Sunday, September 1, 2013

Hen Butchering Day

Today Ron and I butchered 12 old laying hens.  I thought we'd never get done.  Before next season I WILL HAVE A PLUCKER.  Plucking them by hand takes forever.  After dressing the hens we moved 18 pullets to the laying coop.  We put bands on all their legs so we know what year they were born.  I now have 38 hens and 2 roosters.  For a while eggs will be few until the new girls all start laying.  This is the last of butchering chickens for the season.  We butchered 33 chickens this year.  Next year we hope to do more.
After moving the chickens we moved the turkeys to their coop.  We have 2 toms who weight 25+lbs and 3 hens.  We will butcher 1 tom the Saturday before Thanksgiving and the rest will be for breeding for next season and hope to have more turkeys next year than we did this year.  We started out about 8 this morning and by the time we were done butchering, bleaching everything down, feeding everyone, scrubbing all their water containers and burning all the feathers and guts it was 4.  I am dead tired.  Need to get some rest and get up early tomorrow and get the house cleaned for the family gathering.  I'm grilling hamburgers and beef brats, made Ali's Turkish salad, have chips, soda and everyone will bring a covered dish.  It is going to cool down so it will be nice outside to just sit and visit.

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