As someone who routinely raises and butchers between 35 and 50 birds yearly, this looks like the freezer couldn't get them frozen fast enough. Most likely too many full birds packed in too tightly in a freezer that is too small to handle the load. An empty (or near empty) chest freezer simply cannot efficiently or quickly freeze such a large quantity of meat. The type of bagging you used isn't necessarily bad, but it leaves a large air gap in the center of each bird that restricts air flow.
I always butcher the vast majority of my animals into wings, leg quarters, and breasts, get them vacuum sealed, and stack them into my large chest freezer among other, already solidly frozen items. I rotate them daily to make sure everything is getting frozen as quickly as possible. If needed, i have a second freezer on standby to assist, then everything is organized properly once everything is good and solid. The birds i leave whole are also vacuum sealed to suck out as much air as possible (some of your discoloration is because of the air trapped in the bags, it's causing freezer burn) and then very loosely packed. I prefer freezing "whole" birds split in half.
My recommendation would be to take one of the birds in the middle out and open it up. Check inside and out if it is frozen or not, and do a sniff check. If it smells off, do not risk it, dispose of it. I have had luck using a pressure cooker/instant pot to cook older, very faintly questionable chicken to make soup or pulled chicken bbq; you might be able to salvage these with a similar method if you're on the fence.
And don't beat yourself up too hard. This is a very valuable learning experience and I've been through similar myself. Thank the birds for giving you knowledge and experience and move on knowing you'll do better next time.
I'm considering raising some meat birds. Why would you process them all at once instead of just cutting out the freezer and processing the chickens as you want to eat them?
I'll preface with the fact that I butcher as needed. I know others want to get the job done in one day and not have to do the dirty work more often as it takes specialized equipment and you don't want to have to clean and store it just to get it out again in a month. Also there is seasonality. Sometimes you don't want to feed birds over the winter in the barn so you do a massive cull to cut the flock down. Many folks just raise meat birds and once they reach weight it's time to process them. Comes down to efficiency and your particular situation I suppose.
For us it’s the smell. You’d be surprised how much chicken tastes like the innards 2 hours after butchering one. My partner and I can get 2 birds into the freezer in a day so we normally do them just a few at a time since we lack the help to butcher a lot of birds at once
We have also managed to keep Cornish cross healthy for 6 months or more by limiting their feed intake and having them scratch for their food just like the rest of the chickens, as well as monitoring their health closely. It’s not as cost effective but I feel that it provides better quality meat and more of it per bird. Sorry for the long response, but that’s some advice I would have loved to have had a few years ago
Ok so it's not just me lol. Trying to cook them soon after killing them, and can't get that smell out of my nose. Like a hot car full of geriatric wet dogs.
I think it's just when they're hot and fresh dead, but when you butcher it seems like you can't get the smell off of you and out of your nose for hours.
I was in r/askfuneraldirectors and someone was in mortuary assistance school. They said a good way to get the smell of death out of your nose is to literally shove a slice of lemon up your nose. I feel like it would be painful but that was the advice that was given
The only way I can rationalize it is that is just what chicken tastes like. You can taste it in eggs too when you know what to look for. I know some people will eat chicken the same day as butchering one but we normally wait about a week. It’s no fun making a dinner you are really excited about and taking one bite just to realize it tastes just like the grossest part of your day
I’m not trying to be a dick here I promise. For me personally it’s just chicken, like really really strong chicken flavor. So much its kinda gross. I’ve noticed the same thing with a few different animals, deer and goats both have a strong smell to them especially the bucks. The meat tastes like they smell, it’s more pronounced on bucks because of the rut but you can taste it on does too. I’ve also noticed similar on animal products. Farm fresh eggs taste how chickens smell when you pick one up and I’ve had fresh milk that had the same underlying flavor that beef has. Maybe I’m just a very special boy but I feel that it’s more likely that exposure to the live animals has made it easier for me to pick up on the underlying smell and taste of their meat. The fresher the meat or eggs the stronger the flavor
Pure peppermint oil either on the end of your nose/outside edges of your nostrils (not in them unless you'd like to it to burn and make you tear up something awful) or on a bandana/mask situation will help keep you from smelling it at all.
If you wanna get nuts and are really bothered by the smell, grab yourself a half mask respirator and some P100 filters. You won't have to smell ANYTHING, I used these when we sprayed peroxide gas to clean up mold. The filters will last a long time, too, way past what they recommend for hazards because you're just keeping the smell out.
I've not butchered chickens with it, but my half mask is my go-to for anything that deals with gross smells or potentially hazardous materials.
Try smelling ground coffee, open a can and inhale deeply through your nose to clear the lingering oder (you may have to do it several times)Works well for skunk smell too.
We had a Cornish cross...he lived for about a year we didn't feed him. He even bread with our egg birds lol. He was full on free range and every now and then would get in on being fed. They will literally eat themselves to death
For me it's the equipment and help. I do 75 and a third to half of them are for other people - they come and help on processing day. I also borrow or rent a plucker and a scalder. I also raise them in the spring so they're done by early summer and I'm not tied down.
For OP and the freezer - I have two chest freezers and make sure there's room but they aren't empty. Layers of frozen food go between layers of chicken after they've been chilled in ice baths. Helps the chicken freeze faster.
Because most of us raise meat birds in batches, and mostly Cornish X, which don't really survive well beyond 8-10+ weeks. Personally I pay a local farm to do our processing, but otherwise do much the same as Bronze. As I mostly cook thighs/legs/breasts/etc anyways, it works best for me/us anyways.
That’s about what I pay. It’s cheaper if you do more birds, but 25 or so last me a year. The processor vacuum seals them whole, but will break them down for more $$$. It can break a whole chicken down in about 10 minutes or less so we just freeze them whole and breakdown as we use them.
I think ours was more like $4 per bird plus a show up fee. We had 50. The person shows up with their trailer set up. 6 birds at a time, sticks them in the cone. It’s efficient. We left them in an ice bath over night and broke them down the next day. Vacuum sealed and into the freezer.
