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

[Ridgerunner]

Been processing a few birds a day from my batch of CX. Today I ran out of males and started processing females. the males were taking me 6 to 7 minutes to skin and process, the first female (never processed any female of any breed or hybrid) took me 4 minutes and 30 seconds.

That is interesting, I did not expect that with CX. What age were they? How do you handle the wings, is that what mostly slows you down more with the boys?

I raise dual purpose, eat both males and females, and skin them. The difference between boys and girls is clear but I thought that was more due to the age I butcher them. At 8 months the girls are still faster than the 5 month old boys. I didn't expect to see that much difference in sex in the 6 to 8 week old CX,

 

[Compost King]

That is interesting, I did not expect that with CX. What age were they? How do you handle the wings, is that what mostly slows you down more with the boys?

I raise dual purpose, eat both males and females, and skin them. The difference between boys and girls is clear but I thought that was more due to the age I butcher them. At 8 months the girls are still faster than the 5 month old boys. I didn't expect to see that much difference in sex in the 6 to 8 week old CX,

The birds I have processed in this batch.. the males I started processing late week 5 pretty close to week 6 and I processed them until week 8 halfway through. The First female was the last one I did halfway through week 8.

The males had their skins attach to the joints... the skinny end on the Drum stuck stick and the Drummettes (wings). I was needing to use a filet knife to remove skin and feathers. ate week 5 and a half this was not problem but it slowly got worse with time. Not impossible to deal with tough just slowing me down a bit tough. Then I started in on the females and it slid off like peeling a banana.

The wings I cut off at the drumette... meaning I keep the shoulder (drumette) and cut off that double bone portion. The Double Bone portion (at least on males) doesn't skin very well and even after I skin it some feathers still remain particularly the flight feathers and usually the ones that are halfway between being pin feathers and flight feathers. I could salvage them and pluck them if I liked Chicken wings enough or if if food got scarce but right now time is more scarce than food. Its not that tough to skin a Male CX even as they approach week 10 but the females are so much easier. Easier to the point that I prefer having females even with the slightly worse FCR. I am not even certain that Females have a slightly worse FCR because I never did the study. I am not a business with tiny profit margin so easier work is prioritized over spending on feed unless the spending difference is significantly noticeable.

 

[Torinik]

The wings I cut off at the drumette... meaning I keep the shoulder (drumette) and cut off that double bone portion. The Double Bone portion (at least on males) doesn't skin very well and even after I skin it some feathers still remain particularly the flight feathers and usually the ones that are halfway between being pin feathers and flight feathers.

I cut alongside that double bone portion on both sides, with a bit of practice everything comes off easy and clean. Maybe not an option for you for that small amount of meat because you process very fast. I only do one bird at a time when I want to eat one, as they grow up and I'm deciding which ones can stay for breeding. I have also noticed a marked difference in skinning a male vs. a female.

Reread my first sentence and it might be confusing. Cutting on both sides means on both sides of that one bone where those tough feathers are. The other side comes off easy. If you tear the skin that side comes off while the other side with the tough flight feathers won't. You want to make the cuts first, before you peel or tear the skin. After the cuts you break and tear the flight feathers off in one go, and then you pull off the rest of the skin on that wing.

Edit: and the inside cut being bigger than the outside cut. It comes off fine with only the inside cut but it's a lot cleaner if you also give the outside a slice.

 

[Compost King]

I cut alongside that double bone portion on both sides, with a bit of practice everything comes off easy and clean. Maybe not an option for you for that small amount of meat because you process very fast. I only do one bird at a time when I want to eat one, as they grow up and I'm deciding which ones can stay for breeding. I have also noticed a marked difference in skinning a male vs. a female.

Reread my first sentence and it might be confusing. Cutting on both sides means on both sides of that one bone where those tough feathers are. The other side comes off easy. If you tear the skin that side comes off while the other side with the tough flight feathers won't. You want to make the cuts first, before you peel or tear the skin. After the cuts you break and tear the flight feathers off in one go, and then you pull off the rest of the skin on that wing.

Edit: and the inside cut being bigger than the outside cut. It comes off fine with only the inside cut but it's a lot cleaner if you also give the outside a slice.

I am going to consider doing that in the future. I too also do one bird at a time. Even when I do 3 birds a day I do a full a clean up and tend to other tasks before I grab another bird. Yesterday I did 3 birds processed parted out and cleaned up in about 20 minutes total. I can't sit there and keep doing bird after bird after bird. I would quit. I am the same way with all my tasks, I do them until I get bored and start another task.

 

[Compost King]

anyone ever process a bird and while washing down whole bird have the breast meat go into a muscle spasm? It freaked me out a bit, it had no organs no head, just meat and bones and then the muscles started moving.

 

[Parront]

anyone ever process a bird and while washing down whole bird have the breast meat go into a muscle spasm? It freaked me out a bit, it had no organs no head, just meat and bones and then the muscles started moving.

In High School Biology class the frogs would do that, too. Some girls scream when the legs kick on their own. We put a little 9v. battery power, and made them kick some more. Kids are gross sometimes!

 

[Molpet]

anyone ever process a bird and while washing down whole bird have the breast meat go into a muscle spasm? It freaked me out a bit, it had no organs no head, just meat and bones and then the muscles started moving.

Muscles contact with the cooler water.
Snapping turtles chunks do it in the pan from the heat.

 

[Kusanar]

anyone ever process a bird and while washing down whole bird have the breast meat go into a muscle spasm? It freaked me out a bit, it had no organs no head, just meat and bones and then the muscles started moving.

If you get one that is doing it, it will probably do it more if you put salt on it. You can make frogs legs (no frog attached, just legs and butt) freak out like that if you sprinkle salt or soy sauce on them.

 

[Kusanar]

With all of the discussion on wing tips and flats being hard to skin because you would also have to pluck them, I wonder if the feathers would cause any issues with making stock. Just snip those ends off like normal, then take that chunk of wing with it's skin and any feather shafts that don't want to come out and make stock with them, if you are straining everything out later I would assume the only issue would be any dirt on the feathers but you could kind of shave the wings maybe or use scissors to remove the main chunk of the feather that would be dirty.

Just a thought.

 

[Parront]

With all of the discussion on wing tips and flats being hard to skin because you would also have to pluck them, I wonder if the feathers would cause any issues with making stock. Just snip those ends off like normal, then take that chunk of wing with it's skin and any feather shafts that don't want to come out and make stock with them, if you are straining everything out later I would assume the only issue would be any dirt on the feathers but you could kind of shave the wings maybe or use scissors to remove the main chunk of the feather that would be dirty.

Just a thought.

Pin feathers do not cause a problem with the stock, in my book.