces all a blur.
Show up there with 50 cluckers leave in (maybe) 2 hours with cut up chicken.
$.75/bird Then. I think it's over $2 now.
Parents who say they have good kids..Usually don't!
Butchering chickens is nasty work. They sure don't make it easy like a cow or pig. Then there's hot water, stinky wet feathers, and finally the cold water that's soaking you. Guts smell real special.
When you are done, you smell like all those smells. And you only have one done.
We used to take poultry to a former private producer. He was big into it by local standards, nothing by today's places.
But they had a Mom and Pop slaughter set up. 5 kill cones, a scalder an automatic plucker, And a cutting room with a bandsaw.
He killed 5 at a time. Once he got going, 5 went in the scalded while five bled out. He dumped the plucker, pushing them done the line to his wife to dress and cut. Then he transferred the scalded ones to the plucker, tossed the ones from the cones to the scalded, and 5 more got cut. His wife kept right up with him, knife, bandsaw and chicken pieces all a blur.
Show up there with 50 cluckers leave in (maybe) 2 hours with cut up chicken.
$.75/bird Then. I think it's over $2 now.
Asked my grandfather what the metal cones mounted under his lean too behind the barn were for, he says ones for chicken stew and the other is for fried chicken.
[quote=Valsdad) I wish there were more pheasants around too. I've thought about raising a bunch to release around here. On the ranch. If they "escape" the confines and end up on the BLM land......................oh well?
[/quote] Several decades ago my father placed several pheasant eggs under a broody Banty hen in a coop built with chicken wire. Shortly after they hatched the chicks ran thru the wire and never returned. That was the end of my dads pheasant raising enterprise. Then he raised Mallards. He was going in to clip their wings when the flock took off flying and made a circle around the yard and then flew off in the direction of Suisun Bay. They did not return either.