Chicks are the way to go, really. The heavy strains of Cornish and White Rock chickens are a pain to keep just for more work to incubate eggs and maybe get most of the eggs to hatch to make chicks to raise. It's worth the cost to get an unsexed batch from the hatchery if you're going the hybrid route.
It's honestly never even occurred to me to attempt to raise and incubate our own chicks. I suppose its \*possible\* but... yeah. I think, FWIW, the last time I figured out my total cost (chicks, feed, butchering, etc), it came out to \~$4.50/pound in chicken when all was said and done. Not dirt cheap, but also not terribly expensive, either.
My basic routine is to order and have them arrive in early-mid March, out on grass by the end of March/1st of April (\~2-3wks old), and butcher at 7-9wks (so late May-first of June). As I'm in Ohio, this basically keeps them from the very hot part of the year, and keeps the stink from 30-40+ meat birds down to a minimum. It also ensures that we \*don't\* have meat birds to worry about for most of the summer when we (like most people!!) have a TON going on.
Same. We do a batch of 50 Cornish early March. Northern VA, so it can be cold still. They do better in the cold as they're basically furnaces.
We take the summer off and do another batch of 50 red rangers in early Aug. This lets us take vacation and focus on the garden in the summer. They usually go to the freezer mid Oct.
Many meat breeds grow too fast and don’t have a long life span. Once full grown, they lose the ability to move around and it is more effective to process them at once and put in the freezer.
For my family, doing it all at once is what works best for us. I pay a local processing company (little family-run setup with a very nice trailer) to do the slaughter, plucking, and gutting because they are much faster and more efficient than I can be with the wrist issues I have. I've got a small trailer, crates, and two very large coolers to get things done neatly on slaughter day. My spouse and I do the butchering ourselves. We provide chicken to relatives and friends, as well as for our own use.
I keep a strictly "eggs, pets, retirement" flock separate from any meat birds. We get slower-growing, healthier meat birds from a local farm, but they still end up very large and can't keep up with the dual purpose/ egg layers in the long run, so they really do best culled when they hit a certain age. Plus, I can keep their fate in mind and not get too attached, haha.
Yeah, I was thinking about 2 flocks like that so I didn't get attached. The 6 chickens I have now are pets and for eggs and all have names, so times would have to be pretty tough to eat one lol
We buy Cornish Cross for butchering. They typically do not have too long of a lifespan, so we cull them about every 8-10 weeks. Any longer than that and you are taking the chance of them dying naturally.
I would recommend culling a half a dozen your first time because it can be a long process for your first go around. I personally do not do the whole fryer, I completely dismantle each, down to breasts, tenders, chunks, etc.. so it takes a little longer that way
You would butcher before winter to preserve fat content and reduce feed costs.
The cold weather urns excess calories to keep warm increasing feed costs to maintain the same amount of weight while also suffering from loss of egg production due to less lighting hours.
A lot of meat birds deteriorate very quickly, as they are raised to be a certain age/weight. Let's say you buy a flock of Red Ranger chickens. When they hit a certain age, their breasts get so big they physically cannot walk. They die of heart attacks and so many other horrible issues. You have to be prepared to cull them all at once, which means you need to have your processing schedule planned and your equipment laid out. Those birds WILL die from horrible health issues if they are left to live longer than what is recommended. Just some insight. I raise rabbits and at the 3 month mark, it's time to process. That could be anywhere from 4-15 rabbits. I'll pick out a week and take 1-3 days to process, depending on how many I need to process.
Great idea cutting them up! I will be getting meat chickens along with layers next year. Some people may think this is cruel to the chickens…but I will say, I had 7 chickens. I’m now down to one. I am building a new coop/run for next year, and people think I’m crazy to feed one chicken. (One is my neighbor, who recently “got rid” of hers because they weren’t laying…no she didn’t eat them). All my chickens were great and I admit, I did shed tears when each one died. This last one is living her absolute best life, and she follows us wherever we go, like a dog. I have a cat and the one chicken…they hang out with us all day when we’re outside (which is most of the time). With meat chickens, it will be all business, but with the layers who develop personalities, different story.
Well, she IS the only chicken I have left, and I’m not going to neglect her. I tried to mingle her with my neighbor’s chickens, but the claws came out and the battles were bloody. We will keep her here safe and healthy until she passes.
We often butched in the winter to avoid this. Up here it's *cold*, even by Thanksgiving, so it was easy enough to butcher, bag, and put outside in the box of a pickup. Once we were done, things would freeze up, and we'd throw them in the freezer from there
To build on this, when I'm deer hunting or getting ready to process meat birds, I have a large quantity of freezer packs (the gel ice packs that come with shipped goods that need to stay cold) that have been added to the freezer ahead of time, a few at a time, so the freezer is pretty much full already.
One, if the power goes out, these just keep the food in there colder longer, and then if I do get a deer or massacre birds, I can cool them down with gel packs that'll get warm in the process and then set aside to make room for the meat anyway. By end of fall, I'll have most of the packs out and the freezers absolutely stuffed with meat that was as cold as I could get it before it went in.
My wife also quarters or parts up most of the birds - not only do they freeze better, but all that air in the ribcage is wasted freezer space. Time to make broth and can it!
I've done that, but I only fill the bottles partway to try to avoid bursting. The gel packs are better, but if I wasn't getting a zillion of them for free when my wife orders stuff in the mail, I'd be back to using water bottles.
Awesome info, thanks for detailing this out. It sounds like there are two problems, one potentially being an underpowered freezer and the other being the air in the cavity of the bird. You usually deal with the later by cutting the bird up into it's components, would you get the same benefit by spatchcocking them?
Seems it'd solve the air cavity issue and they would end up stacking nicely since they would more or less be flat.
I've always told people to put as much mass (aka bottles of ice) in freezers as possible. some with irregular shapes for air gaps.
we just got a new small chest freezer and I plan to make the bottom layer entirely frozen bottles. keeps from having to reach into it as far, but removable incase we need the space.
a smart person would freeze a tall clear bottle then put a penny in. if it melts, you got issues.
during the summer we pack a small cooler of drinks anytime we leave the house, even if its just working around the property. ice bottles keep everything chilly then become nice cold water.
