ilultham

Obviously this post contains pictures of dead animals so please don't read if that kind of thing upsets you.  I had planned to process a batch of Indian Game chickens for the freezer this week. I was then disappointed when I found out that the day I had planned to do it the children were going for a sleep over at my mum and dads.  This is how far things have come with the children, it's so much easier with them that I now plan to do it so they can help. So I made sure we all got up early that morning and got cracking before they had to go! I had considered keeping the hen from this batch but in all honesty they were so wild. I don't think I've ever had such a wild hatch of chickens before, even thought he children spent so much time with them when they were younger.  As a team we've become pretty quick at processing the birds. I normally set the water to boil while we're having breakfast, ready to scald them to make plucking easier. So by the time we've disp...

 This post contains pictures butchery of poultry, so if you're not someone who wants to read about that then I'd suggest you skip this one. Theh boys from our Indian Game x Colobian Plymouth Rock crosses we hatched out last year have reached around 24 weeks of age and it was time for them to join freezer club.  I probably should have done this a few weeks sooner, but so long as I rest the birds once prepared and cook them properly it shouldn't make much odds, they're still plenty young enough and we do prefer to have to chew our food!  The girls have also really started to earn their keep in this job now. I got set up (water boiling, big chopping board cleaned and ready) and when they came out to help we started to process the birds. I'd catch a bird (one would open and close the gate for me) then dispatch and leave for it bleed and clean the meat. Once I had about 3 birds done I'd scald them and leave them for the girls to start plucking while I dealt with the ...

###This post contains photos of dead animals and meat prep### With the Avian Flu lock down yesterday we decided at the weekend to thin our flocks a little bit with a few birds that were going off to go to freezer camp.  The girls have their favourites! No way were these going to the freezer! We had two cockerels (Legbar and a Maran) from a small hatch we did in the summer, leaving us with two layers and two silkies from that hatch. And three ducks - all drakes - to leave us with what is a breeding trio from two sources so next year any that hatch should be unrelated.  The girls had made me promise that this was a weekend job so they could help with the prep. I was utterly impressed with them, they know the process and just get on with the job in hand, 'The only bit they struggle with is the wings and tail feathers, other than that their birds are plucked as good as mine.  They get involved with the gutting of the birds now as well - I know plenty of adults that can't do t...

  Growth is way slower on my Indian Game x Colombian Plymouth Rock meat birds when compared to Ross Cobbs but they are such different animals. Also although growth is slower, at 5 weeks they're only half way through their second bag of feed - Cobbs would be on the 5th by now. And just a picture of on of my Indian Game cockerels - they're just built like units! I love this breed. These pen is pure breeds and I'm hopfull to get some really good birds from them next year.  What meat crosses would you like to try? 

This year we've been plagued by bad hatch rates, I've kept changing my methods but I think having posted eggs really doesn't help things.  These chicks are from our own eggs, with a Indian Game cockerel over some Colombian Plymouth Rock hens.  What a difference in hatch rate!  I put in 16 eggs and it looks like we'll get 15 chicks (one is still hatching at the moment - as I write this we have 14 chicks). Two are Indian Game bantams which are still a useful bird to hatch out. The one egg I knew hadn't developed at 10 days so I had already discounted that. This was with a completely dry hatch, no water added at any point during incubation.  I love how this is our 6th or 7th hatch this year and the kids (and me) are still super excited about it. I'm hoping these birds grow quickly and have a good size to them. The plan is to kill them at 18 weeks(ish) although I might keep a few hens and cross them back to a different Indian Game cockerel to see what happens to the...

 In the last post I talk about processing a few of our Indian game hens for meat. One was a bantam and a respectable 1.3kg. But as they say the proof is in the eating - so on Sunday we had a little roast chicken for tea.  We spatchcocked the bird to reduce cooking time. This isn't the first bantam we've eaten this year, earlier in the summer we had six young bantam cockerels that were spending their days fighting and worse so we ended up having them for a BBQ. the lightest weighed in at 330g but we all had one each for our tea and it seemed far better than wasting them.  This bantam was on a different level - the others were more like eating a quail whereas this had some good meat on it. It fed all five of us, but the bones were picked clean by the end!  One thing I really love is the difference in leg meat and breast meat - the light and the dark. Unlike supermarket birds (or even home raised Ross Cobbs to a certain extent) you can really see the difference in two m...

The children and I processed three of our chickens the other day. These were the purebreed Indian game cockerels - two full sized birds and one bantam.  I decided it made sense to do it after some canning so the hot water from the water bath could be used to scald the chicken for plucking.  As usual the kids get stuck in straight away. We had a bit of a rain show half way through but the kids are getting pretty good at this job now. In the time it took me to pluck two birds they had done one - I'd call that some good help!  They seem to really understand the process now and know just what to do. They have no fear of any stage of it.  We finished off inside, gutted them and kept them as whole birds to rest in the fridge for a few days.  I was pleased with the size of the birds - the large fowl came out at about 2.69kg each and the bantam was an impressive 1.3kg.  Looking forward to eating these! Hopefully we'll be able to do a few more of these now we have s...