And Then There Were None
November 21st, 2013 · 2 Comments · Posted in farming
Our family’s official chicken eviscerator–my wife–is out of town, so it fell to me to slaughter and gut our 25 Freedom Ranger broilers. Boy, had they been going through the feed lately. About 100 pounds of grain a week, mainly to stay warm, I suppose, as overnight temps in these parts have occasionally dipped into the teens. I picked a balmy Monday–in the 50s–for the roundup and killing. In a stroke of genius, I had our electrician move the 220-volt outlet for the scalder down to the future garden area next to the new water hydrant. That saves me having to move the slaughtered chickens 100 yards from the kill area to remove the feathers.
It’s great having all the necessary equipment in one spot close to the chicken tractor. There was just one snag, though. Moving the 150-pound plucking machine is normally a two-person job and it’s located in the tool shed, also about 100 yards from where it needed to be. I called our friend David over to help with that, but before he could get here I managed to drag the machine to the desired location on a hand truck.
Please pass the ibuprofen!
As you can see, this operation comes with a pretty nice view. Here’s my setup: from left to right at bottom are the water hydrant, the electrical outlets, the “killing cones,” the electric scalder, the plucker and the table where I do the eviscerating. The hardest part turned out to be catching the birds. I started by propping open the lid of the tractor and of course the chickens scattered when I reached in to grab one. At the other end of the tractor, one of the birds managed to escape. I had to wait until later that night–when chickens become zombie birds–to capture it again.
So picture me leaning as far as possible into the tractor with the lid resting on my back, rounding up chickens with a short piece of lumber in one hand, trying to grab them by the leg with the other. Of course, there’s a tool for catching chickens by the leg. But it wouldn’t be until a couple of days later that I thought of it. Put that on the wish list for next time.
I managed to kill and gut 20 birds within a few hours that first day. Then they move to the house where I finished cleaning them, bagging them and weighing them. We’ve had pretty good luck selling the chickens, mostly to friends at the local food co-op. Kristi, for instance, again bought five big ones, all over six pounds, for her family dinner table. This time she got her dad to purchase two as well. Susan, the president of the co-op, also bought two again and she referred a friend, Jamie, an environmental attorney and avid duck hunter.
We kept these chickens 12 full weeks and it showed. All that feed translated into an average weight of five and a half pounds. At $3.50 a pound, we’ve made back our feed costs and then some. We will likely have 13 or more of the birds sold this week, which means plenty for us in the basement chest freezer.
Funny, one of our clients was surprised when I told him our Freedom Rangers wouldn’t be available again until next year. I guess people don’t realize you can’t have “pasture raised” chickens without pasture. But we will have some frozen if anybody wants to eat chicken this winter.
Did you slit their necks. We always took chicken’s heads off to kill them. You chickens still have the heads. With the cost of the tractor and equipment, feed and chicks, how many more years until you cover your costs? Will you increase your flock?
Nancy, we kill the chickens by slicing open the carotid artery and letting them bleed out into a bucket. We only remove the heads (and feet and innards) after they’re dead. Fortunately, we don’t rely on farm income to survive. Our income comes from rental apartments. The magic number around here is $10,000–that’s the amount you need to gross to get a big agricultural tax break on your property. That’s the amount of annual farm income we’re shooting for, but that’s still some years down the road I suspect.