The good: you know the birds are clean, have had happy lives to the end, and the meat is delicious and tastes all the better since you've put all that hard work into it.

The bad: processing is a ton of work, it's hard to get psyched up to do it after the first time, they are dirty, messy, lazy birds that get rather gross after the first couple of weeks.

The ugly: when it rains so much they start dying, and a red-shouldered hawk swoops right into their pen and feasts on dead chicken flesh, right in front of the (traumatized and terrified) other birds. When a raccoon reaches through your electrified fencing and bites a chicken's head off and proceeds to try to pull it through the netting and fails, leaving quite a scene. When you go out in the morning and can barely look because there might be another one with its stiff legs sticking up in the air.

Yes...sigh...we have lost three full-grown hens in the past 3 days. Very frustrating. Dh set up to slaughter today; I will help later but for now have to get work done and go to ds' last day of summer program celebration. He just went to get ice.

And processing is grueling work. It really is. No two ways about it. I think the first day we were so psyched up it seemed okay. But it's just messy, smelly, bloody, difficult emotionally, and exhausting. We're still doing it, and probably will raise more batches. It's just hard to get it done...which is why we lost the 3 birds...these last 20 should have gone last week, I think.

I'll try to get out there and get pics today.

I remember my grandma killing and cleaning chickens for dinner. You're right, it's a lot of work! I think she put the chicken carcass in boiling water before she pulled the feathers out. Or am I confusing that with hog processing? :lol: They raised hogs too.

Anyway,you are sooo cool to be raising your own chickens!

Ack! I don't have anything more to say. :lol:

ugh. I'm so sorry. ((hugs))

I can't even imagine a scene which you describe. I knock on wood everyday. I really do. Hitting the fence on my way out...keep 'em safe lord, just one more day. I say it every day. I haven't lost a single bird *knock on wood* but of course they're layers not big old dumb broilers. :o

Nice deep cleansing breath, straighten the shoulders, and back to work. Of course you're allowed to speak through gritted teeth for awhile too. :)

Thanks mamas. :) Katie you made me smile. Not sure about hogs, but yes, Amy, you scald the birds in water (not quite boiling, more like 140 or they'll cook) to loosen then feathers before plucking.

Done w/work, must head out to help. And will bring the camera, and probably convert another dozen board members to vegetarianism. :lol:

ooooooooooooh man :(
and :lol:

I remember my grandmother raising chickens. She had one mean old banny rooster she kept just for those critters that tried to get her hens. He was fearless... he would attack anything that came into the yard, even grandma. She had to carry a stick with her because he would come after her... she used to say it was like playing golf... that dang bird kept coming back... after about 2 or 3 whacks, he finally would leave her alone to do her thing.

Grandma's pen had chicken wire, then mesh and then another round of chicken wire. The mesh had really small holes, so nothing could put their heads in.

I really hated the smell when we were having "fresh" chicken for dinner or when grandma decided it was canning time and was making chicken vegetable soup. I remember as a kid, we (my cousins and myself) would sit up in the tree and watch grandma catch one, then take it to the "hack" tree, give it a couple of whacks with her mechet and then let them go.

I enjoyed collecting the eggs, although she had one hen, she called "old bitty" that you had to put something over her head to get the eggs because she would peck you hard.

Awww...shanny...those are great stories!

Our setup is a bit different...and dh and I were waxing philosophical while working about the old style of just having a large flock of laying hens and culling the nonlayers a few at a time.

We raised 50 meat birds, bred for being the most efficient converters of grain to muscle in the chicken world. CornishxRocks. Now they're 8 weeks old and it's time for them to be slaughtered...all of them. Well, we've done an uncountable number, and only 14 are left. We have a very effective electric netting that goes around them to keep out predators, but the weeds have gotten high and it really needs to be moved and mowed underneath. That's why the predator got them. It's 40x40 so that's why the hawk got the dead one (it was big enough for it to fly in and land). And we killed all the roosters (they were getting nasty and aggressive) so the hens are unprotected. We're unmotivated to move the fencing, or do anything else, because all these birds will be gone as soon as we can finish processing them.

