The first batch of chicks were sickly from day 1, and only got worse as they got older. About 30 of the original 120 chicks we ordered died within the first 24 hours.......and another 30 didn't make it to the butchering table, but dropped off one by one every other day or so. This was something that had never happened to us in 10+ years of raising broilers! The broilers always had plenty of water and feed and warmth and didn't suffer from heat exhaustion. We contacted the hatchery after the initial loss and they were very agreeable and refunded us for most of the ones that died.
Anyway, the survivors of that first batch were rounded up and penned up bright and early Thursday morning and we headed up the butchering chores at 10:00.
The year didn't exactly get off to a terrific start, while removing the head from the second chicken, Moses cut his hand-not badly, but enough to keep him from using his hand for the rest of the day-. We missed his help!!
But other then that, the first day went well, although we were all a little rusty from not butchering for 7 months! :) We had a little bit of trouble with the water temperature, which resulted in some skin tearing on a few birds.
Below are some pictures from the day.
The chickens waiting to be butchered.
Tabitha is our head plucker!
Esther does a fantastic job gutting the birds.
Noah kills the birds, scalds them, helps pluck and fills in where needed!!!
3 comments:
We were just talking today about our "fond" memories of chicken butchering times with the Ulmers!!! Remember the time Mr. L almost cut off his thumb?! :-o.
~ Mrs. L
Tabitha- you are the head plucker? Does that mean you pluck off the heads! :) hee
Oh yeah...this looks like a familiar sight at the Ulmers house! ;-)
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