Processing chickens.

[LeeB]

Anyone raise and process their own chickens? Care to share any tips and or instructions? Is  drill plucker worthwhile?

[Mooseherder]

One of Joel Salatin's chicken processing procedures.

Joel Salatin | Broiler Processing Demo Homesteaders of America 2019 - YouTube

[Southside]

We do it weekly, have an inspection exemption permit to sell up to 20K birds annually. 

How many are you looking to raise? In the beginning I did about 5 without a plucker, that was a VERY long day.  A quality plucker is worth every penny, we have two of the drum style type. 

[LeeB]

Right now I have 12 that just about ready to harvest. Not sure if I want to do this again so also not sure I want to invest in a drum type plucker. Any thoughts on the drill operated pluckers?

[low_48]

When I was a farm boy, we did 50 chickens every late fall. All plucked by hand, just outside the chicken house. My Dad would stand on their heads and pull, then throw them out in the grass to bleed out. Pretty darned traumatic for a 6 year old kid in 1958, after sitting in the back seat of the car and playing with the baby chicks on the way home from the hatchery just the spring before!

[Don P]

I've hand plucked more than machine bruised  :D. I usually kill, scald and help pluck. There is an imaginary wall right there. The outside crew does not go inside the bird without stopping and sanitizing. Don't jump "the wall" to help catch them up. A good morning is 2 couples and 25-30 birds. The outside crew finishes first and begins breakdown and cleanup as the inside crew finishes up. Then pizza  ;D

[Wayniac]

get a orange highway cone cut it in half use the top half small hole down nail it to a post now you can stick the chickens  head first though the small hole and cut his head off and he dont make a mess floping all over the place

[B.C.C. Lapp]

I pasture raise three batches of between 60 and 100 birds each batch every year.   But we don't process them.   There is a poultry processor 12 miles away and we go pick up cages in the morning and then deliver the birds that evening.   They are done and ready for pickup the next afternoon.  Its reasonably priced and works for us.    I certainly dont make a killing on it but its worth my time to do it and we get all the chicken we need for the year out of it as well.   Its the pasture feeding that makes it work. They also get clabber and vegetables than didnt sell at the stands.   If I had to buy feed I doubt I would turn much of a profit.

[Southside]

I think you would find a drill plucker to be worth it. The key is getting the scald right. It might be the 12th bird before you figure it out though. 

[Texas Ranger]

Back in the '50's we raised brooder chickens for a Kroger in the small town we live by in Missouri.  We processed probably 50 a week, that and eggs were Mom's contribution in lean times. We had a funnel turn table for killing and bleeding out, then in a scalding pot, and then to a home made "finger" wheel my dad made.  Most of a day for 50 chickens as I remember.  Small room smelled bad all the time.  My chicken house job was emptying the brooder pans, we had a sterile circle in the field that would be bare for a decade before the heat left it.

Not one of my favorite memories. 

[nativewolf]

If it is for your own consumption it sure is faster to just skin them.  

[kantuckid]

I kept chickens for years and skinned mine. On a small scale, the values just not there in chickens these days, eggs or meat. I had an old-time style chicken house with a covered flyway, then switched mine to moving across a pasture in a house that was on sled runners and neighbors' dogs killed them several times and I just gave up. BTW, the same neighbor keeps chickens... ;D
 Feeds very expensive now, costs more than store eggs alone and chicks are also high to restart a flock.  

[Raider Bill]

Back in the '50's we raised brooder chickens for a Kroger in the small town we live by in Missouri.  We processed probably 50 a week, that and eggs were Mom's contribution in lean times. We had a funnel turn table for killing and bleeding out, then in a scalding pot, and then to a home made "finger" wheel my dad made.  Most of a day for 50 chickens as I remember.  Small room smelled bad all the time.  My chicken house job was emptying the brooder pans, we had a sterile circle in the field that would be bare for a decade before the heat left it.

Not one of my favorite memories.

My uncle raised chickens and turkeys for meat.
I remember the smell of his "processing" shack. Nasty.

[kantuckid]

Our main version of fried chicken is mostly Canes Chicken. We buy a double Tailgater and layer the pans it comes in then re-seal them for the freezer.
 For empty nesters it what makes sense for fried chicken. We also use it for chicken wraps and it actually makes great Parmesan Chicken via some marinara sauce and cheese and a few minutes in a toaster oven. It's lots better than any bagged, frozen grocery store easy to eat chicken and actually cheaper than some. 

