Butchering multiple birds without help - need some suggestions.

[aart]

LOL, yes..... humans plan, the gods laugh! My Dad would have called it A Murphy's Law.

I keep my hot water tank at about 140 and I fill the pot from the tap not 6 feet from the tank....so I have a pretty good head start.
Right now am borrowing a propane burner from a friend that's not the greatest for flame control, it's a jet burner instead of the manifold type.
Eventually I will get a better burner and be able to calculate and minimize the amount of fuel used.
I still have a lot to learn on the harvest side of keeping chickens...will get a lot of experience this spring/summer and try both skinning and plucking.
Will need to refresh my skinning research before attempting it again.

My first harvest was a year old cockerel, was going to skin him and try to preserve the pelt, but I was unaware that he was full of lice (sharp uptick on that learning curve) so I partially skinned him and harvested the legs, breasts and upper wings...didn't even gut him. Luckily I had seen a video on doing this type of harvest, so was able to execute it 'on the fly'. It was hard to get the skin off, but not a full effort really...I was little shell shocked on a couple fronts. That bird made great slow cooker Rooster-N-Noodles and I was very proud of myself.

The second was a 4 month old cockerel, I scalded, plucked, gutted, parted it out and cooked him on the grill, he was delicious. I used the grilled bones, neck and the scalded/skinned feet to pressure cook a fantastic stock, which was also delicious. He didn't have pin feathers but was dark feathered and the follicles were a bit disconcerting until I realized what they were, and laborious to clean.

I spent quite a bit of time inspecting the innards of the second bird, a little anatomy lesson that maybe only the insatiably curious like myself can appreciate......have since identified testes in grocery chickens(haha)...and am looking forward to inspecting a hens innards. I'm sure I'll find a few eggs of varying development as I have five 3 year olds who are going to transition from egg to meat production....another aspect in the learning curve, deciding the when of that transition. My economic plan doesn't not allow feeding a bird that only lays 1-2 eggs a week....it will take several more years to finesse out that schedule.

 

[lazy gardener]

I do all of the processing myself, but my hubby does wield the axe, man's the hose, and keeps the hot water coming. I'm super thankful for that. BUT, I want to arrive at the point so that I can do it all 100% without his help, simply because he finds it so objectionable. The key need for me is to have a knife that is up to the task. My knife selection is pathetic, even when freshly sharpened. My preference is to have the next bird bleeding out while I work on processing the first one. I'm most comfortable working on 2 - 3 at a time, but it takes me much longer than it should. We've recently cleared some land, so that the spot out back where we process is now visible from 2 neighbors yards, as well as the road from both directions. So, I'll be stringing up some tarps for privacy next time.

 

[dfr1973]

The key need for me is to have a knife that is up to the task.

Massively important! This is also an area where I identified a lack ... and then I have discovered just how difficult it can be to find a good quality knife that will hold an edge for more than just one chicken.

I hate needing more than just one knife out there, and so far my best knife is some inexpensive butcher knife from a Fingerhut set purchase more than 20 years ago. At least, at the present time, I have found scalpel blades that will cut the jugular quickly and almost-painlessly. My goal is a knife that is good enough the bird never feels the cut, then goes through meat and skin like a hot knife through butter. I guess I can always dream.

According to hubby, who is my extra set of hands and go-fer, I am getting faster on skinning the chickens. Some birds just have better skin and membrane integrity than others, so it isn't always quicker to skin than pluck.

Getting as much prepared the day before will help a lot. I am certain there is a Murphy's Law that says your phone will ring while you have your hand in the body cavity to fish out the last of lung (yes, BTDT) or that the time you are doing it all alone - because hubby ran into town for stuff to repair the well pump - will be the time you totally forget to bring out something really important, like the giblets container with ice (melting on the counter, of course). I am certain that list will only grow as I get more experience through to coming years.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Add a set of poultry shears to your equipment. Use those around bone as much as possible to save a knife edge.

