Chicken for dinner

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by Tamandco, Aug 22, 2005.

  1. Tamandco

    Tamandco Junior Member

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    Hi guys,

    Well, I finally cooked our first home grown chook!

    Hopefully it's the start of things to come. It's reassuring to know the history of what we've eaten, what it's been fed, what it's been treated with and what it's been exposed to. Anyway, the whole procedure wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be, and we had curry.

    Also put some eggs under our broody silkie. After the fox saga, it's been the first opportunity to breed some more australorps. Very excited, so watch this space in 3 weeks time.

    Tam

    P.S. Did I mention that I planted my orchard on Wednesday just gone. It's all happening, and Spring's just around the corner.
     
  2. ~Tullymoor~

    ~Tullymoor~ Junior Member

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    Tam, how did you go with the killing, plucking, gutting?
    Especially the gutting...it all seems like too many "steps" for me :(
    We planted more in our orchard yesterday too, we now have a whole 13 trees in lol and room/plans for a hundred more.
    I saw a wee beastie run through our paddock at 4.30 this arvo and at first I thought fox but it didn't look like a fox. It looked like a whippet fox cross, sort of kelpie colour, no brushy tail and it was bounding along leaping over the high capeweed. Not at all "foxy", not that I've seen a live one moving, only dead ones hanging on all the fences around here. My brain was searching it's RAM for what it was as I watched it run, but nothing registered. Any ideas?
     
  3. Tamandco

    Tamandco Junior Member

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    How much detail do you want? :lol:

    We got all organised first. Had the half 44 with a fire going, rio mesh on top and galvanised rubbish bin on that full of water already simmering. (All of these things I picked off the hard rubbish!)

    Then we picked out a nice chopping block. Not our fire wood one because we don't want blood and yucky stuff around our wood area. Hammered 2 large nails in it about an inch apart. This is to keep his head still so he doesn't move, and it lets you stretch him just a little bit to make it easier. We used an tomahawk (sp?) but really needed something heavier. I won't go into details here. I've actually killed chooks this way before but only sick ones being euthenaised (sp?), not huge healthy ones (4.5 kilos). We had his legs tied together so we could hang him up straight away to bleed out. We had one of those hooks you use for hanging baskets, in a nearby plum tree. Plucking was a lot easier than I thought. (1st time for me!) I dipped him in the garbage bin of simmering water for about 15 seconds and the feathers just about fell off on their own. Gutting was difficult because I really don't have a decent knife. That was probably the hardest bit. Plus his age (10 months) made it a lot harder than if we'd done a younger one as all the bones were hard and not a lot of cartledge you get on the shop bought chooks. Rinsed in cold clean water and into the fridge.

    That was the easy bit. Try cutting up a 4.5 kg chook with crappy knives and a chopping board that keeps slipping under the weight. It took me 2 hours to cut it up (notice that I've stopped saying 'him' now) for the pot. Because of the age and size, I prepared the meal in the pressure cooker and did a curry so any chook taste would be disguised. (You see, I'm not totally brave!)

    We won't have any more to do for quite a long time now. We only had that one because we raised 2 cockerells and had to make a decision which one we'd keep for breeding. Our other one (that one's brother) has had quite a few show successes lately so he also won the position of Grand Poo Bah of the chook run.

    When I think about it, our grandmothers did it all the time. I don't know why we've all become such wimps in this day and age. I guess that's what 'progress' does to you. We eat so much crap that we know nothing about, and few of us question.... It reminds me of the movie 'Soilent Green'!

    Tam
     
  4. ~Tullymoor~

    ~Tullymoor~ Junior Member

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    So, sharp knives are a must. What about the not knicking the intestines bit and getting the heart and lungs out stuff?

    What did you plant in your orchard?

    I must have missed your fox saga too, what happened?
     
  5. Tamandco

    Tamandco Junior Member

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    I was careful not to nick the intestines and had no probs with that. It was hard to cut a nice neat circle as the skin was just so leathery. I tried with the kitchen shears and they just kept slipping. I made a bit of a hack job with the knife, but made sure I only went in so far so as not to damage anything inside. Because the bones weren't flexible as in a young bird, it was quite hard for me to get my big hands inside, but managed it in the end. It was hard to get the windpipe out. Also, the neck, which I like to twist and break off close to the breast, was so think and the tendons in this bird were so tough. I think that's what made it so hard. Where I did stuff up is I tore the crop when I was pulling it out. Not sure of the right technique here. Not too bad though. What's a bit of undigested grain and shellgrit anyway.

