Список из самых популярных хештегов по теме #MEATBIRDS

How to Break Down A Whole Bird for Roast Chicken Pieces . . One of my favorite preparations for our meat chickens is roasted chicken pieces. But in order to roast the pieces, we first need to break down the bird. This is how I do it (search on YouTube to find a method that works for you!). . . First, pull the leg quarter out a bit then slice through the skin that connects it to the breast. Bend the leg quarter back until the hip joint pops forward and apart, then run your knife along the backbone, “scooping” out the meat of the thigh (you don’t want to leave that delicious & tender “oyster” behind!). Place the leg quarter skin side down, then find the line of connective tissue between the leg and thigh. Slice through just along the outside of that line, and you should find the sweet spot where you can cut through the joint (you should not be cutting bone! If you are, just move your knife to the right or left and keep trying till you find the right spot). Repeat on the other side. . . Next, remove the wing by bending it upwards and cutting down through the joint (again, not through the bone!), careful to leave some meat on the wing but not take too much from the breast. Repeat on the other side. . . Turn the bird on its side and use scissors to cut along the line of connective tissue that runs through the rib cage and up toward where the wing was. Twist the back upwards to break the joints, then use your knife to cut through the skin/meat holding the two pieces together, if needed. . . Turn the breast piece skin side down, then position your knife in the middle of the thin bone layer (cartilage?) covering the backside of the breasts. Press down firmly to pop through, careful to keep your fingers tucked away from the knife in case it rolls or slips. You’ll need to pop through the wishbone as well. Slice through the meat and skin to separate the breasts. . . **CONTINUED in comments**

We finally got our meat birds harvested. And culled some old hens while we transferred all the chickens to a new field... And then we rotated the pigs and goats to fresh pasture! The past two weeks of farming have made me feel like we are doing it right. . But then again, I’m sure I’ll find a pig out today or all the chickens found a hole in the fence and are now in the garden. Ya know. Just a typical day around here so I don’t get too cocky about my efficient farming. . Maybe I’ll stay inside and savor my morning cup a little longer this morning and just pretend like it’s all in order. That sounds logical right?!? But then again, there’s beans to pick and tomatoes to trellis. So I’m off... PC @allyjeppsen

Yesterday we processed our meat chickens. Harvest Day is never easy, but we ended the day with a renewed appreciation for our food and where it comes from. Far too often we rely on others to end the lives that sustain us. From the cucumber plucked off its snug little place on the vine, to the hornworm squished from its perch on the tomato, to the earthworm ripped in three as the field is tilled for the next planting, all life comes at the cost of something else dying. . . The words of Eddard “Ned” Stark from Game of Thrones bounced around in my head yesterday: “The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.” He was talking about lords and kings using headsmen as executioners, and how if someone should die at your word, you should do it yourself. The same can be said about the slaughterhouse (or the farmer in the case of plant life). Most of us are not perfect in this regard, but at least on occasion, we should participate directly by harvesting the food that feeds us, lest we forget what feeding ourselves really entails. . . Yesterday we took 25 lives. 24 chickens and one guinea. Their lives will sustain our lives for quite some time. We will eat so many meals from each life that was taken. We will use as much as possible. Feathers went to compost. Hearts, kidneys, spleens, & gizzards will be eaten. The meat will be roasted, grilled, fried, boiled, seared, and who-knows-what-else, then the bones will go into bone broth along with the heads and feet. We do our best to honor the life taken and make the most of it. . . I’ll be sharing some of the process over the course of the next few days. Let me know if y’all have any questions and I’ll try to address them. . . . #MeatChickens #BackyardMeat #FarmLife #Homesteading #ChickenTractor #PasturedMeat #PasturedPoultry #PastureRaised #FreedomRangers #MeatBirds #BackyardChickens #RaiseYourOwnFood

These chickies are fully feathered and heading out to pasture today! Check out my stories to get a full tour of the chicken tractor we made. I won’t lie, it’s pretty awesome! (Applause for my hubby! @marcelpreston) I’m so glad I don’t need to clean out the brooder anymore and that these littles will have fresh new greens to eat every day, all the while eating up grubs and bugs and scratching left behind manure from the cows into the earth. It’s a win win win! I only have 40 pastured meat chickens left to sell, ready for September pick up. $4.60 a pound, $10 deposit per chicken. Let me know if you’re interested! Playing along with #meetmychickenmonday @theporterfarm and #mondayclucks With @lazy_b_acres and @callfamilyfarms • • • • • #chickensofinstagram #chickens #broilers #meatbirds #chickentractor #farmher #oldfashionedonpurpose #iamyourfarmer #iammodernfarmer #farming #whatsinmyhandnow #growsomethinglovely #simplehappycountrylife #farmtotable #farmtofork #ottawa #alifewelllovedblog #keepitsimple #homesteadmoments #homesteading #homesteader #homesteadlife #farmlife #iamcountryside #gettoknowahomesteader #homesteadersofcanada #countrysideandfarmlife #homesteadeverafter

Nice day to hang out with these little #meatbirds this afternoon. Keeping them moving and active with some outside time foraging. #cornishcross #broilerchickens #raiseyourown #sustainableliving