[Tom K]

I personally don't think a drill plucker is worth it. I made one years ago and didn't think it was worth the effort.

I also agree that with only 12 I think you would be better off to skin them. By the time you get the scald water up to temp I just don't think it's worth it. Back when we did smaller batches I would just skin and do 10-15 at a time.

About 5 or so years ago I got the plans and and some parts and built a Wiz Bang Plucker. It was well worth the effort since we do a batch every year. 

When we process we don't open the body cavity. After they are plucked we cut off the feet, cut the back quarters off, then the wings, breast out, and toss the carcass and throw the cuts into a cooler full of ice. We prefer having pieces to cook instead of whole birds and we package and vacuum pack how we usually use them.

If you haven't yet, ask around and see if there are any processors in your area. 

[aigheadish]

My kids have been asking for chickens since we moved out to the country about 6 years ago. I've said no. I love eggs and it'd be cool to have some fresh chicken to cook up on occasion but I don't know if it's worth the effort. Texas Ranger's comment on the smell is possibly enough to make sure I don't get any. 

[LeeB]

The meat chickens we have are in a tractor and if it's not moved regularly it cam stink. The rest of our chickens are free range and don't really cause a lot of smell.

[Don P]

The processing we always did on plastic folding tables outside, spread the joy around rather than concentrating it in one fixed location, "The solution to pollution is dilution". We've spent way more time chipping teeth than it takes to pluck a flock of 25 or so. Now ducks, forget plucking, just skin those fowl creatures. Although the best way is to give them to someone else  :D. Chickens are easy and cheap learning for kids. Get layers if you don't want to process... and no it will not pencil out, but you won't have to sell the farm either and the kids will probably have a positive experience. If you lose them it isn't like losing a large animal. Do make sure your postal folks know what you've got coming. Our postmistress backtracked a box of chicks that were going to die overnight in a distribution center and scrambled a truck to swing by and get them. 

[LeeB]

Posts: 9825 Location: Southwestern VA Gender: Re: Processing chickens. « Reply #5 on: July 23, 2022, 07:34:33 AM » QuoteAdd Multi Quote I've hand plucked more than machine bruised

On average, how long does it take to hand pluck a bird? I've heard you need to have a bird fully processed and in ice water within 20 minutes from killing it. This seems like a very short time.

[doc henderson]

keep it under control.  in Hays we had 5 acres in the country and got up to 60 ducks, chickens, and geese.  it became work.  in hutch we got a dozen.  on 3 acres.  you can have one chicken per 2,000 sq. feet of yard.  the coup would be smelly but not in the free range yard.  two of them had to train our dog, not to eat chickens.     smiley_turkey_dancing food2

Dirty Old Egg-Suckin' Dog - YouTube

[tule peak timber]

Two of us do a turkey in 20 minutes, chickens less. This is a bird we did last month.

 

[barbender]

If you don't do them often I would file it under, "not worth the trouble". I haven't did meat birds for a while, but our layers had hatched some chicks so we ended up with a bunch of roosters. I finally made the time to butcher them one day, 5 or 6 of them. Probably took me 4 hours. I just skun them, the problem is a chicken doesn't skin easy. I guarantee I could've skin and quartered as many deer, in less time. Then in the end, they were scrawny, stringy layer roosters anyways and weren't much for eating. I would've been ahead to just throw them in the woods and let the coons have them.

On the other hand, one of my friends raises about 1000 meat birds a year, he has a really good processing method set up. A regular disassembly line, if you will. With around an 8 person crew, they will do 150-200 birds in around 4-5 hours.

Lee, I've never used one of the drill plucked but for 12 birds, like Southside said I would think you'd run out of birds before you got a method figured out. I'd consider skinning them.

[LeeB]

I've got a couple of  orange buffington roosters I'm going to start with to get a feel for it. Not really worried about them if they don't turn out to well. I made a kill cone and stand for it today. Will give it a try real soon.

[doc henderson]

Lee, those Orange Buffington roosters tend to not lay many eggs!    :D :D 

[Dan_Shade]

Definitely not many eggs from the Orange Buffington roosters after they are processed.