Hey, I got an idea.  Let’s talk about some chicken!!!

Okay, this is the last one, I think, maybe, probably.  Really, this post is to answer some of the questions you all had.  Now, let’s talk turkey, I mean, chicken!

Pot O Meat

Clay and I figured our expenses for the birds tonight.  The only thing missing is their weight.  I know, I’m still learning.  Bad farmer, bad, bad farmer.  Must have scale to weigh chickens….dur.

Shopping List:

1. Bread

2.Milk

3.Chicken Scale

We bought 20 birds

We raised 18 birds

We butchered 17 birds

(two died as chicks, one was too sick to process probably a heart problem)

We also had to purchase a new waterer, feed trough and heat lamp and bedding material (pine shavings).

We started our birds on chick starter then purchased one ton of grain from a feed mill.  We used it to feed our four pigs, 18 meat birds and 20 pullets.  I did my best estimate of how much I fed them since I was feeding all the animals out of the same feed.  I know, I know, I should separate the bags and keep track of who is eating which bag.  Bad farmer, bad, bad farmer, when will she learn?

Here’s what we don’t know:

What the birds weighed or how much meat on the bone we have.

The exact amount of feed the birds ate and therefore we don’t have the exact price of food they consumed.

However; I can make a pretty darn close guess.

And the final number is…..$127.00 to raise and process 17 chickens (including the three losses) or $7.47 per bird.  You can see the size of those suckers, right?  I think we did okay.

This ends your course in chicken butchering.  Please fill out the instuctor’s survey and hand it into the office on your way out of the classroom.  You’ve been a great bunch of students, if you need to speak with me, my office hours are posted on the barn door.

Many of you already know her, but have never had the opportunity of seeing a photo of her.  Meet Virginia, my sweet 83 year old neighbor.

Virginia lost her husband, Ramone, in February and has been very sad.  When I talk to her she tells me what a good man Ramone was and how it hurts to look out at the place where he would sit on two milk crates while waiting for the water tanks to fill.  She cries when she remembers him.  We all miss him very much.

Virginia had offered to help us butcher the chickens a long time ago.  However, her grandson was graduating from law school and she had lots of family in town so she said she would have to miss it.  But, when she looked out her window and saw we didn’t have any help…..here she came with a knife in her hand.  I think we had six birds left to do.

Virginia had never skinned the birds before and  made sure I knew that this was not what she was used to.  She decided to clean the birds and let me do the skinning.  She also cleaned all the gizzards for me.  Do you know you have to clean the gizzards?  I don’t have any photos of it, but you slice them open clean out the grain and gravel and peel off the membrane, the end.

This is one of Virginia’s daughters, she’s holding her one and only grandbaby, Virginia’s great-grandbaby.  Ramone and Virginia talked about that little girl constantly, they just couldn’t get enough of her.  She loves visiting the farm and our dog, Preacher, is one of her good buddies.

Virginia told me she’d never cleaned such a big chicken before.  It’s much more fun to clean a chicken when you have someone telling old stories.  Virginia told us her mother taught her how to clean a chicken because nobody would want to marry her if she didn’t know how to do all the simple things.

I love Virginia, she’s a good neighbor, she cuts up a chicken much better than me.  I was so glad she came over for a bit to help.