Chronicles of Raising Meat Birds - Modern Broilers, Heritage and Hybrids

[RUNuts]

Float the wax on water so it doesn't spatter or ignite as you melt it. The bird goes in and the wax sticks. Set aside and cool it. Pull when cool.

 

[BantyChooks]

Um. Kinda. The wax is to pull ALL the down off.

Duck feathers are water proof, so add a dash of dawn degreaser in the scald water. Pull the outer feathers and dip in wax for the down. If you dip in wax before pulling the outer feathers, it pulls the outer feathers and some of the down. I never got it down to where I was happy with it and we didn't scald right. I know so much more now.

After getting the majority of the down off, there are little hairs on the duck skin. All over. Roll the carcass over the lit burner and singe these hairs off. I usually singed the hair off my knuckles while I was at it. Be careful.

I zip tied the legs together and hung the zip tie on a hook. Aart's method is tight and secure too. The rope on a nail and the bird moved more than I liked.

Sharp knives that hold an edge are precious. Still need to hone them after cutting feathers. Even kitchen shears need to be new or sharpened.

I gut on a flat surface. Board on saw horses in the yard works. I bleach the board before butcher. Hasn't killed me yet. Hose everything down at the end. If the flies are too bad (or hornets), inside to the kitchen sink after plucking or skinning.

 

[Morrigan]

I do think the plucking gets easier, the more times you do it. Part of it is experience, but part of it is just setting my expectations that it is going to be a somewhat time-consuming, detailed task, to get all the last little feathers out. Particularly when I've let the CX go to 12-13 weeks, and they are into their juvenile molt.

I also think it helps that DH and I only do 4 to 6 birds at a time, so the task seems more manageable. From set-up to finishing the clean-up, we can knock out 6 birds in about 1 1/2 hours.

 

[jolenesdad]

Quick update!

Day 62 - 9 weeks
The royal red and Robust white average 5.5-6 lbs. both sets of birds have birds that are 80% of the “standard” weight, and those that are up to 100%.

I’m going out at the heat of the day today and closing the pen and any on the inside plus all large roosters that are making noise will go tomorrow morning for processing. Hoping to keep most of the most active birds for the next three weeks, as well as all the Cornish cross.

Will update this week with photos of the carcasses!

The Cornish have integrated into the whole flock. The largest super freak Cornish are almost as big as the smallest Robust white, and they’ve been See but don’t touch from day one anyway.

A whole little posse follows my old-lady hawk-attack-survivor Orpington around. I can’t tell if she is annoyed, because the hawk damaged her eyelid. I sort of hope she is... so she isn’t upset with me when I take them all away.

photos from the week

 

[Newyorkrita]

I just love that free range picture. Such a beautiful setting.

 

[Parront]

Um. Kinda. The wax is to pull ALL the down off.

Duck feathers are water proof, so add a dash of dawn degreaser in the scald water. Pull the outer feathers and dip in wax for the down. If you dip in wax before pulling the outer feathers, it pulls the outer feathers and some of the down. I never got it down to where I was happy with it and we didn't scald right. I know so much more now.

After getting the majority of the down off, there are little hairs on the duck skin. All over. Roll the carcass over the lit burner and singe these hairs off. I usually singed the hair off my knuckles while I was at it. Be careful.

I zip tied the legs together and hung the zip tie on a hook. Aart's method is tight and secure too. The rope on a nail and the bird moved more than I liked.

Sharp knives that hold an edge are precious. Still need to hone them after cutting feathers. Even kitchen shears need to be new or sharpened.

I gut on a flat surface. Board on saw horses in the yard works. I bleach the board before butcher. Hasn't killed me yet. Hose everything down at the end. If the flies are too bad (or hornets), inside to the kitchen sink after plucking or skinning.

I have my best favorite knife and a couple of second best back-up knives. My favorite knife was a hand-me-down from my brother-in-law who worked in a Kansas chicken plant in the 80's. They sharpened them so much that it was ground down too much for the plant, and he brought them home. Best sharp knife I own, I do not grind it -- just sharpen it. I have had it for at least 25 years. Makes a huge difference to have a sharp knife, I do not cut against a board, just cut down while your hold the bird, or cut up through a joint. Keeps the knife sharp longer, and do not cut feathers or bone, it will kill the knife edge!

 

[aart]

just sharpen it.

How?
I have a ceramic sharpener that works well.

 

[Parront]

How?
I have a ceramic sharpener that works well.

That is what I use. The plant used powered grinders for speed. Slow hand sharpening with a stone or a steel or ceramic is not what those guys do!

 

[jolenesdad]

They've started sitting down to rest more in the last week, but they're still fully mobile and even roosting.

Mine did that last time around 6 weeks. Really moving well and then started plopping more. I think it’s sort of unavoidable with the way they grow.

