week 8. processed birds and made video

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trunkman

trunkman

Songster
10 Years
Dec 26, 2009
1,076
14
163
Rock Hill SC
This was my first time processing meat birds, I had processed extra roosters I had in the past but with a bit of difficulty, this time things went smoothly and I averaged about 15 minutes per bird from start to finish. The plucker I made all the difference in the world, it only took about three minutes to pluck each bird.
Anyway I made a video and posted it on You Tube of the whole process. I had to put it in a two part series due to its length so they are labeled part 1 and 2, they last about 14 minutes total. If you are interested in viewing the videos here is the you tube video address for part 1
and for part 2
. If you can't just click on the addresses just highlight one and click control c, click on the your web address bar and type control v and the address will pop up in the address section and hit enter.
By the way at 8 weeks my cornish rocks dresses out from 4 lbs 6 oz. to 5 lbs. 10 oz. I also apologize for not doing an explanation of each step on the video, I'm a bit camera shy.
 
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VERY good video! I appreciate the fact you showed the WHOLE thing from beginning to end. Most butchering videos show them cutting the throat and then they fade out and come back in when the chicken is dead. I always wondered what happened after the slice to death. Now I know what to expect. Thank You SO much for sharing!
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You're welcome GG, the killing is the hardest part to do, it still bothers me but it's something that has to be done if we want to eat. I figure most people buy chicken out of a grocery case and never think that what they were buying once had a life. At least I know mine had a good life and had access to the sunshine, dirt, bugs and fresh food and water.
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We have egg hens and a few roos for well you know keeping the line going. Well we have one too who just grew way to big. Sweetest thing in the world unless your a hen and then he is to rough. This will help as we are planning on haveing Tony for bbq
 
trunkman said:
You're welcome GG, the killing is the hardest part to do, it still bothers me but it's something that has to be done if we want to eat. I figure most people buy chicken out of a grocery case and never think that what they were buying once had a life. At least I know mine had a good life and had access to the sunshine, dirt, bugs and fresh food and water.
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I agree, it is the best way. My first food kill is probably going to be my 1 year old rooster. He attacked me for the second time a couple of days ago. His crowing is also driving my husband crazy. So I think the crock pot is probably the best thing for all involved. I am not sure yet how I am going to get the courage, he has been my favorite since day 1. I also have 6 chicks growing up and I believe 3 of them are roosters so they will need to be processed as well. Sometimes having chickens is not as much fun as I had intended!
 
Glad you posted it all. I just watched part one. Didn't realize it took them so long to die. I'd planned on getting meat birds and thought I could do it. I guess I'm not strong enough yet, which is really stupid of me because I'm just going to buy them in the store knowing they lived terrible lives and then died. At least if I raised them I'd know they have a good life before they died. I hate that I'm so selfish that I can know how bad they live because I'm too much of a pansy to do what needs to be done for me to eat one. *sigh* I sure wish there was a way to kill them instantly. I know the only humane way for me to eat chicken is to raise it myself and process them myself. Not happy with my weakness right now!! But I'm so glad there are people out there as strong as you all are that can!
 
What is that you used to pluck them? The plucking part is what makes me want to pay a processor. That is a pretty cool tool on the drill.

How come you didn't cut the head clear off? When we have culled we have found that they generally die quicker if the spinal cord is severed. Just wondering if you ever get it off faster than that or if you always have to kinda saw at it.
 
I had just sharpened the knife, The chicken was large and I had a hard time feeling whether I had cut it properly, turned out I had over cut and almost severed the head , I am not that good at it yet, I need a bit more practice. Why I didn't cut the head off, well I read on this forum that it is better to just cut the artery rather than decapitate because it doesn't bleed out fully. I'm still learning.
I made the plucker, found a video on how to make one. I found that it takes about 3 minutes with a plucker rather than about 20 minutes by hand with 2 people plucking. I'll never do it without a plucker again.
 
Trunkman, I so hear you on the plucking. I am getting a drill plucker before my next butcher date because the two I did on Sunday had so many pin feathers that I finally just skinned them rather than try to pluck each one with a pair of tweezers. I don't know if have a power plucker would have helped, but having watched your video I am eager to try it.
 

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