 

[aart]

I used one of those old style utility knives, the kind that come apart with a screw so it can be thoroughly washed, with a brand new blade.
Might need 2 set up and ready to go with multiple birds.
Did final rinse and parting out in the kitchen with the big knife I use to part out grocery chickens.
Could use a good pair of poultry shears tho.

 

[lazy gardener]

so far my best knife is some inexpensive butcher knife from a Fingerhut set purchase more than 20 years ago. My goal is a knife that is good enough the bird never feels the cut, then goes through meat and skin like a hot knife through butter. I guess I can always dream.

Does Fingerhut still exist? I bought my first "home set up" supplies from Fingerhut over 40 years ago!

I used one of those old style utility knives, the kind that come apart with a screw so it can be thoroughly washed, with a brand new blade.
Might need 2 set up and ready to go with multiple birds.
Did final rinse and parting out in the kitchen with the big knife I use to part out grocery chickens.
Could use a good pair of poultry shears tho.

I suggested that idea to hubby (the utility knife) and he gave me "plenty-9 reasons" why I shouldn't use one of those. I am now vindicated. Thank you!!!!

 

[dfr1973]

Does Fingerhut still exist? I bought my first "home set up" supplies from Fingerhut over 40 years ago!

Dunno - I bought a set of cast iron that I still use, and the set of knives, which I still have the butcher knife because it still works great. That was in 1992 ... both cast iron and knives are older than my son.

 

[aart]

Just as a follow up, I butchered 2 old hens today...it went pretty smooth.
Did each bird all the way from kill to chill separately.

Biggest impression 'Holy GOBS of Fat Batman'!!!!
Only birds I've butchered prior were 2 cockerels.
Big old dark brahma mix was just loaded with it, smaller wyandotte mix not so much but she was still laying(wondering if that uses up some fat stores.
Wish I was a good old country cook with lots of people to feed, that rendered fat would be wonderful......
.....alas I am not, so something out in the woods can gorge on it.

Only took about 20-30 minutes each from kill to chill but geezuz the cleanup seemed to take forever...because of that the more you can do at once the better.
But I am still streamlining my process, learned a few things today that should shorten cleanup next time. Scheduled to do 3 cockerels Sunday.

 

[rydlmassey]

I recently started raising and processing my own Cornish cross birds, yesterday I processed 5 all alone and I basically did the whole process the way you described. I had my boys separate the condemned to a smaller pen so I wouldn't have to chase them around and so that they would be mostly empty of food in their craws, then I would go grab the lucky rooster and hang him upside down on my line I made, cut him and wait a few minutes for him to bleed out then take him off the line scald him, put him back on the line and pluck him, rinse and gut and rinse again. I would take each bird into the house and chill it for a bit in cold water then refrigerate for a few hours before freezing them. I started about 730a and between breaks and chasing my ducklings, I finally stopped about noon to clean up and bury the remains of the birds. It worked out fairly well for me. I still have 4 more roosters to process and will probably do those this wknd. Good luck

 

[aart]

I recently started raising and processing my own Cornish cross birds, yesterday I processed 5 all alone and I basically did the whole process the way you described. I had my boys separate the condemned to a smaller pen so I wouldn't have to chase them around and so that they would be mostly empty of food in their craws, then I would go grab the lucky rooster and hang him upside down on my line I made, cut him and wait a few minutes for him to bleed out then take him off the line scald him, put him back on the line and pluck him, rinse and gut and rinse again. I would take each bird into the house and chill it for a bit in cold water then refrigerate for a few hours before freezing them. I started about 730a and between breaks and chasing my ducklings, I finally stopped about noon to clean up and bury the remains of the birds. It worked out fairly well for me. I still have 4 more roosters to process and will probably do those this wknd. Good luck

Great!
One thing you should do a bit differently is let the carcasses set in the fridge for at least 48-72 hours before freezing.
This allows rigor mortis to pass and the meat will be more tender.

Oh, and another thing I found, is that if you feed them a bit of scratch grains an hour before butchering the full crop is much easier to detach from the surrounding tissue. I did an experiment, 3 cockerels...1 got nothing, 1 got crumble, 1 got grain.....the grain one was much easier.