No maglite... I save that for the bigger game. I use a pretty fancy set up. -A two gallon clorox jug with the bottom and neck cut-off and zip-tied upside down to a post. Pick chicken up by feet, lower into jug. Get it's head/neck out the jug and cut it's neck. I use a scalpel because it's so sharp that it's a bit easier on the chicken (and me) than a regular knife. Cut the juglars and not the esophagus or trachea. Let the chicken hang and bleed out. This should be pretty fast. If 20 seconds pass and your chicken is even remotely conscious, you missed the big blood vessels. Birds will kick and flop for several seconds. That's how I do them in. I used to chop the heads off but I ended up with the occasional broken wing or bruised meat because they flap so dang hard when they get chopped. And blood gets sprayed everywhere. I'll also add that while I can kill critters left and right with gun/bow/traps... I really don't like killing my chickens. I feel like I'm letting them down. I spend weeks tending to their needs and then I end up sticking a blade in their neck. I hold my hand over their eyes so they can't see what's going on or worse... give me some sort of "WHYYYY???" look. My old chickens came over and ate any little tidbits that fell to the ground. They aren't freaked out by it at all. My dog, who won't harm a live chicken, also eagerly helps clean up any scraps. (mmmm! chicken heads!)
LOL Christine! You should do an informational video of the process :D So what about plucking the feathers? You have any tool or do you just do it hte old fashion way ... boiling water and hand plucked ...
I fill my turkey fryer pot with water and try to heat it between 140-150 according to my not particularly accurate thermometer. Keeping the temp is bit annoying.. add water and shut down heat if it's too hot, turn it back on/up if it's too cool. Too hot and you cook the skin. Too cool and the bird won't pluck. I hold the bird by the feet, dunk and swish.. lift... dunk and swish again. Pull on the wing feathers, if they pull easily it's ready. I am currently hand plucking my birds. Getting the big feathers off is easy. At 46 days the birds have lots of pin feathers. Those come out easily but they are time consuming to pick out. I used to run a game bird processing facility. We did 10K birds a year. We had a big auto scalder, a big standing plucking machine.. We could easily do a bird a minute. I miss that machinery... but that stuff is $$$$$. So I hand dip in hot water.. and hand pluck. I am considering making a thermostat controlled scalder. People make them from electric water heaters. There are also plans online for making a drum style plucker that is supposed to be pretty slick.
So I just found these videos ... sounds like what you do now ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy_vutu5qO0&NR=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHqxnkaCgkk&feature=related
Tony, I'll get the pictures up a little later but you will see the spurs on my rooster, about 2 inches and needle sharp. The rooster and I have had two throw downs this spring, understandable all things considered (peak mating season), but, unless you know how to deal with it you will likely get spurred. Ask my wife and daughter (not by this one). This is a nice rooster too LOL. Get the hens, grow with them and, if you feel like incubating your own eggs at some point then get the rooster. Or you can get a rooster and, if he is a prick, kill him and eat him :D .
Kind of dark pic of Red crowing. Since I was in the coop around all of his women and I am a badder ass than him he thought he needed to talks some ****.
Here's my little laying set-up, And I do have a rooster, I'm no chicken farmer, I just feed them and gather the eggs. LOL. I've got 12 Laying hens which consist of Leghorns, Sexlinks, and Rhode Island Reds, and 1 rooster which is also a Rhode Island Red. The coop is pretty sweet set-up made by some local "Amish type" people. There is a little trap door/lid that the eggs can roll into after they lay, you don't even have to go into the coop. windows that open and close, big door for humans and small door for chickens, I like it alot, I need to paint it soon though. Here's some pics.
Thanks for all the info, Bruce ... the "tractor" is to move around so you dont ruin your yard but actually fertilize it, right? pretty neat, Aaron! I didnt know you were a chicken man :D
Gonna put the paddles to this thread with an update .... coop construction begins this week ... gonna convert part of the Barn to an 8x6 coop ... I will also be putting an attached run ... a big one as they will not be allowed to free range much (wife is a flower freak) ... we will be getting our chicks in about 3 weeks .. I will keep this updated with pics .. we are going with the rooster .... what if we got him snipped? Would he not become aggressive?
Fantastic, Tony! Looking forward to the updates. Not sure what you mean by snipped but if you mean neutered ( a capon ) then what would be the point of having the rooster? You don't need one to get eggs, you just need him to fertilize the eggs. Aggressive is kind of pot luck, at least in my experience. We had 13 at one time, raised from eggs, and we watched them to pick the one we have now. A couple were aggressive as all get out, some were not very assertive and a couple were assertive. Our current rooster came from the assertive group. Like I said before, get one, see how he is and if he is to aggressive for you then kill him and eat him. Then try another one. I like having a rooster in the flock as it seems to keep all the flock dynamics well balanced. They can free range in the winter. We keep ours in the run when the gardens are in full swing as they can mess them up. Thsi time of year we let them out in the afternoons as the gardens are dormant. You definitely need to pay attention to the hawk population if they are free ranging though.
Thats pretty cool, Tony. I've been thinking about getting some chickens myself. However, I live in a subdivision but its not houses right on top of one another. I just want a few laying hens.
You could consider building a small chicken tractor with 2-3 nest boxes. Then you could have 4-5 hens. That would be 3-4 eggs a day (5 hens), maybe 5 sometimes. The tractors are easy to build, especially for you, and you cam move them all around your yard so as not to commit one spot to chickens. I think the tractors are the perfect solution for those just wanting a few laying hens.
The whole point of me getting a rooster is for looks ... the wife wants one :D for me, I am excited to see the dynamic he brings to the flock ... I am not excited about bare backed hens ... Great idea .... I was also thinking about letting them free range under my supervision for an hour or so during the spring and summer ... are they easy to herd back in the run? @ Donni .... they make some awesome 2-4 bird systems for the more suburban or city backyards ... you may want to look into it!
BTW, we are starting with 11 hens and 1 rooster, now that the wife is fully on board ....heck, she is worse than me with this :D