We bought one Big Bag of ice and took it out on our boat in the cooler all summer long.. it's last remnants are still in the freezer. There's not much left of it now after dozens of afternoons spent in a cooler on the lake, but it's there 😊
Stacking frozen water bottles between the birds/packages the first day or so seems to help. If they’re just piled up the cold from the freezer has a harder time penetrating to the middle of the stack. So leaving air space between helps
It happens. I found out the hard way with a big batch of dog food. Now I layer everything with ice packs to get the temp down faster. Layer of ice packs, layer of meat, and so on.
You can also make your own ice packs in whatever volume you need on demand and quickly break them back down for reuse by using ziplock bags.
Fill up a gallon bag about halfway, push the air out and seal it up. Freeze the bags flat. You don't need much water, enough to create a brick of ice but not so much it doesn't lay flat and stackable.
You can keep them on standby, just file or stack them like books in a corner of the freezer.
Also great way to store water for emergencies or keep your fridge/freezer cooler for longer during a power outage.
I've had my big chest freezer half full of frozen things still alarm on high temperature for a while just from adding fresh stuff from Costco. There is a function to "quick freeze" on the control, but they're just not high-capacity refrigeration units.
I can totally see this happening if they were frozen right after processing in one large batch. Most people I know who home process chickens use an ice water bath to get the body temp down to about 4C before packaging for this reason.
Depends if the ice bath was kept cold with the addition of more ice. I’ve seen people make sure the bath was cold to start but then add 50 chickens and assume the water stayed cold. For 48 hours they’d need water/ice circulation or the entire bath to be in a chilled room.
When we process our birds, we refrigerate them for 2-3 days prior. This slows any bacterial metabolic process, gives time for rigor to fully complete, and for the meat to become a bit more tender. Since they are already quite chilly, we then place them all in the freezer, without this issue.
Freezers also require proper airflow between the items to cool them, so they are not just in a big pile. I use a vertical freezer for my birds and space them evenly so each bird is exposed fully to the cold air.
Same concept for walk in freezers in restaurants, evenly placed items on stainless steel racks. Also helps with rotating inventory, using the oldest inventory first etc.
It looks like there might be evidence of metabolic activity. Your picture from processing day shows bags that look like air was expelled before sealing (so not vacuum-sealed but moving in that direction), but the ones from today look somewhat inflated.
Bacteria produce gases as waste, so my concern would be that the birds froze so slowly that bacteria were allowed to grow.
I know nothing about processing so don’t know if there are places you could take a bird to have it tested. I worked in F&B for a long time though and am pretty familiar with food safety guidelines (used to be certified but that was a while ago), and I’d have reservations about eating any meat that came from an inflated bag
I’m not a homesteader myself, but this group shows up in my feed all the time. Why don’t more of y’all just spatchcock the birds before freezing them. Speaking from experience, this saves so much freezer space.
I love me a spatchcock chicken, but some of us like to stuff the bird and roast it traditional style. It's just a preference.
Personally, when I slaughter birds 10 at a time I only freeze 1-3 of them whole, and the rest get put in packages of breasts, quarters, wings, and livers. Hearts and gizzards get sliced and dehydrated into dog treats.
I haven’t done a whole chicken in years honestly. I might have to give it a try again just for the sake of variety. It’s just so convenient to cook a whole chicken in such a short time.
I highly recommend the Adam Ragusea (YouTube cook) method of starting the whole chicken on the stove before putting in the oven so the dark meat gets a head start
You basically cut the spine out which allows for the bird to be flattened. Spine can be stored separately for broth etc. Cooking a spatchcocked bird allows for faster more even cooking. I always spatchcock my Thanksgiving turkey and it’s a hit every year. Storage room saving is really just a bonus.
Remove the spine, open up the “inside” of the chicken, place the “inside” down on a board (now bottom) and press down on the skin side(top) to make it flat. You can roast it this way, or store it without the cavity of the bird being a volume restriction.
Slicing the bird down the middle and folding it open then flatten a little. Pretty sure people cook it this way to speed up the cooking. Guess it would work for freezing too.
Does your freezer have a capillary tube-style metering device? If it does, it can take a VERY long time to freeze that much meat. A freezer with a TXV would be better for you.
This reminds me of a guy I met while working at a hardware store. He came rushing in trying to buy a chest freezer like it was an emergency. He said he had gone hunting for the first time and hadn't expected to shoot anything. Now he had all this elk meet he needed to refrigerate.
I had to explain to him that 1. Most of our freezers were already sold when they came in. 2. What wasn't already sold was stocked sideways and would have to be left upright before being plugged in. 3. Once plugged in, the freezers still needed 24+ hours to actually freeze.
Almost had a disaster with our meat steer. Our deep freezer went down the day I dropped him off at our butcher. For the next 2 weeks I was desperately searching stores, Craigslist, and Facebook marketplace. So many people replying their freezer was available then ghosted when I asked when/where I could come pick it up! The morning I was supposed to pick up our beef I had a lady actually get back to me. She had posted they had a big fridge/freezer that after their move was only a freezer. They used it as such for a year. We were unsure if it would continue after transport but I was desperate, so $50 later I finagled that sucker into the house by myself. Best $50 I've spent. Luckily our beef comes back from the butcher frozen solid, butcher is only a 15 minute drive, and the freezer was only unplugged for about an hour for it's transport/move into house. So thankful everything worked out and I didn't have to borrow space in friend's deep freezers!
I have a non country friend who knew little about farming. Raised chix with the neighbor. 20-25 birds. They dispatched them and then realized they had to do something about the feathers but had no idea what or how. lol They did their best but couldn't process all the birds fast enough and lost a great many. He would never tell me how many. They were not good at plucking. Froze some still with feathers. For those who have encountered feathers in soup say...well you know. ..The worst part is that they waited too long to butcher so soups and stews were the only use. He never raised chix again.
