Ramblings of a newbie starting a self-sustaining meat bird flock…

Do you know of any videos or pictures or anything that show this way of skinning? I found some black and white drawings showing the direction to make cuts but not really much other than that where I can actually see what they’re doing. Right now I skin on a table, starting at the neck, but I’d love to be able to figure out how to hang them and start from the legs…
Check out the Sticky
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/meat-section-sticky-topic-index.248648/

I looked at all the links and learned a lot. I bought the classic butchering book everyone recommends, and it had a line diagram with dotted lines on where to cut. So I was like, okay, guess I have to just do some and figure it out as I go. I've done 21 CX at 5-9 wks and one year old production red rooster. So I'm not super experienced, but I skinned at least half the CX and the old rooster, and they have been delicious!

I tie wire around a tree with a bit of give. (After wrapping tree with cut open large lawn garbage bag). Once birds are dispatched and drained (or they can drain on the tree), I secure wire to their feet, and make a sort of bent hook in the middle so it will hook over the wire I've got tied around the tree (looks like an M with the feet at the outer bottom ends of the M). The wire you use should be stiff enough it will hold the bird, but still easy enough to bend, but will hold its shape once bent. Chain link fence tiedown wire is a good example.

The birds rest back towards the tree, breast facing me. I wash the area around the vent (ETA: and the legs of the bird below the wire, but not the feet) with dish soap (may not be needed if your bird has been starved for 12 hrs prior to processing, and does not have a messy rear), and spray the soap off and spray down the feathers to keep down the dust (optional). Get really sharp knives/razor blade knives. Trim the line around the leg joint where the scales turn into skin. May have to go slightly below the joint so you can get purchase on the skin, and worry about the small feathered area just around the joint later. Cut entirely around each leg, just into the skin. There will be connective tissue, don't cut through that, your knife will stop there anyway.

Make a slice down the outside of each leg a few inches 2-4" or so. Grab the edges of the skin at the T intersection of your cuts and pull apart on each side of the bird. Separate the skin from the meat across the breast with your hand, then cut the skin from one side to the other across the breast so you can pull that skin up and between the legs towards the back. Take a minute, go loosen the skin on the back sides, and across the back. Work the skin towards the vent from the breast, loosen the skin around the legs/back join, and work it towards the vent also. Cut the skin across the back from one side to the other a few inches below the tail after you've loosened it as much as you can. Pull all that skin towards the vent and tail as much as you can without removing vent and tail. Pull or trim any annoying feathers, then trim the skin smaller as much as you like to get it out of your way.

Go back to the skin on the breast and pull that down until you get past the first joint of the wings. You can pull the back skin down as well, kind of like removing a glove at this point. Pull the skin down the neck and first part of the wing as much as you can, when it gets so tight you can't pull it anymore, cut the skin at the body/wing joint to loosen it up. Leave a few inches of skin on either side of the cut to grab.

Pull the skin towards the wing on one side of the bird until it stops at the pin feathers. Using your really sharp knife, slice the pinfeathers off the wing bone, and don't cut yourself. You may remove some wing meat when you do this - the slice/cut is right up on the bone and along the length of the bone. Cut the joint between the wing tip and wing to remove and discard the wingtip - it will stay with the skin.

Do the same stuff with the other wing. Loosen the back again if necessary.

Finish pulling the skin off the neck and down towards the head. When you reach the neck /head joint, remove the head by cutting through the neck. The head will stay with the skin. Place the skin in your discard bucket - you are finished removing it.

Spray down the bird throughout the process when you feel it's needful - to remove feathers, blood (there won't be much), etc. Or just spray well at the end to remove any stray feathers. Unless you've cleaned the feet with soap, water, and a brush very well before hanging up the bird, don't get those wet, so the dirt and poo in the feet will not drip on your carcass.

I remove the carcass from the tree at this point, put it on a table, cut off the feet, and then start separating the crop and esophagus from the neck. Move bird, spray down table, and carcass, and wash hands as needed after removing feet.

After the crop and esophagus are removed, I gut the chicken. It lies on its back. I slit open the abdomen, remove the entrails, save anything I'd like to (heart, gizzard, kidneys), then cut into the carcass around the tail and around the vent at the same time to remove the tail and the vent while it's still attached to the entrails. This way I don't puncture the entrails.

I spray it off good after all that, and then start parting out the chicken. Hope this helps. There's a few members on here that skin, but I was never able to find a video. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough. I found a fair bit of info on gamebirds, and skinning them, and just adapted that.
 
