Getting More From Your Chicken: Freezing Chicken Bone Broth

    

     Small steps to being self sufficient! Raising, butchering, cooking, and preserving our own meat! We sent a rooster to freezer camp yesterday. Today, I roasted it and we ate it for dinner. It was the best rooster we have had so far! Three of us ate from it tonight, and I froze up 2 meal size packages of chicken for future meals. Right now, I have bone broth simmering on the stove. I plan on freezing it in different size containers and then repackaging them into a gallon size baggie when the are frozen. I did this last time, and used muffin and quart size frozen broth for things like gravy, soups and mashed potatoes, or some good ol' broth for a cold!. Mmmmm... my house smells so good!


What I put in my chicken bone broth:

1. 1 full chicken carcass broke up as best as possible. Breaking the bones helps to insure you get all of the healthy bone goodness. My carcass came from roasting a whole chicken.
2. About 1 cup of diced raw carrots that were from our Thanksgiving dinner a couple of days ago.
3. About 1 cup of diced raw celery, also from the veggie tray.
4. 1 clove of garlic, chopped and smashed
5. 1 small onion diced (it was about the size of an egg.)
6. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Next, I simmered it for about 3 hours. The remaining chicken meat had fallen off of the bones. The garlic and onions had dissolved into the broth and the carrots and celery were super tender. I strained the broth into another pot. Zoey and I munched on the celery and carrots for a bit before adding the strained portion into the pigs slop bowl. The bones went into the garden to compost. 

I dipped out 2 cup portions into recycled lunch meat packaging. These are very convenient when using for recipes. You can also dip out larger portions as well.

When they were frozen, I just popped them out of the plastic bowls and put them in labeled gallon freezer bags.

I also measured out 1 cup servings into muffin tins. I DO NOT recommend using disposable tins unless you just do not care about reusing them. When you pop the little frozen broth circles out it crushes them. Warming the bottom of them for a second might help with preserving them. I do not have any other kind of muffin pans. I picked these up at a local grocery store for .88 cents each. I would prefer to keep them but it will take a bit of work to get them back into shape.. We will see if my patience holds out.

Once Frozen, I placed them in a gallon freezer bag as well. Now when I need a quick pick me up when I start to feel sickly, I can just pop one in a coffee cup and microwave it. Although, the nutrients would be better preserved if I put it in a sauce pan to reheat. These work great for making mashed potatoes and gravies as well. 

     I would really like to learn how to can my chicken broth, but honestly, I'm a bit 'chicken' to try the pressure canner my friend loaned to me. Like I said, baby steps... At least I'm walking the walk towards self sufficiency... baby steps or not! 
What are you doing to become more self sufficient?

We Butcher A Chicken...

WARNING- This post contains photos of a family sending their own chicken to freezer camp! If you are not the chicken killing type, or if you are disturbed by information or images of animals being butchered, please, DO NOT READ THIS POST. We are on the path to self sufficiency, and raising our own food is part of this journey.

"We butchered a chicken today. Great life lesson and anatomy lesson. There is something... satisfying... to be able to provide a meal for your family that you know what it was fed, you know how it was treated, you know how it was butchered, and you know how it was prepared. I don't know if we will ever do another, but, we are happy with today." -Personal Facebook Post February, 2014