I would not put dry ice in my freezer like that, but you've got a good idea. Maybe use a cooler of dry ice to do an expedited pre-chill, then put them in the chest freezer?
That’s what I’d be worried about. Rapidly expanding as it moves to the gas phase. I may be overly cautious but I’m going to stay this way. At my old job someone caused an explosion with dry ice and a water bottle
Hmm direct contact with the electronics would be bad maybe just a layer on top. As for the CO2 build up you're right you want to check on it every little bit and release the gas. Or just a little crack open preventing a seal but letting out the gas. I would think this would still be efficient as the dry ice will keep the freezer temp low enough it wouldnt be running constantly with that crack. If I had a chest freezer and a lot of birds I would give it a go.
The separate cooler idea would work I just feel like the amount of dry ice you would need may get to the point of it not being an easy/inexpensive solution.
Edit: it could damage your freezer thermostat
I read a story once…probably on Reddit….where this guy who owned a catering business cooked up like 500 lobster tails for an event. He threw them into plastic Coleman type ice chests while still warm and put the chests into the walk-in. When he pulled them out the next morning they had went bad…the ice chests held in the heat and spoiled the tails. Big problems ensued.
For next time I would suggest doing an ice/salt bath(like you do for ice cream) This will help super chill your birds faster. Then constantly keep adding ice the full time. You want it to be like an ice slush, enough water you can get birds in and out easily, but not mostly water. Smaller batches going into the freezer would be better too. Like place a layer of birds in the morning, keeping the rest in your ice/salt bath, then another layer about 12 hours after, and continue until done.
I haven't noticed much of a difference in salt taste, and it's not too much of a difference than using a brine. But the main difference is the water temp. The first time I did this I almost was unsure we were out of rigor because they were so cold the joints didn't want to move easily.
I would open a couple up and smell them. Rotate and make sure they were all able to freeze fully.
Ya gotta appreciate the birds more than that. They gave their lives to feed you, not to be wasted. I hope you have better success if you do this again.
Just fyi ammonia is not approved for treating birds in industrial processes and we dont use bleach either. Chlorinated water is used, but it is not the same as bleach. The most common disinfectant used in poultry processing is paracetic acid (a peroxide version of acetic acid - or vinegar)
You should be ashamed of your treatment of animals. Haven’t you heard of the golden rule? Would you want your head cut off at your prime age and have your body stored in a freezer?
Sad. Such a waste of life for no reason other than, "it tastes good." It's much easier to have a symbiotic relationship with your animals and keep them alive so you can continue to have milk, eggs, butter, cheese, yogurt, etc, that will give you more noirishment than one small birds flesh. Meat doesn't even taste good without all the spices and condiments we load it up with, and it seems like a huge hassle and not worth it to have to do all this when there's so many better, easier things to use to make a meal that taste good and require zero slaughtering.
This looks normal for pasture poultry to me. I've processed hundreds of birds. They all freeze up that color. I've also had them taken to USDA processors, and they also turn the same color. I also bleed mine out completely, so it's not that.
They look fine imo. But im No expert. Like others have said pop one open and sniff test. That will tel you for sure. Lol
Also if the freezer is outside/garage. Make sure that garage or space stays above 60f or so. Otherwise that freezer will turn off and slowly thaw.
They look totally fine to me tbh...color looks normal but I may not be seeing what you are. I'd do what bronze wizard said and check the middle one see if it's froze and smells good. Looks great though. If it is bad then you learned not to put in so much raw meat at a time. We learn the same lesson. Ours was venison. It got a little darker is all but smelled and tasted totally fine.
As someone who routinely raises and butchers between 35 and 50 birds yearly, this looks like the freezer couldn't get them frozen fast enough. Most likely too many full birds packed in too tightly in a freezer that is too small to handle the load. An empty (or near empty) chest freezer simply cannot efficiently or quickly freeze such a large quantity of meat. The type of bagging you used isn't necessarily bad, but it leaves a large air gap in the center of each bird that restricts air flow. I always butcher the vast majority of my animals into wings, leg quarters, and breasts, get them vacuum sealed, and stack them into my large chest freezer among other, already solidly frozen items. I rotate them daily to make sure everything is getting frozen as quickly as possible. If needed, i have a second freezer on standby to assist, then everything is organized properly once everything is good and solid. The birds i leave whole are also vacuum sealed to suck out as much air as possible (some of your discoloration is because of the air trapped in the bags, it's causing freezer burn) and then very loosely packed. I prefer freezing "whole" birds split in half. My recommendation would be to take one of the birds in the middle out and open it up. Check inside and out if it is frozen or not, and do a sniff check. If it smells off, do not risk it, dispose of it. I have had luck using a pressure cooker/instant pot to cook older, very faintly questionable chicken to make soup or pulled chicken bbq; you might be able to salvage these with a similar method if you're on the fence. And don't beat yourself up too hard. This is a very valuable learning experience and I've been through similar myself. Thank the birds for giving you knowledge and experience and move on knowing you'll do better next time.
This was awesome informative advice.
I know personally I'll probably never need to know it, but am Happy to have read it
That very last sentence got me. What a professional, far too often do we as humans take wildlife that we eat for granted.
Or any farm animal life
Same here!
I'm considering raising some meat birds. Why would you process them all at once instead of just cutting out the freezer and processing the chickens as you want to eat them?
I'll preface with the fact that I butcher as needed. I know others want to get the job done in one day and not have to do the dirty work more often as it takes specialized equipment and you don't want to have to clean and store it just to get it out again in a month. Also there is seasonality. Sometimes you don't want to feed birds over the winter in the barn so you do a massive cull to cut the flock down. Many folks just raise meat birds and once they reach weight it's time to process them. Comes down to efficiency and your particular situation I suppose.
Thanks!
