# butchering - where do you dispose of the waste?



## cathleenc (Aug 16, 2007)

Our new homestead is not huge - 16 acres. Where do you suggest we dispose of the waste from butchering? Rabbits, poultry, goats, sheep, venison are all on the menu plan.

thanks
Cathy


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## HazyDay (Feb 20, 2007)

Do you have dogs? feed as much use-able organs to them. Any others find person who owns wooded land and see if you can work a deal to dump them their. Lets say a few chops for the dumping of some guts!!


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## pookshollow (Aug 22, 2005)

Got any neighbours raising pigs? My neighbour 'round the corner had pigs last year - I plan on asking him when I butcher my chickens and rabbits, if he wants the offal.


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## Torch (May 25, 2004)

I dump them on the fence line that abuts a large tree farm. The coyotes, wild hogs, and buzzards take care of the rest... real quick.

btw, 16 acres is a NICE spread. Congrats!


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## cathleenc (Aug 16, 2007)

Torch said:


> btw, 16 acres is a NICE spread. Congrats!


thank you! 11 acres of it is high sandstone bluff, on the north side of the house - only deer trails go up it (wooded, shale, etc). So with only 5 really accessible acres I'm concerned about varmints, stink, and my little boys getting overly creative.

Dogs and pigs are good ideas. thanks.


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

I dump it far enough away from the house that I won't smell it and the dogs eat all of it but the actual stomach contents themselves. This includes the hide, legs and head. Sure saves on the dogfood bill for a couple days.  I take turns dumping it inside and outside the goat pasture, this way the LGD's and yard dogs all get some. And many times I will freeze the easier handleable parts for distribution to the dogs later.


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## hoofinitnorth (Oct 18, 2006)

Waste? What waste?  We use bones for soup stock, dog treats, etc. We use meat & fat trimmings as cat food, dog food, and chicken food (no chicken meat fed to chickens). If we had a pig, we'd probably do the same for them. Often we have bones that we let the chicken pick clean and then pass on to the dogs. Everybody's happy. 

In fact, we butchered a moose here a few weeks ago and the friend that shot it left us the head. We put it in the chicken yard where it is a maggot farm and the chickens LOVE it. When I let them out of the coop in the morning they make a b-line right for it! I turn it over at least once a day for them and they feast on the insect activity. It has been smelly and gross to look at but we live in a rural area on 20 acres with no full-time neighbors, we have great fences to keep out the predators, and the head will be gone soon enough and cold winter months will be here to chase away the insects.

The only waste we have from butchering wild game would be feathers or fur/pelts (but those are often resellable if the law permits and the handler has taken care!) and a few organs (but again, give them to the chickens). If you have wild birds in your area, they will probably carry away small amounts of guts but leave the rest.


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## chamoisee (May 15, 2005)

I just don't see how 16 acres could not be enough to dispose of a comparitively small amount of entrails even if you had no dogs. You can bury or compost it...or feed it to pigs or the chickens..although I wouldn't feed chickens, chicken parts.


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## cathleenc (Aug 16, 2007)

chamoisee said:


> I just don't see how 16 acres could not be enough to dispose of a comparitively small amount of entrails even if you had no dogs. You can bury or compost it...or feed it to pigs or the chickens..although I wouldn't feed chickens, chicken parts.


Only 5 acres are really accessible - I'd literally have to backpack the offal up a steep bluff to get to the 11 other acres. Backpack kids or camping stuff - good. Backpack offal = bad.

Recycling sounds like a great plan. Has anyone ever figure out a 'golden mean'? Like 4 chickens + 2 dogs + 1 pig+ 4 rabbits = 2 goats+ 3 sheep = a perfect system for feeding/recycling balance?


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## chamoisee (May 15, 2005)

Well...it just isn't that cut and dried. If it were, we'd all have perfect homesteads. I'd rather have two really worthwhile goats than 4 common ones. And who in their right mind would have only 4 chickens unless they were only pets? 

My point of view: 
*no* cats or dogs...waste of money, wildlife, dangerous to stock. 

No "pet" livestock- pygmy goats, wethers, unproductive things like llamas or donkies that could conceievably be used, but are not and probably never will be except as fuel for pipe dreams. Sadly, this list would also include horses, unless you are actually going to use the horse for something and ride it every day or two. Most folks with horses never even ride them. They're pretty expensive pets.

As few species as possible while still fulfilling the needs of the homesteader. I am not a fan of having a pair of turkeys, geese, ducks, peacocks, call ducks, guinea hens, chickens, pheasants, quail.... Just get chickens, and maybe only one or two breeds of chickens, not a rooster and hen of each breed. 

Get just one species of animal every year or two, and do that species correctly, rather than getting whatever you can, or worse yet, taking in people's freebie livestock (shudder) or going to the sale barn and coming home with an assortment of critters. Do your research, go to fairs, buy periodicals and books about the species, talk to and visit breeders near you, and *then* look into buying your own stock. Most of the nightmares on the goat forum arise from haphazard or incidental acquisitions by newbie goat owners. 

Back to the topic though, composting the offal works fine. There really isn't that much of it.