Rendered Chicken Fat is called Schmaltz. . . Do you remember the chicken fat I plucked off the gizzard when I showed you how I separate out the organ meats? (If you missed it, I’m in the middle of a series of posts on meat chicken processing... check them out!). I collected that fat from all the chickens we processed and stored it in a bowl in the fridge for a few days until I had a chance to take care of it. . . I dropped the fat into a non-reactive pot (mine is stainless steel) and turned the burner on low. I stirred every 15 minutes or so and just let the fat render out. After a little over an hour, the fat chunks shrunk to tiny crispy little things and there was all this golden deliciousness left behind. . . I poured the liquid through a fine mesh sieve and using a stainless steel wide mouth funnel, I put it into a glass mason jar. Then I put this beautiful stuff in the fridge where it has hardened up. This is the schmaltz. I’ll use this for sautéing veggies and potatoes and anything else that could use some delicious chicken-skin-like flavor . . The crispy pieces were eaten as a snack with a generous sprinkle of salt. Yup, that’s how we do thing around here. . . No waste! Thanks Chicken! . . #BackyardChickens #MeatChickens #MeatBirds #BackyardMeat #Schmaltz #ChickenTractor #FarmLife #WAPF #Homesteading

How do you kill a chicken? I’m not talking emotionally here. That’s been addressed in many of my posts before, so this post will be more matter-of-fact. I’m talking actual killing. I prefer the word dispatching, but it truly is killing. Ending a life. No take-backsies. . . Sure, there is the old chopping block method. An axe, hatchet, or machete does the trick. It’s pretty gruesome. It also makes a huge mess and you have to have pretty good aim. I do not. I found this out the hard way, so I kept searching. . . For small-scale processing like what we do here on our homestead, we have found the best method to be a killing cone and a sharp knife. A killing cone is just a metal cone that can be attached to a tree or post. It has the small end at the bottom. Before I get started, I hold the chicken upside-down for a minute or two so she gets lightheaded and kind of falls asleep. I put the chicken (or other bird) into the cone so the head hangs out the bottom and the wings are held snugly in place. . . I thank my chicken for the nourishment she is going to provide to me and my family. With a sharp knife and a steady hand, I cut one of the main arteries in the neck, just below (or above, since the bird is upside down) the head. First on one side, then the other. The trick is to cut TO the bone but not through the bone. On birds with a lot of feathers, this is easier said than done. It takes more force than you might think. Also, avoiding cutting the trachea / windpipe is desired to cause as little pain as possible. You want a good flow of blood from both sides to ensure a quick death. . . You’ve heard the old saying about a chicken running around with their head cut off. That’s not very accurate, but the fact of the matter is that death is not immediate. The chicken will flap her wings and kick her legs, perhaps even cry out, for about a minute & sometimes two. You’re allowed to cry, too. . . (I put a video of this in my Instagram Story today, and it will be in my Story Highlight “Meat Chickens”). Stay tuned for the rest of the process! . . #BackyardChickens #MeatChickens #MeatBirds #BackyardMeat #ChickenTractor #FarmLife #Homesteading

✨Raising Meat Chickens✨ . . We ordered 25 female “Murray’s Big Red Broiler” from Murray McMurray Hatchery (I find their meat birds to be top quality, but honestly their other birds leave much to be desired) and 26 day-old chicks (most hatcheries send an extra in case one does not survive transport) arrived at our local post office for pickup on March 28. We like to order females for meat birds as they do not fight like the males, they grow slower giving us more flexibility if weather or other circumstances mess up our schedule for processing, we prefer a smaller bird anyway, and they’re a little cheaper than all males or straight-run. . . We put them in a brooder in the garage. The brooder is a galvanized water trough with a few puppy pads at the bottom and a nice layer of pine shavings. We used two plastic bottles with Brooder Bottle Caps from @thechickenfountain for water, a VERY well-secured heat lamp, and a little chick feeder trough. As the birds grew and the litter got stinky, I just added a fresh layer of pine shavings. We kept them in the brooder for about 3 weeks until they had feathered out a bit and we were past our last frost date. . . At that point, we moved our 26 chicks outside into our homemade chicken tractor (designed and built by my husband Dragoș @raleighiron ). It is 5ft x 10ft and 24” tall. The frame and fencing is metal and powder coated. This metal makes it much more lightweight than wooden tractors. The wood on the covered part is from scraps we had laying around. The roof is a corrugated plastic roofing material from Lowe’s or Home Depot. The wheels are adjustable so that the frame sits fully on the ground when they’re not in use. Check out my “Meat Chickens” Story Highlight on my Instagram profile for a detailed video of the tractor. We use a standard hanging chicken feeder, any design will do, and our favorite waterer is the Harris Farms Free Range Large Flock Easy-Fill Drinker. . . **Continued in Comments**

Raising animals on pasture is important but a designed system of movement on pasture is the key. This allows us to sustainably maintain and even improve our pastures while providing the animals with the best grazing and forage conditions. . . We do this every single morning and it’s why our customers are blown away when they try our chicken for the first time. . . . . . #chickens #meatbirds #movement #movedaily #pasturedpoultry #chicken #morning #chickensofinstagram #pasture #farm #slowfoodmovement #farmanimals #farm #poultry #poultryfarm #cultivatethe318 #farmtotable #mahaffeyfarms #chickenshift #joelsalatin #chickentractor #regenerativeagriculture #regenerativefarming #louisianafood #realfood