Re: Plucking chickens/Good laying hens
Posted by: kmat <kmat@...>
For our meat chickens we got two kinds...one a faster growing (Jumbo Cornish
Cross)
and the other slightly slower growing, w/less fat (Premium Hy-Yield), we
were going to butcher
two different times (a week apart), but we had a butcher friend come to help
right in the middle
of the time to butcher (half went half a week past the 8 wk butcher time and
half went half a week
early...we didn't notice that much difference in size). Some were larger
than others, yes we had both
hens and roosters, the roosters seemed to be bigger.
A few years ago we kept one of the hens (our kids talked us into it, and we
named her Grace! had a great
lesson on what grace is together!)...she "hung" with our guniea hens (until
we got rid of them, they were LOUD)
and an owl got a couple of them in our barn.
Grace laid very small eggs, and when our gunieas were no more she didn't
seem to fit in w/any of the other birds, so her
time was up. Our laying hens have been great...they lay jumbo size eggs and
they have laid for us all through our cold
MN winters...they are Gold Links, a brown egg layer...I think someone told
us they are a cross between a Leghorn and a Rhode Island Red?
We had boiling water (212) that we dunked the birds in for 10-20 seconds and
the plucking went very quickly...friends nearby had their water about
140 degrees and dunked their birds for about 30 seconds (moving
constantly)...for the ones we dunked about 20 seconds the skin seemed to get
cooked
and a few had a little bit of the meat that looked a little cooked. Next
year we will try the water at 140 for 30 seconds.
Ours plucked quick and easy (it was the first time for my hubby plucking, I
had plucked right after high school, years ago.
I too have heard that different breeds pluck different, but I don't know if
that is true or not.
I know of a couple links on chickens if you or anyone is interested let me
know!
Yes, we eat our duck eggs, I usually use them in baking, they are great for
that! We will mix in one duck egg with about 7 or 8 chicken eggs
for scrambled. I've hard-boiled them also.
I hope this is helpful Roni!
Pam
----- Original Message -----
From: Roni Murphy <rsssjm@earthlink.net>
To: <homesteadheaven@weloveGod.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 7:18 PM
Subject: [HomeSteadHeaven] Plucking chickens, etc.
>
> Hi Pam,
>
> I was wondering if you would mind sharing
> a little more info with me. What breed of chicken did you raise for the
> meat chickens? Did you just kill male birds, or some hens too? I
> thought originally that we would order a straight run, keep the hens for
laying
> and 2-4 roosters and raise and butcher the males for meat. How do you
> do it? I was wondering how time consuming and how difficult the plucking
> part is? I've heard that it can differ between breeds, the ease of
> plucking. Does anyone know if that is true? I was also thinking of
> just ordering broiler chickens for the meat and the Buff's for laying.
> Have you ever eaten the duck eggs or cooked with them? I've heard the
duck
> eggs make good cakes, but don't know for sure never having tried it
> myself. Hope you don't mind all the questions.
>
> Roni
>