Lee Schierer
USNA '71
Go Navy!
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John, those kids will remember their visits! Their education includes a glimpse of reality. I heard that McDonald's has engineered a square potato. Where the nuggets come from is still a messy mystery (I hope).
Best Regards, Maurice
Bugs smaller than a crawdad are not included. I have had a locust with a little honey. No thanks on seconds.
Best Regards, Maurice
I grew up on a chicken farm. I've killed and plucked a lot of chickens. I'll add a comment to John's post. Chickens that you can fry the meat - like Kentucky Fried Chicken - are very young. Back then, fryers were ready for market at 8 weeks and now I hear it's 6 weeks.
Chickens that have been layers and are a year old can only be used as stewing hens. The meat would be too tough if fried.
Baby chicks are sexed at the hatchery and farms that raise them for eggs only want hens. But half the chicks hatched are male and the other half are female. Have you ever thought what happens to those male chicks?
Mike
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
Killing and plucking is only about half the process. You still have to "gut" the bird and keep the usable parts - heart, gizzard, liver, neck. It takes a good hand to do this properly. There's a bile sack on the liver and you have to remove that and not puncture it.
Mike
[Wow, that was many, many years ago.]
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
So true, and that’s the hens. For roosters any older than 8 weeks are stew pot also. We once tried frying one a little older. Just tried it once.
My bird nursery is mostly peafowl, guinea, and turkey but when I incubate chicken eggs I get the 50% male chicks of course but I never bothered to sex them. What I do is raise them all together until it’s easy to tell what they are then sell the roosters. They bring a pretty good price when you find the right buyer. (Not nearly as much as young turkeys though!)
I only incubate chickens when friends or I need some. Although they are very easy to sell I’m not the least interested in running a chicken farm!
JKJ
Andrew - next visit to the super market - do a quick check for - capons.
Hint: It was so cold last night, the hen had a capon..
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon
The testicles of male chickens are internal. To caponize a rooster requires some surgery and you usually lose a few. That makes capons more expensive.
Mike
[This is assuming you do the caponizing yourself. If you have a vet do it, you won't lose as many (maybe none) but then you'll have some very expensive capons]
Last edited by Mike Henderson; 01-28-2023 at 12:31 AM.
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
Probably more appropriate for the "levity" thread. Still....
FS Chicken Soup.pngFS Chicken Farm.jpg
Last edited by Patty Hann; 01-27-2023 at 9:25 PM.
warning: very graphic chicken processing technology....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8EFGwd7GUM