Sorry, picture heavy!
I've raised these in the past, with great luck, so decided to do another batch this year.
I feed the game hens a special diet to flavor the meat while "on the hoof". It worked pretty well last time so I went with the same feed. A blend of garlic, ginger, scallion, corn for fat and garden veggies. They also ate grasshoppers and any bugs they could catch.
Anyway...
I started with day old Cornish Rocks..
Built a pvc/chickenwire pen to move them around the farm...
The special corn, garlic, ginger, scallion feed..
I process the birds at 1 1/2 to 2 lbs.
Used my home made chicken plucker...
set up the scald water...
A minute or two in the plucker...
cleaned and ready to chill...
chilled overnight and bagged for the freezer...
I took a couple with me while camping...
made a wild rice, water chestnut blend...
added chicken stock and set the flavored game hens on top...
shoveled a few hot coals on top and settled down with a beer...
In about an hour, the birds were ready...
The flavored birds, rice and garden tomatoes...
I really like these....
The flavors came through again. I'll be raising more in the future.
Again, sorry for so many pics, but thanks for looking!
I've raised these in the past, with great luck, so decided to do another batch this year.
I feed the game hens a special diet to flavor the meat while "on the hoof". It worked pretty well last time so I went with the same feed. A blend of garlic, ginger, scallion, corn for fat and garden veggies. They also ate grasshoppers and any bugs they could catch.
Anyway...
I started with day old Cornish Rocks..
Built a pvc/chickenwire pen to move them around the farm...
The special corn, garlic, ginger, scallion feed..
I process the birds at 1 1/2 to 2 lbs.
Used my home made chicken plucker...
set up the scald water...
A minute or two in the plucker...
cleaned and ready to chill...
chilled overnight and bagged for the freezer...
I took a couple with me while camping...
made a wild rice, water chestnut blend...
added chicken stock and set the flavored game hens on top...
shoveled a few hot coals on top and settled down with a beer...
In about an hour, the birds were ready...
The flavored birds, rice and garden tomatoes...
I really like these....
The flavors came through again. I'll be raising more in the future.
Again, sorry for so many pics, but thanks for looking!