➡ Quail Hatch Along🥚

[BReeder!]

quail pluck really easy! probably not much time difference overall than skinning. Hubby and I have a pretty good system....he pulls the head off and dunks then hands off to me for plucking then he guts and I finish cleaning and packaging. we each jump in and help the other as needed.

DW is not exactly about the butchering* process. The helper would speed things up for sure. It takes me a few minutes to pluck a quail. Maybe I am just slow... skinning takes me seconds though.

*Edited to correct "butchering", not "budgeting".

 

[muddy75]

DW is not exactly about the butchering* process. The helper would speed things up for sure. It takes me a few minutes to pluck a quail. Maybe I am just slow... skinning takes me seconds though.

*Edited to correct "butchering", not "budgeting".

I understand....it can take a while to get comfortable with the butchering process especially if didn’t grow up around it or work around blood and guts. (i grew up on a farm, did raptor rehab in high school, worked in vet clinics, am currently a dentist doing lots of surgery, and hunt and fish in addition to my bird addiction)

as far as plucking....it comes with practice and is most successful with correct water temp and dipping time. the skin can rip pretty easily as well so maybe try practicing with a few here and there and skin the rest?? we’ve done it outside in our “butchering area” when we did a few and inside using kitchen sink and pot on the stove. (the little one that dog killed)

 

[RUNuts]

I'm gonna need a higher powered flashlight...

Wanna set some tonight with me?

40 chicken eggs in incubator. Today is day 0. That leaves 2 empty spots. What would Kiki do while sitting at the table looking at possibly fertile quail eggs??? Hmmm.

 

[muddy75]

I'm gonna need a higher powered flashlight...
40 chicken eggs in incubator. Today is day 0. That leaves 2 empty spots. What would Kiki do while sitting at the table looking at possibly fertile quail eggs??? Hmmm.

you may want to stew on that for about 4 days so lockdown and hatch at same time!!

 

[CoturnixComplex]

DW is not exactly about the butchering* process. The helper would speed things up for sure. It takes me a few minutes to pluck a quail. Maybe I am just slow... skinning takes me seconds though.

*Edited to correct "butchering", not "budgeting".

Neither is my partner (though he will do the killing, which I hate!), and unfortunately it still takes me closer to 10 minutes to pluck each @muddy75 I have not found a better method yet, although I've not tried the little commercial pluckers. I'm sure I'll get faster at, it, though, I've only done like 8. When I helped with the huge batch of rabbits I was SO much faster by the end.

Actually, I'm fairly confident it takes me less time to do a rabbit than a quail, by a good stretch :/ One of the several reasons I'm cutting back on my birds a little to make space for more bunnies.

 

[CoturnixComplex]

It's those horrible little bird lungs, they're the worst thing ever and I always add thirty seconds going

 

[BReeder!]

It's those horrible little bird lungs, they're the worst thing ever and I always add thirty seconds going

Haha. I don't have issues with gutting, or any part of the processing. Just plucking takes me so long. I processed 20 quail in an hour from live to vacuum sealed in the freezer. Plucking would have taken an additional 5 minutes per bird plus breaks for sore hands... we are talking about 3 hours instead of 1.

 

[CoturnixComplex]

Haha. I don't have issues with gutting, or any part of the processing. Just plucking takes me so long. I processed 20 quail in an hour from live to vacuum sealed in the freezer. Plucking would have taken an additional 5 minutes per bird plus breaks for sore hands... we are talking about 3 hours instead of 1.

I would NOT be plucking if I had that many to do at once, either!

That said, I am curious to try the little teeny quail-sized tumbling plucker.

 

[dpenning]

I would NOT be plucking if I had that many to do at once, either!

That said, I am curious to try the little teeny quail-sized tumbling plucker.

I must have missed the quail size plucker, is there a link in this thread?

 

[CoturnixComplex]

I must have missed the quail size plucker, is there a link in this thread?

It um does not have great reviews.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CZKOWRY/?tag=backy-20