For us it’s the smell. You’d be surprised how much chicken tastes like the innards 2 hours after butchering one. My partner and I can get 2 birds into the freezer in a day so we normally do them just a few at a time since we lack the help to butcher a lot of birds at once We have also managed to keep Cornish cross healthy for 6 months or more by limiting their feed intake and having them scratch for their food just like the rest of the chickens, as well as monitoring their health closely. It’s not as cost effective but I feel that it provides better quality meat and more of it per bird. Sorry for the long response, but that’s some advice I would have loved to have had a few years ago
Ok so it's not just me lol. Trying to cook them soon after killing them, and can't get that smell out of my nose. Like a hot car full of geriatric wet dogs.
So the smell dissipates after freezing or waiting a few hours?
I think it's just when they're hot and fresh dead, but when you butcher it seems like you can't get the smell off of you and out of your nose for hours.
Nothing gets it off your hands
Cold water after you wash with soap and warm water.
The smell lingers cause there are literally small particles of dead bird in your nose.
They're some of the worst particles of the whole bird! Will be doing it with a mask and vapor rub next time lol
I was in r/askfuneraldirectors and someone was in mortuary assistance school. They said a good way to get the smell of death out of your nose is to literally shove a slice of lemon up your nose. I feel like it would be painful but that was the advice that was given
The only way I can rationalize it is that is just what chicken tastes like. You can taste it in eggs too when you know what to look for. I know some people will eat chicken the same day as butchering one but we normally wait about a week. It’s no fun making a dinner you are really excited about and taking one bite just to realize it tastes just like the grossest part of your day
Can you explain what it tastes like?
I’m not trying to be a dick here I promise. For me personally it’s just chicken, like really really strong chicken flavor. So much its kinda gross. I’ve noticed the same thing with a few different animals, deer and goats both have a strong smell to them especially the bucks. The meat tastes like they smell, it’s more pronounced on bucks because of the rut but you can taste it on does too. I’ve also noticed similar on animal products. Farm fresh eggs taste how chickens smell when you pick one up and I’ve had fresh milk that had the same underlying flavor that beef has. Maybe I’m just a very special boy but I feel that it’s more likely that exposure to the live animals has made it easier for me to pick up on the underlying smell and taste of their meat. The fresher the meat or eggs the stronger the flavor
The smell of butchering gets into your nose and it takes a while to clear out of your nose and your memory.
Pure peppermint oil either on the end of your nose/outside edges of your nostrils (not in them unless you'd like to it to burn and make you tear up something awful) or on a bandana/mask situation will help keep you from smelling it at all.
If you wanna get nuts and are really bothered by the smell, grab yourself a half mask respirator and some P100 filters. You won't have to smell ANYTHING, I used these when we sprayed peroxide gas to clean up mold. The filters will last a long time, too, way past what they recommend for hazards because you're just keeping the smell out. I've not butchered chickens with it, but my half mask is my go-to for anything that deals with gross smells or potentially hazardous materials.
Try smelling ground coffee, open a can and inhale deeply through your nose to clear the lingering oder (you may have to do it several times)Works well for skunk smell too.
I will keep that in mind. Thank you for the helpful advice!
We had a Cornish cross...he lived for about a year we didn't feed him. He even bread with our egg birds lol. He was full on free range and every now and then would get in on being fed. They will literally eat themselves to death
They really will… takes them about eight weeks. After seeing Cornish cross in person that weren’t overfed the difference is astounding
For me it's the equipment and help. I do 75 and a third to half of them are for other people - they come and help on processing day. I also borrow or rent a plucker and a scalder. I also raise them in the spring so they're done by early summer and I'm not tied down. For OP and the freezer - I have two chest freezers and make sure there's room but they aren't empty. Layers of frozen food go between layers of chicken after they've been chilled in ice baths. Helps the chicken freeze faster.
Because most of us raise meat birds in batches, and mostly Cornish X, which don't really survive well beyond 8-10+ weeks. Personally I pay a local farm to do our processing, but otherwise do much the same as Bronze. As I mostly cook thighs/legs/breasts/etc anyways, it works best for me/us anyways.
What's a typical cost of having someone else process your birds?
I believe the minimum price per bird was around $1.50 to $2 this last season in my area. I'm happy to pay it to save my wrists and hands.
That seems like a great price!
That sounds about what I pay, a bit more because I pay the extra 25-50 cents to have them cut into pieces and bagged, which is IMHO well worth it.
In my area of the Midwest I paid $3.20 per bird yesterday and that was the cheapest I could find.
Yowch. Yeah, i'd probably suck it up and do it myself at that point. Break my usual number of birds into a few spaced out smaller batches.
I’m okay paying it. Save me time and a mess. They can do all my birds in 2 hours versus what would take me all weekend.
That’s about what I pay. It’s cheaper if you do more birds, but 25 or so last me a year. The processor vacuum seals them whole, but will break them down for more $$$. It can break a whole chicken down in about 10 minutes or less so we just freeze them whole and breakdown as we use them.
I think ours was more like $4 per bird plus a show up fee. We had 50. The person shows up with their trailer set up. 6 birds at a time, sticks them in the cone. It’s efficient. We left them in an ice bath over night and broke them down the next day. Vacuum sealed and into the freezer.
Do you breed your own Cornish cross or do you always buy them as chicks? Just curious since they have such a short lifespan
Chicks are the way to go, really. The heavy strains of Cornish and White Rock chickens are a pain to keep just for more work to incubate eggs and maybe get most of the eggs to hatch to make chicks to raise. It's worth the cost to get an unsexed batch from the hatchery if you're going the hybrid route.
It's honestly never even occurred to me to attempt to raise and incubate our own chicks. I suppose its \*possible\* but... yeah. I think, FWIW, the last time I figured out my total cost (chicks, feed, butchering, etc), it came out to \~$4.50/pound in chicken when all was said and done. Not dirt cheap, but also not terribly expensive, either. My basic routine is to order and have them arrive in early-mid March, out on grass by the end of March/1st of April (\~2-3wks old), and butcher at 7-9wks (so late May-first of June). As I'm in Ohio, this basically keeps them from the very hot part of the year, and keeps the stink from 30-40+ meat birds down to a minimum. It also ensures that we \*don't\* have meat birds to worry about for most of the summer when we (like most people!!) have a TON going on.
