| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| sean |
Chicken giblet poll....I'm increasingly concerned about the number of member who don't seem to get giblets with their chickens. In the interests of putting this on some sort of scientific basis please respond to this poll so that we can establish the size of the problem and whether there's some sort of strange regional variation at play..... |
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| JB |
Where I buy chickens the only option which includes the giblets is the frozen. The only free range options do not come with the giblets. This strikes me as a bit odd as I would have thought it would be the 'foodies' who buy free range who are more likely to want the giblets than those who buy the economy frozen ranges.
Eventually we'll get a property where we can keep our own which will solve that problem. |
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| Bernie66 |
I would not be "concerned"  . But when i pay for a bird(chicken i mean  i expect as near to a whole bird as possible. Giblets are the best way of making good stock or gravy and if i don't get them what happens to them?
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| judith |
All my chickens come with giblets
That was something that really annoyed me when I bought chicken. As Bernie says, you can't make a good gravy without them. I imagine it has to do with speed of processing. It takes a while to sort out the good bits from the real nasties, so it just isn't worth the processors' while to do it for nothing. Why give the punters something for free if they will pay a quid for a pot of chicken livers? JB - you don't need a lot of space to keep half a dozen chickens for the freezer - certainly less than for free-ranging layers as they don't tend to walk very far. |
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| JB |
How much space would you allow? I suspect it would still not be practical for me as my OH, while she wants chickens, doesn't want them immediately next to the house which would mean constructing a run on sloping ground immediately next to woodland which we know is inhabited by foxes. |
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| monkey1973 |
I should qualify my vote by saying that since I acquired my chickens I have given up eating the stuff although I miss it terribly. I'll need to do a bit of research on where I can get good free-range chooks, locally, as I don't have the balls to eat my own girls. | ||||
| judith |
I have a run that is about 12 x 8 that they are in most of the time. I let them out under supervision (the layers tend to bully them otherwise), but they don't roam very far at all - usually just to the nearest bunch of dock leaves. Foxes would be a worry, though, as they wouldn't have a chance. |
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| JB |
Stupid question time! Is that metres or feet and how many chickens do you keep in that space? How much space would you allow for layers? |
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| wellington womble |
I buy my chickens in a mixed box of organic meat from devon - I was surprised to order a portioned chicken recently, and get the giblets too (lovely big chicken portions too - very pleased with them!) I'm going to start ordering more, as they're quite reasonably priced. I save the giblets, and make extra stock when I roast one- himself doesn't like me freezing chicken, but I won't tell him!
I feel a bit cheated when I buy an odd poulet do'r from waitrose, and don't get any giblets - I don't make gravy from them, but make stock (usually turns into soup), so a view them as a whole meal. I don't mind paying over the odds for my chicken, but I expect a lot for my money. I like chicken - we're definitely having more now I can get it portioned (I can do it myself, but not if arrives frozen!) The point of all this waffling, is that everyone can get chicken with giblets in, from here. http://www.higherhacknell.co.uk/ I know I go on about them, and they're not necessairyl local, but they are a british small business, not extortionately expensive, and its damn good chicken (giblets included, even if they send it in bits!) |
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| nettie |
According to the chap I get the chickens from, if you're not sending a vast quantity off to be plucked and drawn, and you request giblets, then you get any old giblets back from goodness knows whose chickens. A bit pointless if you've raised them almost organically and free range.
I am so cross about this as I can't get the giblets anywhere, the farmers all tell me the same thing. |
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| judith |
Sorry, that is feet. I keep 6 chooks in that space and move it around every week or so. I used to have 3 layers in the same run, before I let them out to destroy my garden on a permanent basis! |
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| judith |
I don't think it is any sort of conspiracy, it is just that IIRC poultry abattoirs use a big hoover arrangement to gut the chickens - this probably results in all sorts of broken guts, split bile ducts and other undesirable effects. To get the giblets safely, they would have to be taken off the line and gutted by hand - which would definitely up the cost. |
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| JB |
If you're "not sending a vast quantity off to be plucked and drawn" then why send them off at all rather than do the job yourself? |
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| JB |
So how many times do you move it before going back to the same space? If the runs are alternated then I could probably find space for a couple of runs albeit that the slope might make fox proofing it awkward, but if its a case keeping it on one spot for one week and then leaving 4 weeks to recover I couldn't. |
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| Nanny |
gibletsyou didn't have a sometimes..............i only buy kennel farm free range but don't always get the giblets which i would use for gravy and stock etc every chicken has a set before they are killed but i assume that producers arenot allowed for health and safety/ food poisoning reasons or just beause so many modern people can't stand the thought of "bits"? |
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| judith |
A lot depends on how long you want to keep them, i.e. how big you want them. We usually have ours for 12 - 14 weeks, which equates to a 5 - 6 lb dressed bird. Commercially they will go for slaughter at 6 - 8 weeks.
Of this time, they will be indoors for at least 3 weeks - more if it is cold - as they come as day-olds and have to fledge before they can go out. So you could probably get away with alternating between two run areas - you would want to give it a good hose down in between as they do produce a lot of poo, which increases seemingly exponentially as they get larger! |