The Last Freezer Camp - October 18, 2019 @goldenoakfarm

Friday morning I got out there just after 6AM after getting the house chores done and gave the butchershop a good once over and set it up. Then I went back to the house and my helper friend and I cleaned out the living room so I would be able to do windows on Saturday.

My husband was doing the outside cleaning and set-up in the meantime. I finished just as he was ready to start and went back up. My job was to wash and weigh the cleaned birds. He insisted on doing all the rest himself. So my helper friend worked on that last stretch of the Small garden.

First half done, Buckeyes

By 9:40 we had the Buckeyes done. There were 7 birds of each breed. We finished the Barred Rocks around 10:30 and he went out to clean up outside. I did a minor cleaning inside and we both finished about 11:45 and went and got lunch.

After lunch he went up and started stripping carcasses and I started washing storm windows. I also did the front door inside and out. He finished about 4PM and I went up and thoroughly cleaned the butchershop for the last time this year.

We decided to leave the new layers in their pen one more night. My son was coming on Saturday and he’d clean the coop in the barn and on Saturday evening we’d catch the birds, take off the leg bands and put them in the clean coop. We take the leg bands off because they are still growing and the bands will dig in.

We’ll have to put wide boards in each corner in the coop, so they don’t lay eggs on the floor. It will take them a while to figure out the nestboxes.

Stats from Freezer Camp:

Buckeyes, 7 hens, total carcass weight: 22.62 lbs Avg wt/carcass: 3.23 lbs
We got 3 eggs from them, so they were the ones laying still. They weren’t too fatty, which is why some were still laying.

Barred Rocks, 7 hens, total carcass weight: 25.60 lbs Avg wt/carcass: 3.65
We got 2 eggs from them and from the extreme amount of fat inside these birds, no wonder they weren’t laying.

Total carcass weight: 48.22 lbs

We saved the heads for the Raptor Rehab person, 1.79 lbs. I found another small bag of them in the freezer, so that will give him about 30 for the eagles.

We saved the feet to add to another small bag I found in the freezer, to give away as I am not making more chicken stock. 1.98 lbs

I have a friend who feeds raw to her cat and she got 5.49 lbs of organs and necks.

The stripped carcasses came to 20.27 lbs.

The skin and waste was 7.27 lbs.

I’ve not done the livers yet, but they are probably around a pound.

I didn’t weigh the bowl of meat for ground chicken, as I will weigh it when I package it. I think there’s about 18 – 20 lbs. We will grind the meat Saturday afternoon after the window lady leaves.

At some point I will work up the stats on meat birds now the last of them are done. Then I will know how much they cost to produce this year.

My husband is happy he can now get back to work on the house. He and my son plan to put the carrying beams delivered on Thursday into place this weekend.