     We have become a society disconnected with our food. Rarely does anyone know where or how their food is processed. We buy our meat in nice, little wrapped packages, and not once do we question where it came from. How were they raised and in what conditions? What were they fed? How was it processed? The chicken from the stores is kept in giant barns crammed full of thousands of chickens, all pecking at each other, or standing there waiting to die. Don't believe me? Type in your computer, 'what are chickens fed to make them grow so fast?' and see what comes up. Quick link to Wikipedia says, well it says a lot.. Just read for yourself.
     I am in no way condemning anyone for eating supermarket chicken. I buy it all of the time still. My family loves chicken and I am not a lover of butchering my own meals. Honestly, I hope to grow out of this.  I have already come quite a ways from the girl I used to be. In the past, if it did not come from the supermarket, wrapped up nice and neat in Styrofoam and plastic wrap, I wouldn't eat it. We were given some hamburger from my uncle one time and while my family raved about how wonderful my meatloaf was, I was in the bathroom gagging and hearing Uncle Mark call out 'Calfy' to his cow. Fresh eggs? FORGET ABOUT IT! That was just disgusting! (My sister is still this way!)  In my quest for self sufficiency, however, I have grown to realize the importance of knowing where my food comes from. This is not important to everyone, but it is important to me.
      My husband's, mother's, boyfriend's. granddaughter (phew, did you catch all that?) raised chickens for FFA. When the project was finished, we were asked if we wanted them. They are Cornish Rock Cross and are breed to grow quickly. This also makes them unlikely to ever mate, lay eggs, or live past a certain age. And while I was not yet 'there' in my homesteading journey, I felt if I was going to 'Talk the talk...' I had better start down this road when I was offered the chance at no cost to me.
     My daughter helped me along on our first journey. We researched, read articles and watched youtube videos on butchering chickens. We decided to go with the 'cone method' of butchering. We took a milk jug, just like on the video we watched, and cut out the bottom of it. Then you put the chickens head through the hole and slit its throat. As it drains of blood it goes peacefully to sleep. Or rather, that's what is supposed to happen. Nothing could prepare us for our first time. Like I always seem to say, you think you know, but it never turns out how you expected. The chicken fought going into the milk jug hole, the incision clotted up instantly, then, the chicken cluck/cussed us, saying we were doing it wrong. Hubby came to the rescue with an ax. Note to self: Never, ever try that method again.
     Plucking took nearly and hour, even with dunking in the hot water several times. We have since learned that the skin is not that important to us, even when frying. It is a lot quicker to skin. We do not eat anything on the inside, so it is all boiled and fed to my dogs. We did find a lot of little orange balls we discovered were the beginning yolks of eggs. That is how we ended up keeping 'Prissy,' our first hen to lay an egg.
     It was very educational for my daughter. She learned a lot about chicken anatomy. She is like me (not crazy about killing the chicken) but she loves to identify the organs. She loves to cook our homegrown meat as well. She has very little attachment to the chickens because we have told her from the beginning these were 'food, not friends.' My hope for her is to become a veterinarian or be in another medical field. I believe she will be great healer one day.
     Just in case you continued to read, but were uncertain if you wanted to see the photos, I have saved them for last. The are not really terribly awful in my opinion, but this is your last chance to go check out one of my other articles. You can see my daughter make store bought Cornish Hens in my post HERE. Again, you are reading a blog about our homeschooling/homesteading family's quest to become more self sufficient. Thank you for your support.

Our FAIL...

 Getting the insides out.

 Don't you just love her protective gear!

An hour to pluck it and it still looked like this?

 The end result. 

     We decided to stuff and slow roast our chicken. We learned from our Cornish Hen dinner that we like seasonings, and this time we did it right. It was delicious and tender. I had forgotten to take a photo of it when we were finished cooking it. The photo above is what we had LEFT after dinner. Two adults and a 10 year old barely made a dent. I pulled off the rest of the meat and separated it into family sized portion freezer bags. We got 4 more meals out of this one bird. 5 meals for free. 

     We have sent several chickens to 'Freezer Camp' and I plan on sending more soon. If this is not your cup of tea, I understand. I used to be that girl remember? But it is now something I take pride in. My meat was raised by me. They were fed a healthy diet twice a day and also free range all day long. I know how they were treated, I know how they are processed. I know they were healthy and will provide a healthy meal for my family. Thank you for joining me on my journey.

