The Great Chicken Experiment - Part A

A couple of weeks ago, I sat down and started adding up all the receipts that I have kept since beginning this experiment with raising chickens for food and eggs.  The rough total, not including the cost of the solar electric net fencing, the supplies for the new hen house, and the electricity to run a heat lamp for 2 months) came to over $500.  That made each chicken worth at least $12!  In my mind, it doesn't quite make all the work and expenses worth while.  So...we decided that sooner rather than later, we should cut our losses and butcher any non-essential chickens before their value went up even more.

So...yesterday was butchering day on Poplar Ridge.  It was hot, humid and without a breeze when we started, but by the end of the task (a mere 2 hours later,) a few sprinkles of rain  helped to cool us off.

We randomly chose half of the pullets, 17 in all, to butcher.  The dressed weight as they were ready to go into the freezer averaged only 2 lbs 4 oz.  One rooster didn't make the cut for keepers, so now we have a pretty mixed flock of 20 pullets:  Barred Plymouth Rocks, Golden Comets, and one Silver Laced Wynadotte. 

L caught chickens randomly, except that we had to decide which rooster would stay.  My Dad or JP butchered them and dunked them in scalding water, then we all worked to pluck them into the bucket of the tractor.

When they were all bare nekked, the adults worked to dress them.  All the entrails and nasty bits went into the tractor bucket, and L washed off the meat before depositing them into a large ice chest.

JP and I further washed and trimmed 11 birds in the house, then packed them in zip lock bags and stuck them in the deep freeze.  Except for the big one...must have been the rooster...which weighed in at 3 1/2 lbs. and didn't fit in a zip lock.  We considered butterflying and grilling it last night, but the thought of chicken to eat was not too appealing when we thought about it.

Instead, we washed EVERYTHING:  the tractor, the ice chest, the knives, sink, counters, canner, clothes, and ourselves  thoroughly and ordered Chinese.  (I got the sesame beef!)

So next year, we will implement The Great Chicken Experiment - Part B.  This involves at least 2 hens sitting on fertilized eggs to save the cost of buying chicks and using a heat lamp.  We still have to figure out how to decrease the cost of chick feed, but we have been supplementing more and more with table scraps.

Chicken farming, I have decided, is for the birds!