- Jun 10, 2014
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My process is basically this (once i've decided I have a bunch of birds that are ready)
1. I go into the coop around 8pm (or whenever they're roosting for the night) and catch the birds I want. They go into portable dog/cat kennels.
2. They spend the night in the garage in their kennels, with a waterer. No food.
3. When I get off work the next day (5pmish), I fill up my 32qt stock pot and start it heating on the propane burner.
4. I get my knives, gloves, 5g bucket of cold water, and everything else together.
5, When the water gets to about 130 (I scald at 140), I remove a bird from it's kennel, and put it in the cone. I use a cone made of aluminum flashing that fits on a T-Post, and put a bucket underneath.
6. I sever the bird's jugular/carotid, and let it bleed out. It's typically fast (if you're not getting a lot of blood, you need to cut deeper).They will twitch and flop a bit when they die - this is true of pretty much every method. You get maybe 5 seconds of convulsing.
7. I put the bird in the bucket of cold water.
I typically do 3 birds in a row - it's about what can fit in a 5g bucket, and it's about what I can handle at a time, where they're not sitting warm for too long.
8. Usually the water is up around 145 now, so I turn the burner down, and hold the first bird by it's feet, and dunk and swish for 15 seconds or so.
9. Pluck - the feathers should come out pretty easily - if theyre tough to pull, either the bird wasn't in the water long enough, or the water wasn't hot enough. If the skin is tearing on you, usually the water was too hot/too long, and the skin is cooked.
10. Gut the bird - there are plenty of youtube videos/books on this - better than I can describe. Once you get past this point, it's basically like dealing with a supermarket chicken.
The most important thing here - if it's your first time - fast the birds for atleast 12-18 hours. Having to deal with a bird with a full digestive tract isn't a lot of fun.
1. I go into the coop around 8pm (or whenever they're roosting for the night) and catch the birds I want. They go into portable dog/cat kennels.
2. They spend the night in the garage in their kennels, with a waterer. No food.
3. When I get off work the next day (5pmish), I fill up my 32qt stock pot and start it heating on the propane burner.
4. I get my knives, gloves, 5g bucket of cold water, and everything else together.
5, When the water gets to about 130 (I scald at 140), I remove a bird from it's kennel, and put it in the cone. I use a cone made of aluminum flashing that fits on a T-Post, and put a bucket underneath.
6. I sever the bird's jugular/carotid, and let it bleed out. It's typically fast (if you're not getting a lot of blood, you need to cut deeper).They will twitch and flop a bit when they die - this is true of pretty much every method. You get maybe 5 seconds of convulsing.
7. I put the bird in the bucket of cold water.
I typically do 3 birds in a row - it's about what can fit in a 5g bucket, and it's about what I can handle at a time, where they're not sitting warm for too long.
8. Usually the water is up around 145 now, so I turn the burner down, and hold the first bird by it's feet, and dunk and swish for 15 seconds or so.
9. Pluck - the feathers should come out pretty easily - if theyre tough to pull, either the bird wasn't in the water long enough, or the water wasn't hot enough. If the skin is tearing on you, usually the water was too hot/too long, and the skin is cooked.
10. Gut the bird - there are plenty of youtube videos/books on this - better than I can describe. Once you get past this point, it's basically like dealing with a supermarket chicken.
The most important thing here - if it's your first time - fast the birds for atleast 12-18 hours. Having to deal with a bird with a full digestive tract isn't a lot of fun.
Isn't strange to think that we "want" to kill birds? I mean.. to have our own meat birds and process them ourselves, thinking that all the rest of our life we wanted to save animals!