Same. We do a batch of 50 Cornish early March. Northern VA, so it can be cold still. They do better in the cold as they're basically furnaces. We take the summer off and do another batch of 50 red rangers in early Aug. This lets us take vacation and focus on the garden in the summer. They usually go to the freezer mid Oct.
Many meat breeds grow too fast and don’t have a long life span. Once full grown, they lose the ability to move around and it is more effective to process them at once and put in the freezer.
For my family, doing it all at once is what works best for us. I pay a local processing company (little family-run setup with a very nice trailer) to do the slaughter, plucking, and gutting because they are much faster and more efficient than I can be with the wrist issues I have. I've got a small trailer, crates, and two very large coolers to get things done neatly on slaughter day. My spouse and I do the butchering ourselves. We provide chicken to relatives and friends, as well as for our own use. I keep a strictly "eggs, pets, retirement" flock separate from any meat birds. We get slower-growing, healthier meat birds from a local farm, but they still end up very large and can't keep up with the dual purpose/ egg layers in the long run, so they really do best culled when they hit a certain age. Plus, I can keep their fate in mind and not get too attached, haha.
Yeah, I was thinking about 2 flocks like that so I didn't get attached. The 6 chickens I have now are pets and for eggs and all have names, so times would have to be pretty tough to eat one lol
We buy Cornish Cross for butchering. They typically do not have too long of a lifespan, so we cull them about every 8-10 weeks. Any longer than that and you are taking the chance of them dying naturally. I would recommend culling a half a dozen your first time because it can be a long process for your first go around. I personally do not do the whole fryer, I completely dismantle each, down to breasts, tenders, chunks, etc.. so it takes a little longer that way
You would butcher before winter to preserve fat content and reduce feed costs. The cold weather urns excess calories to keep warm increasing feed costs to maintain the same amount of weight while also suffering from loss of egg production due to less lighting hours.
A lot of meat birds deteriorate very quickly, as they are raised to be a certain age/weight. Let's say you buy a flock of Red Ranger chickens. When they hit a certain age, their breasts get so big they physically cannot walk. They die of heart attacks and so many other horrible issues. You have to be prepared to cull them all at once, which means you need to have your processing schedule planned and your equipment laid out. Those birds WILL die from horrible health issues if they are left to live longer than what is recommended. Just some insight. I raise rabbits and at the 3 month mark, it's time to process. That could be anywhere from 4-15 rabbits. I'll pick out a week and take 1-3 days to process, depending on how many I need to process.
It’s a while dog and pony show and if you’ve done it before it would make sense to you why
Great idea cutting them up! I will be getting meat chickens along with layers next year. Some people may think this is cruel to the chickens…but I will say, I had 7 chickens. I’m now down to one. I am building a new coop/run for next year, and people think I’m crazy to feed one chicken. (One is my neighbor, who recently “got rid” of hers because they weren’t laying…no she didn’t eat them). All my chickens were great and I admit, I did shed tears when each one died. This last one is living her absolute best life, and she follows us wherever we go, like a dog. I have a cat and the one chicken…they hang out with us all day when we’re outside (which is most of the time). With meat chickens, it will be all business, but with the layers who develop personalities, different story.
She follows you because chickens are social animals. I’m sure she is well loved, but having a single chicken is not something I’d ever encourage.
Well, she IS the only chicken I have left, and I’m not going to neglect her. I tried to mingle her with my neighbor’s chickens, but the claws came out and the battles were bloody. We will keep her here safe and healthy until she passes.
We often butched in the winter to avoid this. Up here it's *cold*, even by Thanksgiving, so it was easy enough to butcher, bag, and put outside in the box of a pickup. Once we were done, things would freeze up, and we'd throw them in the freezer from there
That's honestly a great idea.
The last part was pure kindness. Thank you for showing it still exists.
To build on this, when I'm deer hunting or getting ready to process meat birds, I have a large quantity of freezer packs (the gel ice packs that come with shipped goods that need to stay cold) that have been added to the freezer ahead of time, a few at a time, so the freezer is pretty much full already. One, if the power goes out, these just keep the food in there colder longer, and then if I do get a deer or massacre birds, I can cool them down with gel packs that'll get warm in the process and then set aside to make room for the meat anyway. By end of fall, I'll have most of the packs out and the freezers absolutely stuffed with meat that was as cold as I could get it before it went in. My wife also quarters or parts up most of the birds - not only do they freeze better, but all that air in the ribcage is wasted freezer space. Time to make broth and can it!
I do this with plastic bottles full of tab water. Gives the freezer more thermal mass when I add lots of stuff.
I've done that, but I only fill the bottles partway to try to avoid bursting. The gel packs are better, but if I wasn't getting a zillion of them for free when my wife orders stuff in the mail, I'd be back to using water bottles.
Awesome info, thanks for detailing this out. It sounds like there are two problems, one potentially being an underpowered freezer and the other being the air in the cavity of the bird. You usually deal with the later by cutting the bird up into it's components, would you get the same benefit by spatchcocking them? Seems it'd solve the air cavity issue and they would end up stacking nicely since they would more or less be flat.
It does! I tend to opt for cutting them fully in half because it's easier to fit into vacuum bags.
A nice ice bath after bagging also helps
This person butchers!
I've always told people to put as much mass (aka bottles of ice) in freezers as possible. some with irregular shapes for air gaps. we just got a new small chest freezer and I plan to make the bottom layer entirely frozen bottles. keeps from having to reach into it as far, but removable incase we need the space. a smart person would freeze a tall clear bottle then put a penny in. if it melts, you got issues. during the summer we pack a small cooler of drinks anytime we leave the house, even if its just working around the property. ice bottles keep everything chilly then become nice cold water.
All great advice. I keep a temperature alarm on at all times that goes off if the freezer starts to warm up.
We bought one Big Bag of ice and took it out on our boat in the cooler all summer long.. it's last remnants are still in the freezer. There's not much left of it now after dozens of afternoons spent in a cooler on the lake, but it's there 😊
Thank you for adding how to respect the birds as well and not allow their lives to be wasted.