We do have 37 hens for eggs, but we haven't killed any of those for meat. They're well-protected with lots of chicken wire and such, but we live in a riparian zone on the edge of 10,000 acres of wilderness, have an old dog who's no good at protecting anymore, so racoons, weasels, hawks, and fisher cats hang on the edges of our property and feel emboldened from time to time.

I think the fact that the fence was electrified is what helped deter it, but not until it got one of the birds. Broilers are also not known for their self-preservation instincts. Our other birds would never hang out right near the fence like that. But the fence is not as strongly electrified because of the weeds...The other bird died of natural causes (they tend to have heart problems due to their size) but the hawk felt emboldened enough to help himself to chicken dinner despite the electric fencing.

10 birds left...we just cleaned up for the day. Will rise at 5.30 tomorrow and try to get them all done. I have to take K to swim lessons at 11 so will help before that and Matt may stay home and continue (I'll take J so he can work).

We learned two things today:

*Go back to grandma's way, don't try to do factory assembly line processing but on the micro scale

*Eat a lot less chicken

*Wait, a third - it is especially hard to gear up when it's so dang wet outside, you're stressed because they've gone too long and need to do as many as possible now, you have way too much going on in your life to devote entire days to processing, they're all wet and stressed and getting weak from getting too big and getting eaten by things, etc. And when you're standing ankle deep in mud, feathers and blood for hours at a time.

I didn't take pics...it was too wet and rainy to take the camera outside. :rolleyes: One more shot tomorrow.

LOL...I think it's like labor. When you're in it, it sucks and you swear you're never doing it again. When it's over, it doesn't seem that bad. And you have delicious chicken...a baby...wait. The simile broke down there. ;) Sorry.

*Eat a lot less chicken

:lol:

And you have delicious chicken...a baby...wait. The simile broke down there.
:hahaha: :hahaha:

ITA w/ all you said. We have taken a 2 year break b/c of it. My dh and kids would like to start again. I know we should, but it is really hard all around.

Oh Lauren. What a year! :hug: It's hard. Homesteading is just hard, physically and emotionally. For every wonderful thing I swear there's some tragic thing. But, somehow, when the day is done it still feels rewarding.

Even as a vegetarian who couldn't look at that link, I'd show up and help because I'm so stinkin' happy Jake isn't eating *this* chicken anymore! You guys are doing an incredibly wonderful thing. Are there no processing options locally? On the homesteading boards I hear so many talk about paying a buck or two for processing. You wouldn't save as much, but it would still be a better alternative than buying.

It also seems like it will get better over time. This is all so new to you two. You'll get quicker, more efficient, and likely a little hardened to the emotional aspect.

And yeah, eat less chicken. Isn't that the way with everything? After you grind the wheat, make butter and make your own bread you don't dare polish it off as quickly as one you've just picked up from the store! You're right. You definitely appreciate your food way more when you have to work for it.

Oh, and have you tried straw on your mud? It breaks down, but we've layered straw on really muddy places to get the animals up off the muck.

Oh Lauren. What a year! :hug: It's hard. Homesteading is just hard, physically and emotionally. For every wonderful thing I swear there's some tragic thing. But, somehow, when the day is done it still feels rewarding.

Even as a vegetarian who couldn't look at that link, I'd show up and help because I'm so stinkin' happy Jake isn't eating *this* chicken anymore! You guys are doing an incredibly wonderful thing. Are there no processing options locally? On the homesteading boards I hear so many talk about paying a buck or two for processing. You wouldn't save as much, but it would still be a better alternative than buying.

It also seems like it will get better over time. This is all so new to you two. You'll get quicker, more efficient, and likely a little hardened to the emotional aspect.

And yeah, eat less chicken. Isn't that the way with everything? After you grind the wheat, make butter and make your own bread you don't dare polish it off as quickly as one you've just picked up from the store! You're right. You definitely appreciate your food way more when you have to work for it.

Oh, and have you tried straw on your mud? It breaks down, but we've layered straw on really muddy places to get the animals up off the muck.

Thanks. Makes so much sense, Marina.