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## Filas are Prima (May 4, 2007)

Dig a big hole, and dump guts there, using lime. Put your hole downwind from everything.
Bag the guts, haul them to the dump.
Feed them to whatever else you have.
Learn anatomy......? Vets have to in school.


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## hoofinitnorth (Oct 18, 2006)

Craigs List free section


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## southerngurl (May 11, 2003)

The only downfall to just leaving the remains for the wild critters is it can attract critters who may also attack the live animals. We learned with pet deer, not to dump deer carcasses anywhere near the house 

I have thrown small things in the pond. I wouldn't now because we have horses and they drink out of it. But if you have one, the bugs and fish and whatnot will quickly eat it. It will soon sink so you don't have to smell it. 

Most things can be used. You can even tan the hides and everything. You can also just bury what's left.


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## hoofinitnorth (Oct 18, 2006)

you may need a permit to dump butcher waste, even on your own property


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## bgraham (Jun 30, 2005)

Our local processor will not butcher goats. He butchers deer, cow, pigs, even a bear someone trucked down from up north. But not goats. Says the company that collects his waste will not take goat leftovers. :shrug: 

Beth


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## Gailann Schrader (May 10, 2002)

The dogs like to completely eat the legs from the "knee" down. Guts? What I don't give to the dogs? I made a "noxious" compost pile.

Heavy fence encircled on the INSIDE with swimming pool blue plastic stuff (so the dogs won't pull out what they want) and topped with more fence. Put a layer of old hay (what the goats won't eat) down - a thick layer - then the guts and other "stuff" you don't use, then another thick layer of old hay. No smell, no mess. 

Just make sure you put it far enough from the house so no stray odors will waft into your visitors noses... Other than '***** and possums that insist on trying to get in? I have no problems with the recycling. IF I put the leftovers anywhere on my 25 acres? The dogs bring it up. And barf it up when I least expect it. Composting is the way to go, really.

Now if you are butchering LOTS? Burning may be the way to go. But the dogs will rat through the burn pile later, trust me.


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## Gailann Schrader (May 10, 2002)

Somebody I knew (or was it here?) would put the entrails on a grid above their pond. Seems that the maggots would drop down into the pond and feed the fishes. LOL. Feed the fishes... *chuckle* 

Anyway. Yes, chickens LOVE maggots? But I wouldn't let them eat the rotten meat if I can avoid it - they'll get rubber-necks from the rotted meat sometimes. 

They are CRAZY for maggots, though. Make those blow-flies WORK for YOU!


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## Jim S. (Apr 22, 2004)

Might be wasteful, but the best butchering method I ever saw was to dig a hole with a front end loader, use the loader to hang the carcass, and let the offal and blood drop in the hole. Then cover it.


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## Feral Nature (Feb 21, 2007)

I live in sand so digging is easy but I just dig a hole where I butcher and bury what I don't feed to the dogs and chickens.

Sometimes I bury dead chickens and goat guts in the garden. I remember where I bury goat heads as I may want to go back and get the skulls at a later time. I like skulls. Sometimes I wire skulls to trees so ants and flies will clean them. I have a scary farm


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## HazyDay (Feb 20, 2007)

hoofinitnorth said:


> Craigs List free section



That was a darn good one! :Bawling: Im crying cuz of all the laughing!


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## HazyDay (Feb 20, 2007)

Feral Nature said:


> I live in sand so digging is easy but I just dig a hole where I butcher and bury what I don't feed to the dogs and chickens.
> 
> Sometimes I bury dead chickens and goat guts in the garden. I remember where I bury goat heads as I may want to go back and get the skulls at a later time. I like skulls. Sometimes I wire skulls to trees so ants and flies will clean them. I have a scary farm



Thats just a little creepy!


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## Feral Nature (Feb 21, 2007)

I am creepy.


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## Jim S. (Apr 22, 2004)

Feral Nature said:


> I live in sand so digging is easy but I just dig a hole where I butcher and bury what I don't feed to the dogs and chickens.
> 
> Sometimes I bury dead chickens and goat guts in the garden. I remember where I bury goat heads as I may want to go back and get the skulls at a later time. I like skulls. Sometimes I wire skulls to trees so ants and flies will clean them. I have a scary farm


The famous tracker Tom Brown says the skull is an animal's final track. Nothing wrong with collecting them. Hunters do all the time, but they have the taxidermist leave the skin on, is all.


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## Patty0315 (Feb 1, 2004)

What cannot be fed to our animals is left in the hedge row and does not last more than a few days. You have wild animals coming thru your place all the time . The pile will not last long enough to attract alot of new ones.

Patty


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## Feral Nature (Feb 21, 2007)

Jim S. said:


> The famous tracker Tom Brown says the skull is an animal's final track. Nothing wrong with collecting them. Hunters do all the time, but they have the taxidermist leave the skin on, is all.


Well, there are alot of "final tracks" around here. Cows, horses, donkeys, goats, dogs, cats, coyotes, pigs, *****, possums, and so on. I have always had an affinity for skulls. I don't actually consciously collect them. I just never really thought about it. I just 'save' them. They're cool.


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