Killing Cockerels and Future Poultry Plans

In May I bought 12 day old La Bresse chicks. They grew on to 7 cockerels and 5 hens. My plan is to breed from these birds and produce a batch or two of meat birds each year. I killed 3 of the cockerels and put them into the freezer two weeks ago. We ate one last week and it tasted great. There was lots of leg and thigh meat and a reasonable amount of breast meat. The dark meat was very dark and had a nice dense quality, not like the pumped with water supermarket birds. I was very pleased with the finished quality.

Saturday we decided we would slaughter two more cockerels the following day. That leaves us with 5 hens and 2 cockerels for breeding next year. I am keeping two cockerels as a back up plan in case one of the cockerels gets sick or is in fertile etc.. We seperated the two chosen cockerels after dark on Saturday night and kept them on tarmac with water and no food so as to clear their crops and digestive systems to make cleaning them out easier.

The chosen two

Sunday afternoon we got around to doing the job. When originally deciding on a method to dispatch the birds I chose the "cone method." It seemed the most humane and straightforward method to me. The first time I slaughtered the birds I did a batch of three. The first bird didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked but once I had learned the method I was happier with the other two. If I had just planned on killing one bird I would have dreaded doing the next batch a few days later but I am glad there was more birds to do straight away so I could get it right. This time around I felt much better about doing the job. It also helped to have two hunting friends to give me advice on the plucking and gutting. I took a video of the job and our homemade cone. I am not claiming this is the "best" method available it is simply how I chose to do it and it is open to criticism and comment. The bird is placed head first down into the cone and his head is then pulled through the bottom of the cone. I then pull the feather back to reveal the birds throat. I then make a cut each side of the neck to sever the two arteries on either side of the neck. The bird then bleeds out into a bucket. The bird should pass out from blood loss in 2 or 3 seconds and then die in 5 to 10 seconds. The bird normally makes one last "squak" and then flaps around in the cone. Once this happens the bird is dead and I usually leave the bird in the cone for about 30 seconds to make sure all the flapping is done with and then remove the bird. I also put a piece of wood into the top of the cone to make sure the bird doesn't flap it's way out of the cone. This is a video of a chicken being killed so if that will upset you don't watch it.

The laughing and noise you can hear is because the bird we slaughtered before this one started flapping (you can see it in the background) even though it was already dead and gave some of us a bit of a shock. I just wanted to make it clear no one was laughing about killing the bird or anything like that.

Now that I am left with my 5 hens and 2 cockerels from my meat birds I have moved them in with the laying flock for the winter. This will save the grass I had them on and also make feeding easier when the evenings start to get darker. They seem to be getting on okay. Not much bullying etc at the moment so hopefully it will stay that way. Next year I plan to seperate out the birds for breeding and hopefully set 2 batches of 24 eggs in an incubator. One batch in the spring and hopefully by the time they are out on the grass, I can set a few more into incubator and bring them on until it is time for the first batch to be slaughtered. Then the second batch can go out on the grass and maybe they will be ready to go about this time next year. Well that's the plan anyway but we will have to wait and see how that works out.

I have an update to make on my wines and prosciutto which hopefully I will get to put up later in the week.

Until then.

My garden as it stands

I decided for my first blog post I would give a few pictures of my garden to have a starting point so the blog can follow it along as it changes. First off is the polytunnel, I decided to clear out all of this years crops today to make room for some winter salad crops. I found a few bits and pieces while clearing out so they are currently forming a chutney on the hob, the greenery went to the hens and compost pile.

The tunnel this morning

The tunnel this evening

I have already cleared our two raised beds of onions and half of the deeper bed of carrots. The parsnips are still there I will probably leave them there for another month or so, until the weather gets a bit colder. We have put in a few lettuce plants after the onions, probably too many to eat but the hens will get the rest. Here is a picture of the three beds. The parsnips are in the far bed as that is the deeper one. 

This year we made use of the additional growing space in what was the pig run last year. It will have pigs again next year, we decided to take a break from pigs for a year but I can't wait to get them back next spring. I have enjoyed the extra space for growing though so we will need to see if we can find extra space for growing veg next year. This year we grew potatoes, runner beans, peas, sweetcorn, brussel sprouts, swedes, broccoli, purple sprouting broccoli and cauliflower in the pig run. So I will really miss the space next year. I might have to build a few more raised beds next year.

The end of the pig run where the potatoes were

The pig run with mostly winter veg left

Beside the pig run we have the hen house and hen run. This is where we keep the laying flock of hens and ducks. We currently have 9 hens and 4 ducks. I have plans to add the breeding birds from the meat flock in here over winter to save the grass in the garden, and to make it easier for feeding.

Hens and ducks from the laying flock

The hen house, freshly cleaned today (kind of why I included the picture)

This was my first year keeping chickens for meat. I got 12 day old La Bresse in May, it turned out to be 7 cockerels and 5 hens. I kept them under heat until they were ready to go outside. I set up a pen with electric poultry netting on the lawn. I moved this around so the grass didn't get too worn anywhere. 3 of the cockerels are now residing in the freezer, so there is now 5 hens and 4 cockerels in the pen. I plan to keep the 5 hens and 2 of the cockerels for breeding next year. I will probably put them in with the laying hens over winter and seperate them in the spring for breeding. Otherwise I think the grass will turn to mud. I might use the electric poultry netting to let them out on some grass when the weather allows.

Some of the La Bresse in their electric netting run

 Today I also took in my harvest of cooking apples. This was mainly because I needed them for the chutney recipe. This was about 1 kg of apples haha. Well I did only plant the trees this spring so I am not too disappointed about that. I planted one bramley apple tree, one gala apple tree, two cox's orange pippin trees, two plum trees (one died), and I also have two pear trees which are in pots at the minute as I haven't cleared the ground for them just yet. There is also a crab apple tree beside the shed.

The Fruit Trees

Well that seems to cover most of the garden, I did say it was crowded! That is about it for today. I will probably be picking some elderberries during the week to make wine. I will probably make a blackberry wine, an elderberry wine and maybe a blend if I have enough fruit. 

Until then.