The birds aren't in the muck - just that they don't really have enough shelter for the awful rains we've been getting, because we built it super simple for our typical summer weather, not monsoon season. ;) Where we are processing it has gotten so wet from rains and from the hose for rinsing everything that we are standing in ankle-deep water...I think judging from our experience at the music festival this weekend (shin-deep mud that they tried to layer straw on top of to make it walkable) that this ground is just too far gone, too saturated, for straw to make much difference. I have a bale sitting in the shed but wanted to save it for that magical day when I weed the entire garden. :lol: So I can mulch w/it. Straw is $6-8/bale right now (ouch).

Processing here is $3.50 a bird with a mobile cart. It does start to seem like a good deal, especially when you add up that dh and I are both working more than FT hours and make more than $7/hr, and it takes *us* 1/2 hr to process a bird (maybe a bit less now). But, we have tried to take this experience out of the money economy and into the pastoral economy, where the value of us doing it ourselves cannot have a price put on it.

I know some mamas are looking to me though for "how did it go" and I think I was a little gung-ho the first round, and I don't want to romanticize it and have someone go through it based on that and then be like "OMG. What was Lauren talking about? This bites." Kwim? Overall I'm very pleased with ourselves and making this really happen. I just don't want to romanticize the endgame. It's yucky.

((hugs))

There's no way to romanticize butchering/processing and if someone did or does, well then that's certainly not yours to own. ever.

I sure wish, more than anything, that it would just dry up a little bit for you. ugh. The rain and mud...it's just the icing on misery, really.

I am proud of you tho, plowing through this. Troopers for sure.

((hugs))

There's no way to romanticize butchering/processing and if someone did or does, well then that's certainly not yours to own. ever.

I sure wish, more than anything, that it would just dry up a little bit for you. ugh. The rain and mud...it's just the icing on misery, really.

I am proud of you tho, plowing through this. Troopers for sure.

Thanks Katie. Send some dry thoughts our way for sure! Tomorrow is supposed to be partly sunny with just scattered showers in the afternoon, but tonight is 90% chance of heavy rain and thunderstorms. Sunday is 60% chance heavy rain all day...and beyond that in the extended forecast is still chance of showers every. single. day. Oh wait! Next Thursday, partly sunny! :lol: They keep doing that to us though, and then as we get closer the partly sunny day turns into a 30% chance of showers...then 40%...then by the time we get to the day before, it's gonna rain all day again.

It's been nonstop. It feels more like winter in Washington state, honestly. Highs in the 60s and lows in the high 40s to low 50s.

Whew! DONE. And cleaned up as well, except for putting away the clean and drying tools, pots, etc., under the canopy.

Fridge is full to bursting...freezer downstairs is starting to look full again. :) Chicken is roasting in the oven. Life is good. :) Gonna be sunshiney tomorrow...at least till afternoon when it might rain. But it's gonna be a nice half of a day, at least, before heavy rain again Sunday.

Yay! Glad you made it through it relatively unscathed. It is hard, nasty work...but this winter, when the smell of roasting chicken is wafting through your house as the snow piles up outside...I bet you'll be feeling better about it all.

PS: we raised the CornishX...ugh. After the fourth week, we'd have to go in and move them off of their poop piles 'cause they wouldn't move away from the feeder. Nasty birds but good eatin'! Were you surprised by the lack of fat on them?

Whew. good job. :)

Glad you made it through. Dh used to hate Mondays on the farm because that was chicken processing day. I hated it too because he would be smelly and covered in feathers when he got home. I got to see the whole ordeal a few times but never participated myself. I suppose I could if I had to, but as it was I was very happy to let dh and the crew get to it without me! Now that he is with the orchard and not the farm the only chickens he has to deal with are the laying hens, for which he is very grateful.

Ack - I get nauseous when I read these posts (and I can't look at pics or links LOL) but I really, really admire you guys making this happen!

(And I can't help but hope you hadn't just processed chickens before packing up those magazines!!! ROFL!!!)

:lol: No worries! Anyway we are very clean about it, come right in and shower and the yucky clothes get thrown in a special wash right away. And I went out there personally yesterday because I know dh, LOL, and I wanted to bleach everything. After every processing time, we bleached every utensil and surface that we used.