My friend Jaime came over yesterday and helped me do my first chicken harvesting. He caught Juni up by the leg (this is the chicken we could never catch because he would hurt us!) and then we took it over to a fallen tree and he crossed the wings behind its back, put the neck on the tree while I held the head, and gave it a couple whacks with an axe. He then held it neck down for a minute or two while the blood drained out. I was surprised how the head was so still and yet the body kept crowing! As I hoped, I was not sad or upset about the death part of it. Then we dunked it in almost-boiling water until the feathers came out easily and put it up on a cardboard surface on top of the same dog cage Juni spent his last days in (because we couldn't let him roam with the others since he was uncatchable). I really liked pulling out the feathers. Jaime also showed me how you pull the outer layer of scale-like skin off the legs, including an outer layer on each claw and on the beak. I was also surprised how the young feathers look just like fine hairs. He then sliced near the base of the underside and reached in to separate the guts from the body cavity. This seemed to be fairly hard to do, and it is also a little tricky to make sure you don't rupture the intestines and contaminate the meat. I meant to keep him without food in his cage for the last 12 hours to eliminate any solids from his intestines, but he escaped while I was cleaning out the straw (so he couldn't eat the seed-heads) and ended up in the tractor with all the other birds and lots of straw to eat from). He showed me how to locate the part of the knee-joints to cut through, and also how to butcher the chicken up into pieces.
The dark meat was a bit tough, probably because he was past the 8-week prime age for harvesting, but also possibly from overcooking. The breast was nice and tender. Now the carcass and the head and feet are boiling in the crock pot where they will cook for a couple days untill all the good minerals and gelatin are cooked out of the bones and cartilage.
It definitely feels more peaceful and balanced with one male and the rest females. We did lose one hen a few weeks ago, probably to a coyote. They seem to live very close to the house based on the noises we hear, and one morning around 8:30 I saw one right in the yard with the chickens, as bold as can be. I was freaking out so I couldn't get the door unlocked, but once I did Clarra chased it away.
We have also gotten 6 eggs so far! The first one was several days before the second, but now they seem fairly steady. They are tiny! I will try to post pictures soon.
We moved the tractor to a spot under our only tree because it was so hot for a while. Our new plan is to keep them there and remove the litter periodically to make garden beds. We just let them out in the morning and they go back in on their own at night. They ate a green tomato off the plant today. We may need a fence if they keep that up. I still feel like we are making this up as we go along, and I just keep reminding myself that we are new to this and doing a pretty good job with very little experience. They are so soft to pet, and so cute when they run! I definitely see them as food-producers, but they have a nice role as companion animals as well.
Here is a link to a really cool chicken operation at a monastery. I plan to see if they accept visitors. http://www.littleportion.org/about-our-process.html
No comments:
Post a Comment