The FFA Hens

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     Finally got a few photos (that are a little better) of my FFA hens. Their names are 'Prissy' and 'HeShe.' Funny story, I was writing this post to see what everyone thought about the chicken 'HeShe.' Then we had some strange developments and I am pretty sure we have our answer now.
     We have actually had this chicken for several months now. It always seemed a little off, but we never questioned if it was really a hen, until a little over a month ago. 'HeShe' has always been an ugly chicken. Her face just looked mean and grouchy. She has a gimp leg that turns in a little, and she does not like to walk, run, or stand for very long. Her feathers never really laid down nicely, and at first we thought she might have been our Roo's favorite, (hint, hint, wink, wink) because she always looked harassed. Then suddenly, Roo stopped messing with her. Completely! He turned all of his attention on our Prissy Hen, causing a huge tear under her wing. Now I am going to skip over to talk about the eggs we have been getting. But first, check out the difference between Prissy and HeSHe.

HeSHe

Prissy and HeShe

At this point, we as a family have wondered, 
"Why is HeShe looking so much like a rooster?" 

That's when we named her 'HeShe.'

     Okay, now back to the eggs! HeShe couldn't be a rooster, we were getting way too many eggs for just Prissy to be laying them. One day we had 2 perfect little hard shells and 3 rubber eggs. The hard shells were laid in the nesting box, while the rubber eggs were scattered all over the hen house. We had seen Prissy use the nesting box, so we were confident she was the one laying the perfect little eggs. So who was laying the other, rubber eggs if not HeShe? 

      We were happy with the eggs we were getting and we were getting a lot of eggs for just 2 little hens. I figured HeShe would eventually get the hang of it and start laying normally. After all, these were extras from an FFA Meat/Show group of chickens. I was told they would never lay, never mate, never be good for anything except for meat. Also, they were prone to suddenly freak out, fly up in flapping wings of fury style and just die. I added egg shells and oyster shells to their diet in hopes this would help. 

     We started with 7 chickens. 6 hens and one rooster. Our Roo was glorious. We knew which one was the rooster from the beginning. Within a month after getting him he started to crow in the morning. He stood tall and proud, showing us his 'cock walk' often. We loved him. 

     But as rooster do, he mated constantly with our hen, Prissy. To the point he was hurting her. Not his fault. I had researched you needed a minimum of 6 hens to keep a rooster happy. At the time, however, these were just meat chickens I was to butcher for our meat. They were not supposed to lay eggs, or try to mate, or live past 3-4 months. Our other chickens were not old enough to put into the big coop with these chickens. So poor Prissy was 'harassed' on a regular basis. To the point she was ripped under her wing so bad I was sure we were going to have to cull her. Roo might have made it past this point, if it was not for the fact he started to attack my brother in law (super funny) and my 18 yr old son (still funny.) But, when he started attacking my 10 yr old daughter, that is when we decided Roo would have to go to freezer camp. It was a sad day for my daughter and I. Even though he was attacking her, we still loved him. But we knew, this was not a petting zoo, these were not supposed to be pets, this was food for our family. 

RIP my Roo! 

     Now we still had the problem of HeShe. Is it a boy or a girl? Her body was all hen. Big, fat, plump hen! She is short, she walks a bit funny, but definitely like a hen. My daughter wants me to also add Prissy and HeSHe both come running to the hen house like a couple of airplanes trying to take off. :) Roo did not run the same way. HeShe's comb and waddles were getting longer and darker, and looked more like Roo. Her feathers around her neck were becoming longer and wispier looking like a rooster. Slowly her tail feathers started to part and look fluffier. What was going on? OH! and right before Roo was sent to 'freezer camp' they had a scuffle only seen out of the corner of our eyes, 'Did HeShe just try to mate with Prissy? Is that why Roo attacked?' WHAT IS GOING ON HERE????

So tell me, is this a hen or a rooster? 

