So I butchered 7 of my hens last week .... Seperated them for 24 hours no food to clean crop... Brother came out to help with the killing, skinning, and eviscerating... I then soaked them in a brine for 3 days..... De-boned them and ground the meat.... Using a food processor, I seasoned them and broke them down to an almost pâté consistency.... Drove to Mom's where we scooped the meat mixture in seasoned flour ...formed them... using their own eggs, egg wash and bread crumbs .. fried in oil.... Delicious!!! After the whole family pounded down a bunch, I flash froze the rest.... 10 pounds left First time utilizing old layers and they came out great!
That was just 7 birds, T ...I have 17 more to kill this summer... If I don't have help, there will be lots of soup and stew made..
It really is weird for me to be chickenless. I'm figuring I'll have chickens by March. It takes me about 5 mins. to pluck and gut a meat chicken. So I don't do more than 15 at a time. Plus, my coolers can only handle about that many. For all the older layers I had, I rarely did any of them in.
Them look tastey!!! We just butchered 8 turkeys this past weekend. I had gotten them for free when they were poults late last summer when I was out garage saling of all things haha. I didnt know the guy and I was shocked that he had just given them to me. We raised them up at my fiances parents hobby farm and they became super mean. We had too many toms had 6 toms and 2 hens, one hen and one tom had died earlier. They started beating up on the ducks and chickens and eating eggs so to the chopping block they went. We ended up smoking them in our new smoker. I havent tried any yet, hopefully this weekend. They smelled great while they were in the smoker. We plan on raising more turkeys every year now that we have a butcher shop that is almost complete.