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One more thought - I tried skinning on a table, I even tied the feet to one end of the table, so I had something to pull against when removing the skin from the feet towards the head of the bird, but I found it super hard. The carcass just wouldn't stay in place well and I felt like I needed 4 hands. So much easier and quicker on a tree! I can pull as hard as I need to and the bird isn't going anywhere. I liked being able to keep the skin away from the carcass as I was removing it on the tree.
 
Check out the Sticky
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/meat-section-sticky-topic-index.248648/

I looked at all the links and learned a lot. I bought the classic butchering book everyone recommends, and it had a line diagram with dotted lines on where to cut. So I was like, okay, guess I have to just do some and figure it out as I go. I've done 21 CX at 5-9 wks and one year old production red rooster. So I'm not super experienced, but I skinned at least half the CX and the old rooster, and they have been delicious!

I tie wire around a tree with a bit of give. (After wrapping tree with cut open large lawn garbage bag). Once birds are dispatched and drained (or they can drain on the tree), I secure wire to their feet, and make a sort of bent hook in the middle so it will hook over the wire I've got tied around the tree (looks like an M with the feet at the outer bottom ends of the M). The wire you use should be stiff enough it will hold the bird, but still easy enough to bend, but will hold its shape once bent. Chain link fence tiedown wire is a good example.

The birds rest back towards the tree, breast facing me. I wash the area around the vent (ETA: and the legs of the bird below the wire, but not the feet) with dish soap (may not be needed if your bird has been starved for 12 hrs prior to processing, and does not have a messy rear), and spray the soap off and spray down the feathers to keep down the dust (optional). Get really sharp knives/razor blade knives. Trim the line around the leg joint where the scales turn into skin. May have to go slightly below the joint so you can get purchase on the skin, and worry about the small feathered area just around the joint later. Cut entirely around each leg, just into the skin. There will be connective tissue, don't cut through that, your knife will stop there anyway.

Make a slice down the outside of each leg a few inches 2-4" or so. Grab the edges of the skin at the T intersection of your cuts and pull apart on each side of the bird. Separate the skin from the meat across the breast with your hand, then cut the skin from one side to the other across the breast so you can pull that skin up and between the legs towards the back. Take a minute, go loosen the skin on the back sides, and across the back. Work the skin towards the vent from the breast, loosen the skin around the legs/back join, and work it towards the vent also. Cut the skin across the back from one side to the other a few inches below the tail after you've loosened it as much as you can. Pull all that skin towards the vent and tail as much as you can without removing vent and tail. Pull or trim any annoying feathers, then trim the skin smaller as much as you like to get it out of your way.

Go back to the skin on the breast and pull that down until you get past the first joint of the wings. You can pull the back skin down as well, kind of like removing a glove at this point. Pull the skin down the neck and first part of the wing as much as you can, when it gets so tight you can't pull it anymore, cut the skin at the body/wing joint to loosen it up. Leave a few inches of skin on either side of the cut to grab.

Pull the skin towards the wing on one side of the bird until it stops at the pin feathers. Using your really sharp knife, slice the pinfeathers off the wing bone, and don't cut yourself. You may remove some wing meat when you do this - the slice/cut is right up on the bone and along the length of the bone. Cut the joint between the wing tip and wing to remove and discard the wingtip - it will stay with the skin.

Do the same stuff with the other wing. Loosen the back again if necessary.

Finish pulling the skin off the neck and down towards the head. When you reach the neck /head joint, remove the head by cutting through the neck. The head will stay with the skin. Place the skin in your discard bucket - you are finished removing it.

Spray down the bird throughout the process when you feel it's needful - to remove feathers, blood (there won't be much), etc. Or just spray well at the end to remove any stray feathers. Unless you've cleaned the feet with soap, water, and a brush very well before hanging up the bird, don't get those wet, so the dirt and poo in the feet will not drip on your carcass.

I remove the carcass from the tree at this point, put it on a table, cut off the feet, and then start separating the crop and esophagus from the neck. Move bird, spray down table, and carcass, and wash hands as needed after removing feet.

After the crop and esophagus are removed, I gut the chicken. It lies on its back. I slit open the abdomen, remove the entrails, save anything I'd like to (heart, gizzard, kidneys), then cut into the carcass around the tail and around the vent at the same time to remove the tail and the vent while it's still attached to the entrails. This way I don't puncture the entrails.

