Well if everything goes as planned it looks like I'm going to have an opportunity to help a local farmer butcher 100 birds on Saturday. I met him through my investigation for a source of highly available phosphorous for our pastures. The search led me to a company called Fertrells who sells hi-grade, organic soil amendments. They in turn referred me to a local rep who also happens to be a pastured poultry farmer.
I know that this doesn't sound very fun to most people, but I'm really looking forward to the experience. Now don't get me wrong I'm not into killing things, but I am interested in learning how to process chickens since that is a skill that we'll need on the farm, and one of the many that I lack.
I talked to the guy over the phone briefly, and we really seemed to hit it off, so maybe I'll gain a friend out of it. That'd be nice.
I'll let you know how it goes. Unfortunately I will probably not be able to post any pictures as Suz (the photographer) will not be there, and I expect my hands to be a little too messy to wield a camera. Besides, I'm there to work and I don't want to hold up the show since this guy was nice enough to let a greenhorn come over and help.
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Sounds like a great opportunity. I had a similar opportunity but the guy ended up driving his chickens five hours to a USDA facility in Kentucky. Oh well.
Funny story, The guy i mentioned above drove all his chickens and family up to the processor and pulled an overnighter while they processed his 250 birds. He had his pickup with a deep freeze in the back and his horse trailer full of chickens. They filled the deep freeze and headed home. After they got home they dropped of the trailer and were so tired they just plugged in the deep freeze still in the truck and went to bed. The next day he went to go get the mail. He unplugged the deep freeze and headed down the drive to get the mail. After getting the mail he backed up and pulled forward to turn around. The whole deep freeze full of 250 birds slid out of the back of the truck. A cop had to come and cone of the lane he was in. He grabbed the family and they took all the birds out and put them in coolers. Then they lifted the deep freeze into the back of the truck and put the birds back into it to drive them up to the house. They didn't loose one bird but their deep freeze was pretty messed up.
Good luck!
Have fun! This weekend was our first weekend processing poultry. We did Pekin ducks, which was interesting. The pinfeathers were awful! Hope your chickens are better! I've gained a new respect for what it takes to take a chicken or duck and put it on the table.
Missing your posts Steve & Suz :)
Hope you find some time to post again soon.
Liz
Thanks for the encouragement Liz! We miss you guys!
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