I always cook my chicken/turkey bones a second time after removing the meat and storing it away. I keep the first broth in the fridge in quart-sized freezer containers, but I only fill each half way because I want to mix the second stock into the first before I pack it for the freezer. People are always surprised to see what nice broth you can get from just the bones, skin and gristle. Sometimes I will add water to the bones again after draining them, and stir this around. If the water starts looking like chicken stock, I'll cook the bones again. When I'm finished with the bones, they are soft and will collapse to a sort of a paste when you pinch them between your fingertips. I smush this stuff and bury it in my garden. I have to do it when the dog isn't watching though, and set something on top of it for a few days. I love my crockpot, too! I've never looked into what it costs to run it. I also have one of those big electric roasters that I always cook my Thanksgiving turkey in (and later use it to simmer the bones for broth) and Dawn, if you want something that cooks up a huge amount, you need that! But it would be hard to carry to a fire, now that I think about it. And I do save bits and tads of things. I don't like mixing my meats together so I will usually put them in wide-mouthed tapered pint canning jars and label them as to whether they are poultry, beef or pork. Sometimes I will make up a "tv dinner" if we have maybe one serving left of something, and put it in the freezer for later. I collect the liquids from canned vegetables and bits and pieces of veggies like tomatoes, celery, asparagus and outer cabbage leaves, in a plastic coffee jug in the freezer. When it's full I thaw it out, add add whatever I think it needs more of. Usually this is chicken or beef, some broth, and maybe a jar of canned tomatoes. A chopped onion. Add a can of mixed veggies from the store or a part of a bag of frozen. Actually I prefer the canned as it has potatoes in it. Heat all this up, add enough cornstarch to give it a nice smooth consistency. DH has a sensitive stomach so I don't spice it up. Just salt and pepper. If I'm feeding kids I add a little sugar, unless there's lots of liquid from canned corn in that batch. Yum.

Do you mean J. A. Henckels? Try this link below for a customer service contact. Maybe they can advise you if a retailer in your area has the part or where you can purchase it. Henckels items usually have a pretty good warranty -- not sure about the poultry shears, but it couldn't hurt to ask if the part is covered under warranty! Here is a link that might be useful: Zwilling J. A. Henckels USA

I have 2 pairs of kitchen shears, and a heavy pair of poultry shears in my kitchen. The scissors (one or the other pair, sometimes both) are almost always in the dishwasher every time it runs. They're handy for: opening bags, chopping herbs (put the herbs in a cup, and just snip until they're fine enough), cutting pizza into slices, cutting flowers and herbs in the garden, cutting pepperoni into small pieces for recipes. I use them so often, I can't even think of all the different things I do with them. Very handy to have. Put them in a very convenient place, because I bet you'll be using them frequently.

I don't know about "good" but I love Ikea kitchen shears! I think they are less than $3 a pair, so I have 4 in my kitchen -- I use them all daily so all four almost always end up in the dishwasher at the same time. I personally like having 4 "cheapy's" verus one great pair that are always dirty.... When my kids were little, I used scissors to cut all their food (pancakes, waffles, pizza, meat, etc...). Faster and easier than the most expensive knife!