OtleyLad
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Pale Green skin - is this normalI bought 6 day old chicks (Hubbard types) August 22nd and they have grown nicely and we killed them this Monday, prepared them Tuesday. The skin on the lower back extending for 3 to 4 inches away from the vent on most of them was a pale green colour with the rest of it being normal - is this ok?
If not any reason as to the cause?
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judith
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You do tend to get a bit of discolouration if you leave the guts in for a day or so. I have never known it to taint the meat - or certainly not after only 24 hours if the guts were intact.
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bodger
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When chickens are bruised, their bruising tends to be green rather than the blue that you get with with humans but of course, bruising doesn't really happen after death.
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colour it green
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did they flap on the ground for a while after death or did you hold them up?
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Shan
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We have this problem too. It is bruising from ringing the necks. We are moving to doing ours in a cone.
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Woodburner
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I've had one that had greenish skin over the area that has very little flesh, between the legs and the tail. I put it down to staining from the guts. The thin flesh there and the fat around the vent were both greenish too and stank a rancid sort of smell, so I cut it away and discarded it.
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OtleyLad
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| colour it green wrote: | | did they flap on the ground for a while after death or did you hold them up? |
The birds were held firmly upside down after death (via broomstick).
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bodger
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Its a strange one then. I don't really have a clue as to whats caused the green skin on your birds. If it was bruising, its a very strange place to get it.
I've killed turkeys and they've bruised themselves as they've been flapping but thats been around the wing area especially if I've inadvertantly allowed them to strike something with their wings. No, I'm stumped 
Did you say you'd hung them by their feet ? Gravity would surely take everything in the opposite direction to the discolouration if you did. 
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OtleyLad
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The person I bought them off has suggested that I might not have starved them for long enough before killing them - the undigested food in the gut could have tainted the thin skin (between killing and gutting).
This would make sense as we had been on holiday right up to the day of the slaughter and a neighbour was looking after them for us - so they had fed on the day.
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Shan
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It happens on our heavier birds. It is bruising from pulling the legs during the slaughter process.
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bodger
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I've inadvertently fed birds just an hour or two before killing them and never had this problem.
If I know that I'm going to bump off some particular birds then I don't feed them the night before, but the chances are that they will still have some food somewhere in the system when I despatch them, I think that you've been quite unlucky to have this problem.
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colour it green
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| OtleyLad wrote: | | colour it green wrote: | | did they flap on the ground for a while after death or did you hold them up? |
The birds were held firmly upside down after death (via broomstick). |
thats exactly what we do - and we have not had the colouration. we do gut straight away though.. thats the only difference i can see.
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colour it green
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| OtleyLad wrote: | The person I bought them off has suggested that I might not have starved them for long enough before killing them - the undigested food in the gut could have tainted the thin skin (between killing and gutting).
This would make sense as we had been on holiday right up to the day of the slaughter and a neighbour was looking after them for us - so they had fed on the day. |
have to say i never remember to withhold food, so they always have a full crop etc and yet i still haven't had the colour you talk of
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colour it green
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| Shan wrote: | | It happens on our heavier birds. It is bruising from pulling the legs during the slaughter process. |
ah could be.. we hold the chickens body, holding the wings close to the body, and pull it up when killing (using broomstick)
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OtleyLad
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Oh dear, I am not sure now 
Next time I will try starving them for 24 hours beforehand and gutting straight away - just to eliminate those possibilities.
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Woodburner
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Surely bruising would be red or pink?
| OtleyLad wrote: | Oh dear, I am not sure now
Next time I will try starving them for 24 hours beforehand and gutting straight away - just to eliminate those possibilities. |
Sounds like a good plan. 
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Shan
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No.... do you bruise red or pink? 
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