    I worked in a poultry processing factory for a month about 6 years ago and did a lot of this neck twisting there as part of their quality control, making sure that their birds were presented well. I also always pull the fat out of any birds I buy and did this at the factory as requested with some orders. They were much smaller birds, but it was really easy to get my hand inside. This has me puzzled.

    Re: heart and lungs etc. I just dumped everything into a hole with the feet, head and feathers. I won't eat offal of any description. Fullstop.

    Re: Fox episode. Last November (I think) I let the chooks out into their run and went out for the day, an unusual occurance for me. Got home late and forgot to lock them up. Next day, went down in the morning and it was carnage. The fox had dug in and had killed everything and taken the babies. These babies were about 6-8 weeks old australorps and were already nearly a kilo each. There were 13 of them. I had only just put them in with the others. In addition to the babies I had quite an old but very dear rooster named Russell Crowe (Russell) who had to have been about 5 years old. I'd had him at my old place, then gave him to a neighbour, then got him back when we moved here. Then I had my 4 australorp pullets which had taken me 4 years to source. They were all from show winners and were really nice types which cost me quite a lot of money. Heartbreaking.

    Anyway, over xmas, hubby and I (quite pregnant) dug the entire floor out of the chook house, plus a 2' wide strip around the entire perimeter of the chook run and laid welded mesh and cyclone fencing. It was hard rubbish time and I just searched for materials to use and even used an old futon base, one of the tubular steel futons with a welded mesh base. There's no way a fox can get in there now, but I no longer allow them to free range out side of their run unless I'm there to supervise.

    On a good note, the breeder of the birds has allowed me to use the mums of my pullets. They're getting on in years now but are the ones that won so much as young birds. I've also got a lovely cockerel, Bruce, who has recently done very well at a few shows himself. I've just collected my first half dozen eggs from the match and as mentioned before, have put them under a broody silkie. The next lot will go into the incubator. I'm not taking any chances of losing this bloodline again. We've got silkie and araukana eggs to eat, but not the australorps. They're like gold at our place. If any of my other silkies go broody, they can have some eggs too. I prefer them to raise the chickens as it's a lot less work for me, but if I have to, I'll certainly use the incubator. What we don't keep as breeding/show stock, which will be all the boys unless there's a couple that could supass their dad in which case I'll grow them out like I did with these boys, then make a decision of which one to keep, will feed our family. I'd like to keep 2 or 3 roosters eventually, and I'll keep all of my pullets & hens.

    Anyway, that's the situation in a nutshell.

    And we still don't know if my 3yold's silkie Snowy, is a pullet or a cockerel yet. It looks like a cockerel but for some reason, we sometimes get 4 silkie eggs in a day and we only have 4 silkies. 3 buff, and Snowy. (???) I'll take him/her to the club next month and they can tell me.

    Tam
     
  6. SueinWA

    SueinWA Junior Member

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    Tam, if you've got a rooster laying eggs, I wouldn't butcher him! You might be able to get a good bit for him! (A true "multipurpose" bird)

    Re: another post of yours -- I don't have photo capability, so can't show you a pic of my Terv. Sorry. Too poor and too dumb right now....

    Sue
     
  7. shae

    shae New Member

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    do you know where I should be getting my little backyard egg layers from in victoria?
     
  8. Tamandco

    Tamandco Junior Member

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    No worries Sue. Perhaps you could draw me a picture using paintbrush. :lol: I might even give that a go myself (obviously too much time on my hands :wink: ) Yes, the egg laying rooster. I guess he would be called a haemaphrodite (sp?)! :lol:

    Hi Shae,

    What area are you in and what sort of chooks do you want. Large, small, egg laying, dual purpose, fancy, plain, purebred or just good ole chooks in need of a good home? Also, how many did you have in mind and do you want to keep a rooster to raise chickens too or just keep the chooks for their eggs.

    Tam
     

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