It took me awhile to work up to this post.  I had planned on blogging the same day we processed our meat chickens, but have been having trouble wanting to do it.  Now that it is said and done I didn’t want to think about it anymore, and we definitely won’t be doing it again.

You see, originally there were 2 other people involved with this whole venture.  I agreed to buy and feed the chickens and keep them healthy until slaughter.  The other 2 people would take care of building a plucker and help with processing, since they had experience.

They backed out in September.  Paul and I were left with 45 birds that were going to need to be killed, plucked and processed.  On top of all the other stuff we have going on.

Paul gamely built a tabletop plucker.  It took a few weeks of work, but it’s a beauty and it works like a dream.  I found a whole TWO volunteers to help out (my mother and my friend Theresa saved our bacon that day!).

I had trouble dispatching bird number one.  The kill didn’t go as neatly or quickly as I remembered from the class I took.  I ended up nearly in tears and Paul had to finish it.  After that, he had to take care of that part. (and was very sweet about it – he stroked them to calm them and told them he promised to make it quick.  He even asked each one of it was “ready”)

Then there was trial and error finding a rhythm that worked for us.  I had to show how the birds were to be  eviscerated.  It was slow going, and we had issues with the differing temps required to scald the birds and then package them in shrink bags.  My OCD and anxiety about contamination were working overtime, and I was terribly relieved that everyone else was as mindful of it as well.  I think we did a spectacular job of keeping it all clean.

By the time dusk was settling in we had finally managed to get our groove going (not without the help of Theresa’s famous margaritas I should add) but we had only processed 19 birds when it was all said and done.

We had a huge mess to clean up (feathers and small blood droplets went EVERYWHERE from the plucker) and we were tired, both physically and mentally.

I took to calling each bird I grabbed a “tribute” (have y’all read The Hunger Games?) and I am now the owner of a bloody shirt I will forever call the “murder shirt”.

We sold 6 birds to the people that showed up, gave some away to our lovely volunteers and have a few left for our freezer.  Not what we expected, but better than nothing.

Clean-up actually went quite well – and quick.

But we still had about 2 dozen live birds left, and no one wanted to repeat the process a second time.

Even though it ended up being a massive money loss, we posted the remaining birds on craigslist for free.  A gentleman who raises meat birds down the road a ways responded and said he’d take them off our hands.

Turns out he usually sets aside a dozen or so to give to needy families, and ours would bolster that number.  That sounded perfect to me.  A loss of that kind of money doesn’t hurt so much if it went to a worthy cause.  ($50 a week in feed for 14 weeks, not counting the cost to make the plucker and buy packaging supplies).

We learned a lot about the process and about ourselves (we will survive the zombie apocalypse, for example) but it was a lot of work and a lot of expense and we aren’t sure we want to take that energy and time in that way again.  We’d rather focus on other things (like perfecting our vegetable growing? )

From now on we will just buy our chickens from the farmer’s market from a local farmer and be happy we don’t have to do it ourselves.

The upside to all of this is that we do have some lovely chickens in our freezer right now.

I roasted one for dinner last night and it was outstanding.  The carcass is simmering away to make stock.

And we are all reminded where our food comes from, and are much more grateful to have it.

Saturday was Juniper Moon Farm’s Fall Shearing and Magazine Launch party.

There was locally – raised pork barbecue courtesy of our friends Will and Lisa, pies, hot apple cider, bluegrass music, and the Shearer Extraordinaire, Emily Chamelin.

I recently got my hot little hands on a copy of the very first issue, so I was thrilled to help Susan celebrate the premier of  her By Hand Magazine.

If you are at all interested in DIY  (cooking, crafting, building, gardening….) and haven’t had a chance to check out By Hand yet, what are you waiting for?

Taking pictures of the animals never gets old, either.  These three have a bit of attitude.  In fact, I agreed to take them off Susan’s hands once we are ready.  They have been getting a bit too aggressive with the sheep and goats lately, and I could use them for patrolling for snakes.

Sweet Mr. Orzo.  He is such a love.  But he’s very much a puppy also.  I’ll be making time to do some serious training with him before long.

Check out this little cutie’s Hunter Boots!  Her mother is our awesome friend (and JMF’s web designer), Michelle.

The always lovely Shirra!

Peggy and George started off the square dance after dinner.

My friends Diana and Keith enjoying the shearing and some cider.

Lucy, the self – appointed farm ambassador.

Cookie tree!

You won’t see many pictures of Susan and I together; neither one of us particularly likes getting our picture taken.

Our adorable and very pregnant friend Lisa.

Fall Shearings are always my favorite, and this was exceptional.  We stayed late under the lights and banners and stars, enjoying the brisk air, the smell of cider and the warmth and company of good friends.

So.

Meat birds.

Birds that are engineered by us humans to grow at an alarming rate so that they are ready for “harvest” by about 8 weeks of age.

Mine are now 14 weeks old and they are still not ready for harvest.

I have to admit, I was getting really, really worried about this.  We’re spending WAY more on feed than expected and it has been feeling like we’ll never get these birds into the freezer.

Internet to the rescue!

I found some message boards for chicken farmers talking about this very thing.

You see, I’ve been feeding a combination of commercially – prepared and processed feeds along with fresh pasture.  We don’t generally leave just a huge feed bin out constantly full of food.  If you do, they won’t forage.  We wanted a better tasting, healthier bird.  Less commercial stuff.  Apparently, when you limit the processed grain and turn them out onto fresh grasses regularly, they grow a lot slower.  Their mortality rate is much lower.  And – get this – they end up tasting better.

I am feeling a lot better about these birds, if not poorer, given that we’ve fed them several weeks longer than anticipated!

I’ve also recently been spending more time over at Juniper Moon Farm.  As you may have read, Susan has been ill so I have been helping out.  It’s been wonderful spending some quiet time in the mornings and the evenings with the animals.

Only the dogs seemed to want to cooperate for photos, however.  Everyone else was too busy taking advantage of the cooler temperatures and dewy grasses.

Oh great, not the paparazzi again.  Can’t you see I am eating here???

I have been trying to make friends with little Stella, as well, but is has been mostly in vain.  Her mother is so friendly and approachable, but Stella is much more of a tease.  She looks all sweet and cute and cuddly in the pasture, but try to approach her and she runs off to mama, tail between her legs.  She doesn’t look back until there’s a giant Luna safely between me and her.

Nanny nanny poo poo, you can’t catch me!!!!