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lynxpilot
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Reged: 10/14/04
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Posts: 46
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Loc: Ava, MO
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CHICKENS!
04/21/07 05:56 PM
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Supposed to get the chickens in this week. Ordered 50 cornish cross for meat, 25 rhode island red to beef up the egg laying herd, and 15 turkeys. Got all of the brooding cages made up, but I still have to build pasture cages. Wish me luck.
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egon
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Reged: 09/12/02
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Posts: 3031
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Loc: Nova Scotia,Canada
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Hopin for the best for you. 
Cleanin time???
Egon
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Pat
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Loc: SouthCentral Oklahoma
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LynxPilot, I forget... You goin' commercial or personal consumption? You gettin' a plucker or goin' to try to do it by hand. The worst part of home butchered chicken is the PLUCKING! Well, at least for me. Anymore most often if I can't buy it essentially pan ready I don't eat it. I still clean the odd fish, rabbit, or what have you but hogs, beef, chickens, and such.... It has lost its attrraction. I can do it if required, just hope it won't be required.
Best of luck to you though. If you don't mind it I am happy for you. The greatest single motivation that would drive me toward being a vegetarian is not liking butchering very much. Luckily we are allowed to hire it done.
Pat
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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lynxpilot
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Loc: Ava, MO
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Re: CHICKENS!
[re: Pat]
04/26/07 07:42 PM
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My intention is to build a rounded farm using natural techniques to the greatest extent possible. I'm trying to build up a small regular customer base. It's all nickel and dime right now, partly because I work full time and then some. We currently sell eggs and I have a bunch on the list for meat chickens when I butcher. I have a few angus heifers and will be expanding to get into beef. Also have about 1 acre of garden and will try to sell some produce. I'm trying to set the example to keep food local whenver possible. If things get rolling, I'll probably quit my job and go full time farming. If I had full time to devote, the move would be easy. It's sort of a paradox now, because I need more time to get established.
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lynxpilot
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. . .forgot to mention, I bought one of Dave Schafer's "Featherman Pro" pluckers. As far as butchering, all I lack is the scalder. I'd like to get something temperature controlled because it's fairly important to use the right temp to end up with a bare carcass without burning the skin off. Using traffic cones for kill cones. I'll probably run the entrails through a meat grinder, sun dry it, put it in some sort of netting, and drop it in the pond for the catfish.
Biggest hurdles so far are things like packaging. I scoured the web for blank egg cartons, and short of buying pallet loads ($10,000 minimum order), I can't seem to get below about $0.18 per carton. That adds up. We're currently using recycled cartons and I put my own sticker on the side, but that's a little bit cheesy (however it's environmentally friendly).
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Pat
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We always give our egg cartons to folks who raise eggs. Once in a while we are given the odd dozen eggs although we never asked and have no formal arrangement.
Maybe you could offer a rebate on customer returns not unlike the recycle value of a beverage container. Maybe you could contact some of the local student organizations (FFA-FHA-church youth groups, etc. and offer then a nickle or dime for used ones. It could work.
Pat 
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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ALBALD1
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Re: CHICKENS!
[re: Pat]
05/05/07 05:01 PM
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We found a local feed store that had a bunch of recycled egg cartons for .10 each. They were from about every store around. I bought 10 while I was there. After we started letting people know we needed cartons, we were covered up with them. I probably keep about 50-60 cartons on hand all the time. Regular buyers bring back the ones I sell them plus more from family members. As far as scalding, I used my turkey fryer. It does a good job, has a thermometer, & I already had it.
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Pat
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Re: CHICKENS!
[re: ALBALD1]
05/05/07 06:56 PM
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Mother Earth magazine has a plan for making a home brew chicken plucker which might interest you.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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lynxpilot
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Re: CHICKENS!
[re: Pat]
05/06/07 08:56 PM
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ALBALD1, thanks for the ideas. I actually have a turkey fryer but it's just a propane with no thermostat. As far as egg cartons, I get used ones free in large lots. My only concern was labeling. It would be nice to have my own label on them and not have to worry about another brand label as well as information about egg size and grading. Right now, I'm using little sticky labels on the end of the carton.
Pat, I already bought the Featherman plucker. Meat chicks are 2 weeks old now. They'll go into field pens next weekend along with the turkeys. Those cornish cross are amazing. I check on them when I come home from work every day and I can tell the difference in their size and feathering every day (no exaggeration). They are probably already 3 or 4 times the weight of the rhode island reds which are the same age. They turkeys are growing very slowly. I'm a bit surprised at them, but then again I've never had turkeys before.
Place your orders now!
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adegiulio
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I dont think it is cheesy at all re-using cartons from other eggs farms. Quite a few people around here do it, and we really don't need any more eggs cartons floating around. Sure, they are recyclable, but I would venture to guess that a good portion of people don't recycle them. And, like another poster mentioned, we occasionally get a dozen eggs free when we bring our used cartons to the chicken people...
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ALBALD1
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just read an article in the newest countryside magazine on how to build a thermostatically controlled chicken scalder for under $65. You might want to check it out. looks pretty simple
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lynxpilot
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Loc: Ava, MO
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Re: CHICKENS!
[re: ALBALD1]
06/28/07 09:42 PM
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I'm most of the way through them now. For a scalder, I bought a barrel from a local vendor that gets them from Kraft and they are originally for cheese. They are thicker steel than the usual 55 gallon drum and most folks around here use them for burn barrels. I used my turkey fryer propane stove thingy and started the heating early in the a.m. It takes a long time to heat the water, but it was ready in late morning and for the last 3 weeks we have been processing chickens. I have about a dozen left and nobody to help this weekend, so I'll be a busy character on Saturday.
With the garden and all, (and a full time job), it's been hectic. I can't wait to get the meat chickens done. WHAT A TEDIOUS JOB!!!!!! I hate killing them but processing them takes so doggone long it's frustrating. That's even with a plucker that works like a champ. I'm really having second thoughts on doing this again and the only thing is that we eat a lot of chicken.
Anybody want chicken guts?
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