Chicken picking at feet

[Karen & co.]

We took the kids with us and they really wanted the runt, so against better judgement we agreed. Im sure she will catch up.

 

We used to rear orphaned lambs when I lived at home and my sister always wanted the most sickly and tiny one. At the time my parents didn't tell us that all the bottle feeds were done to send them to the freezer as children we were told that the lambs went to the farm to live when we went away on our holiday.

 

My children have always been told the source of their meat, because I think it's important they know, and I'm still working on OH to let us have some table birds at the back of the garden, away from the others, and the children think it's a good idea too

 

Karen x

[Lesley]

Keep working on him Karen! -we're glad we've done it.

 

Claire, we had the runt of the litter as well - we went to choose 6 pigs and found a whole litter of 7 and fell in love with them The runt is fine as they have plenty of room and 3 feed troughs so she always gets plenty to eat. She'll never catch up in size but she is growing well.

 

We despatched the last 7 of our table birds last Thursday - hard work when they weigh about 12/14lbs live weight We plucked 4 of them and skinned and jointed the remaining 3 as i couldn't manage any more plucking. Thay are all in the freezer now.

 

We lost two to a probable heart attack so we couldn't leave them any longer. We also needed the space as AMO's seven hens have come for their holidays.

[missuscluck]

Does anyone know anything about light Sussex hens as a dual purpose bird for eggs and meat?

[chickencam]

I would be interested to know this too because we have a Light Sussex who is a great egg layer ( she is the only one of our girls to lay 2 eggs in one day and lays on average about 5 eggs a week) and so much more solid than the laying hydrids. If their meat is good then they would make great all purpose birds. Bit noisy and slightly though

[missuscluck]

We are getting 6 new piglets on Sunday! So exited (again )

 

I think I have tracked down a supplyer near to me of light sussex hens so I will look into this a bit further on the weekend. A friend of ours has eaten a sussex and he said it was very tasty!

[Guest]

We are getting 6 new piglets on Sunday! So exited (again )

 

I think I have tracked down a supplyer near to me of light sussex hens so I will look into this a bit further on the weekend. A friend of ours has eaten a sussex and he said it was very tasty!

 

good luck Lynda! xxx think of us if you have any spare pork going

[spratly0]

My OH is so envious of all this smallholding type talk he really wants to buy a smallholding but our youngest daughter is 18 and doesn't want to move so we have to wait until she leaves home. In the mean time we buy a whole pig twice a year and butcher it ourselves, making sausages, salamis, bacon and all the joints. We get our pig from our wonderful local butcher who only sells free range pork and can tell us which farm it came from, how old it is,or any other questions we may have. There is huge satisfaction in producing good food with no chemical additives, just wish they were our own animals too. (we have also butchered a whole mutton sheep and a whole deer.. Not only are you in control of what ingredients go into the processing it is much cheaper too eg a whole pig usually costs us £2.50/kg!!

[missuscluck]

Im impressed by you doing your own butchery. We always get a farm butcher to do ours. I have been inspired by HFW meat book though and would like to get more involved in this hopefully.

[spratly0]

bought the river cottage pig in a day dvd a couple of years ago and have never looked back, OH says that once he got to grips with the pig, the dear and sheep just followed the same principal. The initial outlay for knives and equipment was about £200 but for what we have it was not so bad and has more than paid for itself in the savings we make buying a whole animal. Sausage making is really fun, experimenting with different flavours and you get higher meat content than shop bought too!

I think about food way too much!

[missuscluck]

We have got the pig in a day DVD but havent got around to watching it yet

We will do very soon.

We got our new gloucester old spot piglets today. We have 4 boys and two girls. I already smell of pig poo

 

They are fanpiggytastic!!

 

The kids have called the runt Smalley and the biggest boy pig is called Colonel Mustard!

 

Ill take some piccys tommorrow.

[spratly0]

oooo you lucky thing missuscluck ....... i would love some little pigs, sadly we don't have the room can't wait for piccies.

[Karen & co.]

Ill take some piccys tommorrow.

 

Can't wait to see the photos

 

Karen x

[missuscluck]

Havent taken any pictures yet as it has rained non stop. The sun is out this morning so Ill try later. Unless it starts to pour again

 

I have been trying to gain some info on the Light Sussex as a utility bird but as ever it is more complicated that you would first think. Im waiting for someone to get back to me as it seems that even in the pure breed there is different birds some of which are better for meat and lay less eggs and vice-versa. Im still open to other breeds too, Im not in a rush I just want to find the right bird to suit our requirements.

[bronze]

Well we despatched our first chicken last night. It was a male and he's huge. I'll get back to you on the weight as I've only plucked it so far.

[mrsallen08]

Well we despatched our first chicken last night. It was a male and he's huge. I'll get back to you on the weight as I've only plucked it so far.

 

Hiya

did you do it yourself? how did you do it? will be eating ours when fattened up but struggling to find someone who can either do it for us or teach us how! Had a few random offers but want it to be stress free for us and the bird.

[bronze]

DH did it but I have to say curiosity did get the better of me so I watched. He used the broomstick method. Basically he had a short piece of pole that he laid over the birds neck then he yanked. He was really really quick and as I caught the birds for him in the evening they weren't stressed.

the first- male weighted over 7lb and the second- female just over 5.5lb. We're having the male for lunch sunday and mil is having the female.