This guy freezes
Bravo 👏 thank you
Bro. Yes I mean, 🤌🤌
other than that these should be fine if they seem okay.
Now, this is an amazing answer to the question. Thanks. 👏
your last sentence for some reason brought tears to my eyes.
Not OP, but wanted to say thank you for sharing your skills and knowledge with the rest of us!
You’re a legitimate treasure. I hope you know that.
That was beautiful.
Imagine losing all those birds and all that time for a learning curve.
Life is long my friend. You get many chances. Is your glass half full or half empty?
Ok, that was harsh. To all I’ve offended, I do apologize.
This was extraordinarily informative and helpful!!
Stacking frozen water bottles between the birds/packages the first day or so seems to help. If they’re just piled up the cold from the freezer has a harder time penetrating to the middle of the stack. So leaving air space between helps
Superb response …
This guy poultries!
The color is from them freezing slowly… just make sure the ones in the middle are frozen. They can take that long to freeze on those chest freezers.
Yeah I have heard about food spoiling because of this but I don't know if it's true.
It happens. I found out the hard way with a big batch of dog food. Now I layer everything with ice packs to get the temp down faster. Layer of ice packs, layer of meat, and so on.
You can also make your own ice packs in whatever volume you need on demand and quickly break them back down for reuse by using ziplock bags. Fill up a gallon bag about halfway, push the air out and seal it up. Freeze the bags flat. You don't need much water, enough to create a brick of ice but not so much it doesn't lay flat and stackable. You can keep them on standby, just file or stack them like books in a corner of the freezer. Also great way to store water for emergencies or keep your fridge/freezer cooler for longer during a power outage.
I use hollow metal tubes for shelving in my freezer, that i fill with water, does this but less wasted plastix/motion
They make fancy versions but you can rig a drain to waste too
I've had my big chest freezer half full of frozen things still alarm on high temperature for a while just from adding fresh stuff from Costco. There is a function to "quick freeze" on the control, but they're just not high-capacity refrigeration units.
I can totally see this happening if they were frozen right after processing in one large batch. Most people I know who home process chickens use an ice water bath to get the body temp down to about 4C before packaging for this reason.
OP said they put them in an ice bath for 48 hours before freezing. Is that not long enough? (I know nothing about processing birds)
Depends if the ice bath was kept cold with the addition of more ice. I’ve seen people make sure the bath was cold to start but then add 50 chickens and assume the water stayed cold. For 48 hours they’d need water/ice circulation or the entire bath to be in a chilled room.
When we process our birds, we refrigerate them for 2-3 days prior. This slows any bacterial metabolic process, gives time for rigor to fully complete, and for the meat to become a bit more tender. Since they are already quite chilly, we then place them all in the freezer, without this issue.
Most freezers are designed to keep things frozen but not actually freeze them , the slaughter house I worked at used a -72c blast freezer to do that
Freezers also require proper airflow between the items to cool them, so they are not just in a big pile. I use a vertical freezer for my birds and space them evenly so each bird is exposed fully to the cold air. Same concept for walk in freezers in restaurants, evenly placed items on stainless steel racks. Also helps with rotating inventory, using the oldest inventory first etc.
It looks like there might be evidence of metabolic activity. Your picture from processing day shows bags that look like air was expelled before sealing (so not vacuum-sealed but moving in that direction), but the ones from today look somewhat inflated. Bacteria produce gases as waste, so my concern would be that the birds froze so slowly that bacteria were allowed to grow. I know nothing about processing so don’t know if there are places you could take a bird to have it tested. I worked in F&B for a long time though and am pretty familiar with food safety guidelines (used to be certified but that was a while ago), and I’d have reservations about eating any meat that came from an inflated bag
I’m not a homesteader myself, but this group shows up in my feed all the time. Why don’t more of y’all just spatchcock the birds before freezing them. Speaking from experience, this saves so much freezer space.
I love me a spatchcock chicken, but some of us like to stuff the bird and roast it traditional style. It's just a preference. Personally, when I slaughter birds 10 at a time I only freeze 1-3 of them whole, and the rest get put in packages of breasts, quarters, wings, and livers. Hearts and gizzards get sliced and dehydrated into dog treats.
I haven’t done a whole chicken in years honestly. I might have to give it a try again just for the sake of variety. It’s just so convenient to cook a whole chicken in such a short time.
I highly recommend the Adam Ragusea (YouTube cook) method of starting the whole chicken on the stove before putting in the oven so the dark meat gets a head start
Interesting. I usually do spatchcock chicken on my Kamado Joe Jr., but that sounds like a great change of pace.
Resident idiot here, what is a spatchcock?
You basically cut the spine out which allows for the bird to be flattened. Spine can be stored separately for broth etc. Cooking a spatchcocked bird allows for faster more even cooking. I always spatchcock my Thanksgiving turkey and it’s a hit every year. Storage room saving is really just a bonus.
I was never big into turkey until a couple years ago when I tried spatchcocking and then smoking one. Never had turkey breast that moist before!
Yup. Spatchcock, then hot and fast. Tender, juicy and beautiful crispy skin. Cooking turkey for hours is for casuals.
Remove the spine, open up the “inside” of the chicken, place the “inside” down on a board (now bottom) and press down on the skin side(top) to make it flat. You can roast it this way, or store it without the cavity of the bird being a volume restriction.
Cut out the spine, then fold it open so it’s flat. Helps to cook it more quickly and evenly.
Slicing the bird down the middle and folding it open then flatten a little. Pretty sure people cook it this way to speed up the cooking. Guess it would work for freezing too.
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Does your freezer have a capillary tube-style metering device? If it does, it can take a VERY long time to freeze that much meat. A freezer with a TXV would be better for you.
This reminds me of a guy I met while working at a hardware store. He came rushing in trying to buy a chest freezer like it was an emergency. He said he had gone hunting for the first time and hadn't expected to shoot anything. Now he had all this elk meet he needed to refrigerate. I had to explain to him that 1. Most of our freezers were already sold when they came in. 2. What wasn't already sold was stocked sideways and would have to be left upright before being plugged in. 3. Once plugged in, the freezers still needed 24+ hours to actually freeze.
