Heading out into the garage to kill a dozen older egg layers....since these are egg layers and burn out in under 2 years, they have little meat on them and are good for stock, Last time I did my egg layers I deboned them and ground the meat, making patties out of them. The bones get roasted for an hour and then into a slow cooker for bone broth, a super food, BTW. Looking for new ideas with what to do with the ground chicken? Even butchering and processing ideas...these birds will be skinned as they are not dual purpose.
Tony when I developed my chicken wild rice beer cheese soup it was when I butchered chickens all the backs and wings and scrap all boiled in a pot. The breasts should still be tender enough to keep whole. I miss butchering chickens until I actually do it the next time.
Scraping out the lungs sucks and should only be done with an open beer. But do not cut yourself opening gizzards because with thin blood from beer you bleed a lot. I heard this from a guy I know......
Oh and some pot pie...some bone broth would make a killer gravy...if only you knew where to find a good pie crust...
Tony do you use road cones? Made a bracket to hold 2-4 road cones put them upside down with a bucket underneath. Once you cut the head off you put the body in the cone it softly holds the birds in place and funnels the blood to the buckets.
Hatchet and a log...throw in field to bleed and flop around till dead...I do need to get a set system as I plan on doing this throughout the year
When I did meat birds I would get the corning crosses and only get cockrels. I would let them grow to 12-13 pounds, the breasts were so good they had texture not like the mush chicken you get at the store.