With the Robust white I have, you can see a couple with LOTS of Cornish genetics and they seems to have a slight different body shape and they also have started plopping in the last week as they’ve hit 5-6 pounds.

In the 80's is the last time I raised them, but mine were fine until ~12 weeks, they sat down and would not move. I wanted to keep some, but those were the 10 pounds dressed heavy roasters. They got weak hocks, just could not walk. Large joints, swollen looking. That was the longest I ever kept them. After that 8-10 weeks & done. YUM.

I can’t seem to get Cornish comfortable past 8 pounds. I’m going to try late fall and see how long they are happy growing.

I would get them again, now that I can have chickens again, except that some say they are not hardy at my altitude. So, I am studying up on the Red Broilers.

If you call and talk to one of the broiler hatcheries, Moyer, freedom ranger, etc, they can advise you specifically which strain may be suited for your environment.

Haha! Yep...and 8wo CX just gut easier than older layers, fascia hasn't gotten tough yet.

First few I did took longer, now after a few dozen slaughtered..... kill to chill is ~15 minutes.

Key to plucking is the right temp scald water(I get 140°F out of water heater then up to ~155 on propane burner) and some practice. I have these spring clamps on a board about head height with a garbage can underneath for plucking. Most the feathers just peel right off.
View attachment 1847438

Bookmarking this, that looks perfect.

The guts practically fell out. It was amazing.
Yes, a proper method of securing would've made it much easier. I think they were scalded properly—the plucker we were using was taking all the feathers off. It broke during the last few birds, hence why hand plucking had to be utilized. The wing feathers pulled out easily.

I plan on adding some more equipment over the winter. I've done enough now that I know what types of knives I like and such. A more secure hanging method is on that list; right now (if I use one at all) it's a baling twine loop over a tree branch. Tends to slip.

I do my butchering as a more spur-of-the moment thing, when I have some time that I don't need to be using to do something else, I have a bird I don't want in arm's reach, and the weather happens to be good. Unfortunately, that often means I end up doing it after dusk, which doesn't help me finish the bird any faster. I keep meaning to buy a hose head too so I can run one out to the area I have set up rather than having to haul the water out there in jugs. I don't want to gut them on my counter. I get that a lot of people do... I just don't.


I've tried both; I still suck at plucking on either type.
The feathers were easy to pull... I just must not be pulling enough at a time, because it took forever. <<shrugs>> I'll figure it out eventually.

My 2020 goal is to butcher on my own so I can butcher as needed. I still am probably going to raise too many to do on my own, it is love to be able to grow some longer and butcher some earlier, and I need to cross the hurdle of processing myself to get there!

 

[jolenesdad]

Great day processing. I drove 2.5 hours to the only USDA processor we have available for small producers here in TX. I met some great people, and had a great time. Lots of the customers are regulars that bring a hundred birds a week or so. Great conversation and so much shared learning from folks in my area with advice on our climate and chickens and personal experiences.

I stopped three times to water the chickens that were bedded down in my enclosed horse trailer, and they were calm and content when I arrived. I’m really pleased with that, I didn’t know how they would handle the trip, but if I ever want to expand, I need to be able to get to a usda processor. I think I want to casually explore supplying a restaurant or two with chicken. I’m going to raise again this fall, and then try some feed conversion tracking in the early spring and go from there.

Unfortunately, there’s no way for me to tell apart the birds. :-/ I’d have to pay a larger fee per bird to split them up into separate lots to keep the breeds separate. I found ONE whole bird with a red feather that I know was a royal red. I’m eating that one tonight. Birds were rested this morning so I’m putting most into the freezer NOW and locking the door. No repeats of last time.

I really wanted to do a side by side at the exact same time comparison next time, but, I don’t know if that’s in the cards, and am thinking of doing individual breeds at a time so I can really narrow down taste differences and track expenses so I could expand the operation.

Maybe I’ll find someone to help me process some at home for that comparison experiment....

Great comments on the birds from the inspector and the processor. No condemned birds. Interestingly, the processor commented to me that Red Rangers have ridiculously tough skin, something I’ve read about. She told me they have to stop production to hand pluck feathers on a red ranger most of the time. She said it’s not all red broilers but most that call them freedom rangers. She did say the color yield is suppose to pluck better but no one has brought any in. These royal red plucked just as well as any other bird. Maybe I could identify the birds if I just asked them not to be so detailed and not clean up what the plucker missed.

Average weight of processed whole birds is 3.5-4 pounds. One 5 pound bird, and the rest of the larger ones were parted. I did 10 into backs, boneless breasts, boneless thighs, wings and drumsticks, 5 into halves and 5 into quarters.

Really excited to taste this royal red tonight. I’ll take a carcass photo of it when I unpack it!