[WitchHazel]

Thanks for starting this thread Bron, and thanks to everyone who is contributing.

 

We bought an Eglu to keep our Litlees in until they are big enough to go in with the Big Girls, and I have been thinking for some time that I could use it to house two or three meat birds.

 

I'm making myself overcome my reluctance to eat something I have become attached to, and I think that I could do it if I made sure that the breed was completely different to my pet girls.

 

Regarding the despatching, I'm assuming that it will be hell the first couple of times, but it will get easier. (Not quite the same, but that's what happened to me when I had to deal with the half dead things the cats bring in. First few I couldn't do, then I got annoyed with myself because my patheticness meant the creatures were suffering; then I managed to dispatch a mouse, cried for ages; but it became easier as I got more experienced and confident in my ability to kill cleanly and quickly).

 

I see that Hubbards, Ross/Cobs etc have been mentioned here. Those of you who have the benefit of hindsight, is there one breed you would recommend for a beginner?

 

Hazel

[Lesley]

Hi Hazel

We started with Ross/Cobbs and have recently had Hubbards. We chose them because they are plain - not pretty - if that makes sense? We didn't think we'd be able to do the deed if they looked like our pretty layers

 

The only problem we have had is that we still find it difficult to despatch them, even though they are not individually named, and we leave them to grow.......and they grow big.... and then they are more difficult to despatch and much more difficult to pluck and eviscerate

 

We are going to go for a utility type next time - we are having a break from raising table birds for a while. Something like the Light Sussex............but they are sooooo pretty........

[bronze]

I'm afraid I've only had hubbards so can't do a comparison. As Lesley says they get big. I have to get DH to choose which one we're doing next. Its odd but I find it hard to be the one to make the choice even though they're all going gradually and I'm the one who catches it and carries it to where DH despatches them.

I'm finding them horrible to pluck. It is easier when they're warm but parts particularly the wings are really hard to do.

[Lesley]

We have to use spring loaded pliers to do the wings Bron - and even that gives me 'Chicken Pluckers Elbow' It took three months to clear up after plucking the 4 turkeys last Christmas.

 

We had to despatch our last 7 before we went away and left the farm to my son to look after - we plucked 4 but couldn't face any more so we skinned the last 3 and jointed them. You don't get the liver to use that way but ours seem to have manky looking livers if they have grown too big anyway.

 

Having said we're having a break from both hatching using the incubator and from raising table birds...... we have just stayed in France....a few miles from a town called Marans

 

I couldn't resist the free-range eggs from a local farm and have a dozen sitting in the incubator right now I am hoping to get one of the bantams to go broody so that we can swap them into her nest.....apparantly, one of them was trying to make a nest while we were away and so I've put some marked eggs in the nestbox and left them there.........anything to avoid the 6 weeks of mess raising them in a brooder

 

I did manage to ask the girl selling them if they ran a cockerel with the hens - I may know in 7 days whether they are fertile or not.........they are such dark brown eggs that I may have to invest in a proper candler to check instead of the loo roll tube and a torch I usually use.

[missuscluck]

We are off out for a trip to Shropshire this evening to pick up two Light Sussex hens and a cockerel.

We are keeping the hens untill the spring in the hope to breed from them and use the resulting chicks as a meat flock.

The Cockerel is going to our friend Davids small holding as he also has a couple of light Sussex hens. We will get a cockerel next spring so hopefuly between the two flocks we should succeed in producing a good slow growing utility hen.

 

Im in no rush to get any more Ross-Cobbs. I found the whole experiance unsettling TBH.

[Lesley]

Unsettling? - in what way Lynda?

 

We're not in a rush for more either

[missuscluck]

Im not bothered about the killing, plucking etc, although its not pleasent and its hard work.

 

I was shocked at their total disinterest in life. They had chance to free range but chose not to take it. I found it very sad to see the product of our desire for chicken, cheap and fast at first hand.

 

Ill try it the old fashioned way this time and see how that goes.

 

We have just got back from Shropshire Poultry in Wem, and we have brought back 2 lovley pure breed light sussex hens and a rooster.

The rooster is off to our friend Davids who we get the piglets from. He has some light Sussex hens and a very old rooster with no 'lead in his pencil' so he is going to put the new rooster in with these.

We are going to get a rooster in the spring and we are hoping between us to use the resulting chicks to start a meat flock. The light Sussex hen is supposed to be a good 'utility' bird.

 

The new hens have been officialy names Marge and Betty. The rooster is just beautifull.

[Lesley]

How odd!

 

Ours have always been active and were so funny to watch as they thindered up and down the run They also liked to roost on top of their sheds - quite high up - and had no problems getting up there.

 

I'd feel the same if they had been lethargic.

 

I have some Marans eggs in the incubator at the moment - brought back from Marans in France. They are a utility bird as well apparently so no doubt we will find out if we hatch cockerels.......sorry, when we hatch cockerels

 

You're latest hens sound lovely!

[missuscluck]

I do so wish ours had been like this but they were just hopeless. I think we have had this conversation before about feeding them. Ours had their feed close to the shed. I think you said you placed your feed further away so they had to go and get it.

 

This may have kept your birds leaner for longer. Ours were couch potatos. They just needed a tv and a mcdonalds!! They spent so much time sitting some of them didnt even feather properly underneath.

 

Perhaps if I ever get them again I would get them from somewhere else and feed them further away and see if its better.