Sneaky processing- need plan from experienced folks

I did 25 roosters on an apartment balcony all by myself. So I know about SLY!

Cover balcony with trash bag, break necks, bleed out into bucket, skin, cut off wing tips, feet, and gut. Just keep one big trash bag in a box for the stuff you don't want. Gutting after you skin them really only takes an extra 2 minutes. Just pull out liver and heart, toss into a bowl, Put all the gizzards in another bowl. Process the gizzards inside. Rinse birds in sink and pop in the fridge. Then when night falls, take all the feathers and guts to the trash. 

ETA: Nobody found out, nobody said a word, and as far as I know, nobody noticed. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by TeamChaos 

I have to do it on the sly- as I've got several friends to the flock that don't want to see the process. My husband thinks it'll be fastest if I kill the bird, bleed it out, skin it (not pluck) and then put it in the 'fridge until I can gut them. Is this safe? Can the guts sit in the cavity for an extended period of time? 

Yes, you can chill them after you skin them, but I wouldn't.  It only takes another couple of minutes to finish the job.

Kill and bleed out.  Cut off the head.  Split the skin from above the vent all the way up the breast to the top of the neck.  Split the skin down each leg and snip or cut around the joint where the feathers end.  Now peel the skin away from the breast and use your fingers to separate it all the way around the back and down the legs.  Hold the feet, grab all that loose skin and feathers, and pull.  If it works right, it can come off in one piece.  I've never managed to get the skin off the second and third wing sections, so I just cut them off.  

At this point you have a naked bird and a pile of sticky skin and feathers.  Even if you're going to do the final cleanup later, I would at least open the cavity and get the intestines and vent out.  If you have to work fast, leave the lungs and whatever else didn't come out easily for later.  This way you have a much cleaner carcass to work with.

-Wendy

There is a thread here where somebody describes how tehy do it in their garage. 

They hang a rope from the rafter and have a noose in the other end of it.  They put the birds legs through the loop to hang by their feet, head down.  They kill the bird - I can't remember if they cut the neck arteries or just cut off the heads - but then they lower the rope so the chicken hangs in a 5 gallon bucket lined with a plastic bag.  Then they let the bird bleed out into the bucket to keep the mess contained and make clean-up easier.

I think this sounds fairly under the radar.

Coming out from under cover here....

Our town ordinance allows for 4 chickens total for any property owner.  Consequently, we're WAY over our limit by having 25 meaties and 6 layers (including one illegal rooster).  However, the ordinance does NOT state what the ordinance is specifically for acreage -  (4 chickens for 10,000 sq ft...we're over 50,000 sq ft, so does that mean we can have 20 chickens?!)  And frankly, I'm not asking!  Our seven neighbors don't mind the chicks, understand why we're doing it (teenage boys) and agree with our methods.  Most have visited and seen our clean birds and coops, clean water and feeders - so what's the big deal?  Except the local alderman is one of our neighbors!  Whoops.....!  (He's stated he likes our rooster - even commented on why he doesn't hear the roo early am, we don't let him outdoors until after 8:30am and the coop is insulated for both weather and sound!).

We will be processing our birds in our garage, with the door closed and cars parked outside.  I'm likely processing by myself for most of it, as dh works and I'd rather do this during daylight hours.  I've hung the kill cone on a stud in the wall with a garbage can with liners below the cone and a second garbage can beside the table.  I've gotten the oversized saran wrap (like you see in deli's) to cover the table with.  When one is too gross, it goes in the bucket with the guts and feathers.  For a table, I'll use a pair of sawhorses with our trusty 2'x4' piece of plywood.  Hose is right outside the side door (not visible from street), so I can set up right near the door (for light too), do the deed, skin and gut, holding carcass to rinse outside then into cooler of ice which will also be outside the door.  

Since I'm not very strong, and a cooler full of icewater and birds is going to be heavy - I've gotten a cooler on wheels - so I can roll them into the house when finished.  I figure it'll hold three to four birds.  So that's my goal - 4 birds a day for a week.  Whew.  That's gong to be a long week!   But tasty rewards!  This will also help with refrigerator space.  I'm not able to clean out my fridge to cool birds much over a day - and I figure I can fit 4 birds in there with everything else (teenage sons) and won't be too out of foodstuffs.....

Good luck sly!

I think it would be easy to hide what you are doing but I would not wait on gutting the birds after killing - you risk illness for your family with a tainted meat.  It is a pretty quick process of killing, bleeding out, gutting and then skinning or plucking - good luck!. 

I used a large cooler of ice water to cool the birds quickly after plucking or skinning. I also left the soak overnight in the ice water cooler.

I kill mine in the garage, and then do the rest in the house. The only outside work I do is a hosedown to clean off most of the blood and dirt and such.

Here's what I do:

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-process-a-chicken-at-home

All of the scalding, plucking, gutting and bagging is done in the comfort of my kitchen. I like to be comfortable :) I will usually now do up to 12 birds at a time this way, assembly line style - kill 3, process them, kill three more, process, etc. I'm in no rush, so can do 12 in about 2-3 hours if I'm taking my time, though I could go from beginning to end in about 10 minutes or less if I really wanted to (and I rarely do).