I spray it off good after all that, and then start parting out the chicken. Hope this helps. There's a few members on here that skin, but I was never able to find a video. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough. I found a fair bit of info on gamebirds, and skinning them, and just adapted that.
Thanks so much! This helps a ton!
 
Weighed all the meat birds tonight before processing the last nine tomorrow…

15 weeks old on Monday…males range between 9.9 to 11.7 pounds live weight; females range 7.4 to 8.6 pounds. I thought about giving the females a few more weeks, but since only three of them are going to be processed, and the rest kept for breeding, I’m going to go ahead and just process them since I don’t foresee having much time in the next 5 weeks. They’ll make a nice extra to cook sunshine one of the bigger ones if I need a chicken while we have company.

Also came to the conclusion daughter mis-typed a weight last week — we had one listed as 3.3 lbs last week, but that has to have been a mis-type of 6.3, since all the females were basically the same size this week.
 
Weighed all the meat birds tonight before processing the last nine tomorrow…

15 weeks old on Monday…males range between 9.9 to 11.7 pounds live weight; females range 7.4 to 8.6 pounds. I thought about giving the females a few more weeks, but since only three of them are going to be processed, and the rest kept for breeding, I’m going to go ahead and just process them since I don’t foresee having much time in the next 5 weeks. They’ll make a nice extra to cook sunshine one of the bigger ones if I need a chicken while we have company.

Also came to the conclusion daughter mis-typed a weight last week — we had one listed as 3.3 lbs last week, but that has to have been a mis-type of 6.3, since all the females were basically the same size this week.
I'm growing out Murray McMurray's Ginger Broilers right now, but those Freedom Ranger Hatchery New Hampshires are looking better and better as an option I can keep on hand and hatch more myself as needed. I want to keep doing CX, but husband objects because "Frankenchicken". Remains to be seen if I insist on CX, or choose a slightly slower growing broiler that can handle the intense Alabama summer heat and humidity so I can incubate myself and grow them out year round.

Keep it coming, loving the updates!!!
 
Weighed all the meat birds tonight before processing the last nine tomorrow…

15 weeks old on Monday…males range between 9.9 to 11.7 pounds live weight; females range 7.4 to 8.6 pounds. I thought about giving the females a few more weeks, but since only three of them are going to be processed, and the rest kept for breeding, I’m going to go ahead and just process them since I don’t foresee having much time in the next 5 weeks. They’ll make a nice extra to cook sunshine one of the bigger ones if I need a chicken while we have company.

Also came to the conclusion daughter mis-typed a weight last week — we had one listed as 3.3 lbs last week, but that has to have been a mis-type of 6.3, since all the females were basically the same size this week.
These New Hampshires sound great!!! Thanks for all the updates. I hope one day to have a dual purpose flock like yours. That's got to be such a great feeling to have meat and eggs all coming from one flock that's replenishing itself. For now, I have a layer flock and do meat birds (CX for now but hopefully Red Rangers in the future) a couple times a year, but my ultimate goal would be something like what you're doing. Great work 👍
 
Weighed all the meat birds tonight before processing the last nine tomorrow…

15 weeks old on Monday…males range between 9.9 to 11.7 pounds live weight; females range 7.4 to 8.6 pounds. I thought about giving the females a few more weeks, but since only three of them are going to be processed, and the rest kept for breeding, I’m going to go ahead and just process them since I don’t foresee having much time in the next 5 weeks. They’ll make a nice extra to cook sunshine one of the bigger ones if I need a chicken while we have company.

Also came to the conclusion daughter mis-typed a weight last week — we had one listed as 3.3 lbs last week, but that has to have been a mis-type of 6.3, since all the females were basically the same size this week
I may have missed it earlier in the thread, but when did your hens start laying? And how long until after that did you wait to incubate?
 
7 birds processed today — processed weights of 4.3 to 6.5, with processed weights being 55-60% of live weight. Had planned to do 9 but weather caused issues, so two hens got a pass. May process them later, may let them become layers. May just wait until point of lay to process the last two to try to start selecting for earlier laying if possible.
 
I may have missed it earlier in the thread, but when did your hens start laying? And how long until after that did you wait to incubate?
They were every bit of six or seven months before they started laying. Let me check and see if I made note of when they started. It was a couple months before we incubated, not because of waiting for eggs to stabilize or anything, but simply because we had layer eggs in the incubator before that and I didn’t have an easy way to put the hens with the rooster before then.
 

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