     And why would it have taken MONTHS for him to even look like a rooster? MONTHS! He started out just not being as pretty as our other hens, then grumpy looking. Then in came extra comb and waddles. Lastly, the feather change... So is this a hen or a rooster? I have showed HeShe's picture on a chicken group I am in on Facebook. Consensus was it was a hen that just had more male qualities. But I still wonder.. At least I did wonder. The morning after Roo's demise, I walked out, saddened by the fact that my Roo would not great me with his morning crow, only to be greeted by the morning crow of HeShe! (Now named Frankie) Has anyone ever had this happen? Has anyone ever heard of a FAKER chicken? 

     Now we have had to remove 'Frankie' from the rest of the flock to allow Prissy time to heal and let the younger chickens get used to the coop. We are not sure what we are going to do. I think he will meet the same fate of Roo, because we are pretty sure our new chicks have a boy or 2 in the flock. These will be a nicer breed of laying hens. It kinda makes Frankie useless except to be dinner. That was the whole reason we got them.  Prissy will be the last surviving FFA hen soon. I just hope she keeps laying the big beautiful eggs she has been laying, (and I secretly hope Frankie lays an egg in his pen, rubber or not, so he can stay too.) 

 Our laying chickens! 

 

 

 

Prissy is not sure what to think of the newbies in her house! 

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Cooking Lesson Turned Anatomy Lesson

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Completely unexpected! 

     My daughter had been bugging me to make "little turkeys" (Cornish Hens) for a while now. I figured, why not? She needs to know what a real chicken looks like whole. Thought this could be the first step in learning to cut up a full sized chicken. 

     Yes, of course we made the little hens dance. :) 

     Zoey prepared them by covering them up with a whole lot of butter. Then, we covered them in foil and cooked our hens to perfection. She gobbled it all up! (No pun intended) The whole time she was eating, she was also asking questions about the different parts of the hens. Through out the whole entire meal! She found the breast bone with the cartilage and the bone attached together and gave me a crazy look. I explained the soft wiggly stuff was cartilage, just like on the tip of her nose and the roundness of her ears. She felt the bone part of her nose and how it came down to the softer part. For a moment, she looked very thoughtful. Then she said, "Hmmm... so that's why skeletons don't have ears!" 

Real life, hands on learning at it's best!     

Do you cook with your kids? We would love to hear

about your favorite kid friendly meals! 

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

Don't be a ROTTEN Egg!

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    Recently, the son and I went to a small 'Mom and Pop' country store down the road from my mom's house. I had forgot to get eggs and they were selling fresh eggs from the owners own chickens. My daughter was not with us and she looked at the eggs with an odd look and said, 'How do we know they are really fresh?' Well now, that is a good question! And, a pretty good lesson for the day! (And honestly, I was a little leery buying fresh eggs from someone I did not know!)

Photo from Gail Damerow's book Storey's Guide To Raising Chickens

    I remembered this post I saw on Facebook a little while back and I (very smart like) remembered to save the photo! The Chicken Chick let me know who to give the credit to. Gail Damerow's book Storey's Guide To Raising Chickens contains this excellent picture graphic to let you know how to tell if an egg is fresh or not. Of course we had to try! (And the book is now on my Wish List!)

     The eggs sunk like a ton of bricks and landed flat on the bottom! We cheered every egg we sunk! Fresh indeed! And at $2 a dozen for super large eggs, it was quite a steal. This activity was simple and yet it is another important skill every 'Well Prepared' child should know. You never know if you will have to barter or trade or buy from someone and want to make sure what they are selling you is fresh! (Can't wait to try on some eggs from the local 'big box' store!) 

UPDATE: My mom called to tell me a funny story. While Zoey was at her house, she wanted to eat eggs for breakfast, but my mom didn't know how fresh they were. My daughter told her, "Hold on Grandma, let me show you how to tell!" She got out a bowl of water to test the eggs freshness. THEY ALL FLOATED! She turned to her grandmother and said, "Grandma! How long have you had these?" Haha! 

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

Strange lays!