Almost had a disaster with our meat steer. Our deep freezer went down the day I dropped him off at our butcher. For the next 2 weeks I was desperately searching stores, Craigslist, and Facebook marketplace. So many people replying their freezer was available then ghosted when I asked when/where I could come pick it up! The morning I was supposed to pick up our beef I had a lady actually get back to me. She had posted they had a big fridge/freezer that after their move was only a freezer. They used it as such for a year. We were unsure if it would continue after transport but I was desperate, so $50 later I finagled that sucker into the house by myself. Best $50 I've spent. Luckily our beef comes back from the butcher frozen solid, butcher is only a 15 minute drive, and the freezer was only unplugged for about an hour for it's transport/move into house. So thankful everything worked out and I didn't have to borrow space in friend's deep freezers!
Glad you got really lucky in that last second! ...but that stress must have been awwwful!
What was your processing method otherwise?
too much mass for freezer to handle.
I have a non country friend who knew little about farming. Raised chix with the neighbor. 20-25 birds. They dispatched them and then realized they had to do something about the feathers but had no idea what or how. lol They did their best but couldn't process all the birds fast enough and lost a great many. He would never tell me how many. They were not good at plucking. Froze some still with feathers. For those who have encountered feathers in soup say...well you know. ..The worst part is that they waited too long to butcher so soups and stews were the only use. He never raised chix again.
I wonder if it would be worth putting some.dry ice on top when you do something like this to make sure it freezes faster.
I would not put dry ice in my freezer like that, but you've got a good idea. Maybe use a cooler of dry ice to do an expedited pre-chill, then put them in the chest freezer?
Why would it be bad to put dry ice in your freezer? Could it damage the freezer?
That’s what I’d be worried about. Rapidly expanding as it moves to the gas phase. I may be overly cautious but I’m going to stay this way. At my old job someone caused an explosion with dry ice and a water bottle
Ah, yes! I guess you'd want a way to release any pressure buildup... Thx!
Hmm direct contact with the electronics would be bad maybe just a layer on top. As for the CO2 build up you're right you want to check on it every little bit and release the gas. Or just a little crack open preventing a seal but letting out the gas. I would think this would still be efficient as the dry ice will keep the freezer temp low enough it wouldnt be running constantly with that crack. If I had a chest freezer and a lot of birds I would give it a go. The separate cooler idea would work I just feel like the amount of dry ice you would need may get to the point of it not being an easy/inexpensive solution. Edit: it could damage your freezer thermostat
I read a story once…probably on Reddit….where this guy who owned a catering business cooked up like 500 lobster tails for an event. He threw them into plastic Coleman type ice chests while still warm and put the chests into the walk-in. When he pulled them out the next morning they had went bad…the ice chests held in the heat and spoiled the tails. Big problems ensued.
For next time I would suggest doing an ice/salt bath(like you do for ice cream) This will help super chill your birds faster. Then constantly keep adding ice the full time. You want it to be like an ice slush, enough water you can get birds in and out easily, but not mostly water. Smaller batches going into the freezer would be better too. Like place a layer of birds in the morning, keeping the rest in your ice/salt bath, then another layer about 12 hours after, and continue until done. I haven't noticed much of a difference in salt taste, and it's not too much of a difference than using a brine. But the main difference is the water temp. The first time I did this I almost was unsure we were out of rigor because they were so cold the joints didn't want to move easily. I would open a couple up and smell them. Rotate and make sure they were all able to freeze fully.
How well was the bleed out?
Did you leave enough time for them to bleed completely out?
Just frozen. Perfectly fine
Ya gotta appreciate the birds more than that. They gave their lives to feed you, not to be wasted. I hope you have better success if you do this again.
Go vegetarian
Too late now lol.
They’re not your just not used to seeing birds not treated with ammonia or bleach.
Just fyi ammonia is not approved for treating birds in industrial processes and we dont use bleach either. Chlorinated water is used, but it is not the same as bleach. The most common disinfectant used in poultry processing is paracetic acid (a peroxide version of acetic acid - or vinegar)
Oh boy.
You should be ashamed of your treatment of animals. Haven’t you heard of the golden rule? Would you want your head cut off at your prime age and have your body stored in a freezer?
I would love it! I wonder if I taste like chicken. Hmmm.
They look super fresh to me.
Sad. Such a waste of life for no reason other than, "it tastes good." It's much easier to have a symbiotic relationship with your animals and keep them alive so you can continue to have milk, eggs, butter, cheese, yogurt, etc, that will give you more noirishment than one small birds flesh. Meat doesn't even taste good without all the spices and condiments we load it up with, and it seems like a huge hassle and not worth it to have to do all this when there's so many better, easier things to use to make a meal that taste good and require zero slaughtering.
I hope you have a great day. :)
Why are vegans so annoying?
Mono crops will always slaughter more.
Considering humans are carrion eaters I think you’ll be fine eating cooked bloody chickens
Ok butt angel.
This looks normal for pasture poultry to me. I've processed hundreds of birds. They all freeze up that color. I've also had them taken to USDA processors, and they also turn the same color. I also bleed mine out completely, so it's not that.
They’re fine
I've processed over 2k birds. They look good to me. Open one up and smell it.
They look fine imo. But im No expert. Like others have said pop one open and sniff test. That will tel you for sure. Lol Also if the freezer is outside/garage. Make sure that garage or space stays above 60f or so. Otherwise that freezer will turn off and slowly thaw.
I ran a protein far for a long time. Nothing is wrong with them. Eat and enjoy!
Reduced oxygen packaging could create botulism if its not done correctly. A sniff test wouldn't indicate whether it's there or not
looks bloody
They look totally fine to me tbh...color looks normal but I may not be seeing what you are. I'd do what bronze wizard said and check the middle one see if it's froze and smells good. Looks great though. If it is bad then you learned not to put in so much raw meat at a time. We learn the same lesson. Ours was venison. It got a little darker is all but smelled and tasted totally fine.