1st time chickens for food question about smell and colour

[WitchypooNo2]

Hi all,

I've not been on here since I got preggers with my last babe but I always found your advice to be invaluable. We have reared a flock of Light sussexes for the table. They are now 17 weeks old and so we don't get tough birds we have begun to slaughter the ones that are clearly cockerels. We dispatched them last night, all went well, hung them over night, plucked them today and..well the skin, the loose skin round erm I suppose form the waist down...so to speak, no muscle behind it, well its gone green! Green blue. on all three! the liver is fine, all the offal the "right" colour. but the green skin is a bit yuk as is the smell. Decidely fart like. Sulphur-y. *shudder* Now I have googled but nothing really addresses our first time wibbles. We are supposed to roast them tomorrow and they are sititng in the fridge but the smell when I open the door is pretty fowl (pardon the pun) Is this normal? They were healthy young gents! Fed on non GM pellets, and oodles of garden scraps form the allotment and children's veggie leftovers.

Am I about to poison the family?

On a slightly less serious note, they are skinny wee things. Really scrawny and yet our gilrs and cockerel are HUGE. Was 17 weeks too early?

Many thanks in advance, a slightly grossed out ELi xx

[red]

i dunno what it is.. but it does sound like they might have started to go off. I hope not....
were they kept somewhere cool?

TBH, we kill them, and pluck them still warm, and draw them.. still warm, then chill them after that.. so I have no experience of leaving them until later.

we started bumping our LS cockerels off at 19 weeks and they were 3-4 lbs once oven ready.

[WitchypooNo2]

Thanks Red!

We hunge them overnight in a downstairs room.....coolish but nowhere felt cool last night!

One thing I forgot to mention is that the skin had a greenish very soon after death. I was going to beging plucking but tore the skin a little bit at the under wing so gave up and decided to go with the hanging over night advice...... I shall be cross if we have effectively ruined three potentialy good chickens! I have read that freshly killed birds can have a smell about them but these..... is the only thing I can think of....not sickly death smell, just bad farts!!! TMI!

Hmm I shall look at them again tomorrow and re-assess. Its mine and my hubby's 11th Wedding anniversary tomorrow and we were supposed to be having them for dinner...but if I'm going to give us all salmonella I think I may re-think!!!

Many thanks for the advice

Eli x

[Thomzo]

They can go green if they are allowed to flap a lot when they are being despatched. It's simply bruising. Not very attractive but I think it's edible.

Have you drawn the insides yet? Did you starve them before you despatched them? If not, they might still have full bowels which could explain the smell.

Free-range birds do have a much stronger smell than supermarket ones which can be a bit offputting when you first try them.

Other than that, I can't really help. Sorry.

Zoe

[red]

oh yes good point.. we hold them after necking them, so they don't bruise. did you do that or did they flap abput on the ground?

we never remember to starve them first.. but its not that bad.

there is a distinctive smell to a freshly killed chicken.. and a bit wiffy when you clean them, but not terrible. unless you rupture something whislt you do it... ew...

so long as its cooked through.. should be safe.. i spose..dunno how pleasant.... but its your call.

[Woodburner]

I don't know what casues it. It's definitely not bruising. I've had one just like you describe and know exactly what you're talking about. I think the fat under the skin there has something to do with it as that was the strongest smelling bit. I cut out and disposed of all the smelly bits, no way was I going to eat that.

It's really wierd because I find that actually home killed chicken stays fresh far longer than shop bought, even after 24 hours outside of a fridge! This was one of two birds killed at the same time and the other one was fine, so it wasn't the method of killing either. At the time I put it down to diet, that particular bird being unable to forage like the rest on account of a crossed beak, so could only really eat pellets and grain from the feeder, maybe it was short of grit too, for the same reason.