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     Just as I was about to blog about our strange eggs, I realized it was almost dark and I needed to go out and feed the pig. Good thing too! We just found our strangest egg yet!
    But first, let's talk about my chickens. We have two sets: FFA meat show chickens and a much younger set that was hatched at the childcare center I work at. I got the FFA chickens first. There were 7 of them total. 6 hens and 1 rooster needed a home. My husband's mother's boyfriend's granddaughter (did you catch all that?) participated in FFA this year and had show chickens. She 'thinks' they are a Rhode Island White and Cornish Rock mix. She kept them in cages in the barn and they had never seen the outside before. Through several chicken experts I know, show chickens will never breed, never lay, can't walk well, and will die suddenly with a flurry of flapping and feathers flying. (We actually did have one die that way) I was not really wanting to butcher my own chickens, but being a homesteading/prepper/survivalist wanna be... I knew I needed to walk the walk and talk the talk! So my daughter and I Googled 'How to Butcher and Pluck a Chicken.' Several YouTube videos later and we were ready to try our hand at it. Did not go well the first time around, by the 3rd, I am nearly an expert. You can read about the first time we sent a chicken to 'Freezer Camp' HERE.
     But I am also a wimp, and while I am proud of myself that I can do it, honestly I would just prefer not to! I was saved from sending anymore chickens to 'Freezer Camp' (for the moment) when our rooster 'Roo' decided to get a bit frisky with the last 2 remaining hens! Well, if Roo was trying to mate, then perhaps my FFA Meat Hens would lay? And they did! :) Well, at least one of them does and she does it quite well! The other however, not so well...

     That mess is our first set of eggs! Thank goodness I was over checking out The Chicken Chick's webpage and decided to read her article on 'How a hen lays eggs and egg oddities.' Or else I might have panicked! We suspect they chickens had trampled on the eggs not realizing what they were. One was a solid normal egg in pieces. 2nd was almost a normal egg but had a soft crack to it and was in pieces. The third was a rubber egg! That is the only way to describe it. 

     Now let's talk about my strange laying chickens.. Mind you they are camera shy and getting good photos of them is rare. They either run away from the camera or think its food and they are too close for a good shot.       

     Now you cant tell from that photo, but 'Prissy' chicken (the one in the front) is pretty. She is a perfectly pretty, dainty, walks like a lady, sweet little hen. My husband actually witnessed her laying one day after a huge commotion drew him to the chicken coop. After it was all over, Prissy walked away from an egg. A perfectly pretty, dainty, sweet little egg. 

    

     The other one... exactly the opposite! She has a gimp leg, her feathers are not dainty or cute, she is not sweet. We call her 'HeShe' cause honestly... were not sure if she is actually a female. Is it possible to have a chicken with both characteristics? Her legs and feet are bigger than Roo's. Her comb and waddles are larger than a hens. Her face is a bit mean looking. She is not a pretty chickie! She has to be laying though, because the amount of eggs we are getting is too much for one little hen! We had 5 total eggs today. Can one chicken lay 5 eggs? And if they were all from Prissy, why would we only see her lay the pretty, perfect eggs? 

     Now before you say anything, yes, we added baked crushed egg shells and oyster shells into their diet. They also get layer pellets and free range for several hours in the day. 

     We still end up with some crazy eggs! Maybe HeShe is just not cut out for laying? I don't know. I am cheering her on, hoping she will get the hang of it one day! Although, I will miss getting amazingly crazy eggs like this one. (It was whole until Roo got overly excited about me coming into the coop with them after spying this on the ground.) 

YES! It was 2 separate eggs that were attached! 

Learn more about our FFA chickens and what we discovered about 'HeSHe' HERE.

Want to learn about EGG ODDITIES? Visit THE CHICKEN CHICK. 

     She also talks about fertilized eggs vs unfertilized eggs. I cant figure out if this one from a flat egg is fertilized. The tiny white spot is actually a bubble. What do you think? 

Disclosure: I am in no way affiliated with The Chicken Chick nor am I paid to promote her site. I just enjoy her blog and find it tremendously useful on all things chicken!  I am however, an Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online.