100 Broilers and Fermented Feed Project

[aoxa]

Did you mention if they are straight run or not? I like straight run. Process the boys at week 9 and the girls at week 11. Gives you a break between processing.. 100 is going to be crazy!! How many hands do you have helping? The first time took us 5 hours to do 25 birds and that includes clean up... We had 3 people and the plucker is not like you see in videos. We had some issues though. The power went out (blew a fuse), the scalding temp was hard to keep right, and we let a few birds sit for 15 minutes before scalding and it wasn't easy to pluck after that.

Once you get a system it isn't so bad. Susan and I alone just did 25 in 4 hours (with clean up). Still seems like we should make better time. I'd like to see 10 in an hour.

What would be awesome is a real processing station... I think I'd love to invest in a scalder some day...

Also that time includes catching, caging and driving the birds up to the house.

 

[aoxa]

I wanted to mention the cons (for me) as far as using the shavings.

This may sound picky but for me every second and every minute that I waste doing something else (that can be avoided), has an impact on the chores with my animals because those seconds and minutes add up. I say that to say that now I am having to take the waterers out of the brooders and get the shavings out of there. There are so many shavings in there and I don't want the shavings to be in the way of them drinking, that I have to clean it out twice a day. In a normal situation, I would simply walk outside the garage door and empty the water out. BUT since there are shavings in the water, I can't dump the water filled with shavings in the yard because shavings (littered yard) will be everywhere. So, I a bucket that I carry back and forth to both brooders and I tilt the waterer over so that I can pour the water in the base part out or swipe my fingers around the base, multiple times, to remove the shavings. This takes time because I have 4 gallon waterers total in all of the brooders. Same thing for the FF. Before I was using the shavings, I was scraping out any uneaten FF and giving to the animals in the chicken yard. Now, I can't do that. There are shavings in the FF and I'm afraid to feed this to my other animals because I know they will eat the shavings. Not sure what eaten shavings would do to them but I don't want to find out.

So, that's another thing that I will add to the PRO/CON list of raising my broilers at the end of this project.

Learning process.

You should lift the waters up on blocks of wood. Don't set them right on the shavings.

Also, you could bring a bucket and empty the rims of the waterers out in the bucket and dump the bucket in the compost later on.

I would go for the lifting of the water. A few flakes still get in, but nothing big.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Did you mention if they are straight run or not? I like straight run. Process the boys at week 9 and the girls at week 11. Gives you a break between processing.. 100 is going to be crazy!! How many hands do you have helping? The first time took us 5 hours to do 25 birds and that includes clean up... We had 3 people and the plucker is not like you see in videos. We had some issues though. The power went out (blew a fuse), the scalding temp was hard to keep right, and we let a few birds sit for 15 minutes before scalding and it wasn't easy to pluck after that. 

Once you get a system it isn't so bad. Susan and I alone just did 25 in 4 hours (with clean up). Still seems like we should make better time. I'd like to see 10 in an hour. 

What would be awesome is a real processing station... I think I'd love to invest in a scalder some day... 

Also that time includes catching, caging and driving the birds up to the house. 

Sorry. I didn't mention if they were straight run but yes they are. I will have to include that when I complete my final notes for the project. Thanks for asking that question.

Sounds good as far as scheduling the processing. Thanks for the tip.

As far as hands, some days it will only be me and other days it may be 1 other person. I think I will have to recruit more people to help. 100 birds is A LOT! I know that this is going to be crazy, so I will probably have to process on a Saturday and Sunday.

Reading your plucking experience, I am getting scared but I guess I should prepare myself for the worst. The You Tube videos look like it's so easy.

I'm hoping to see a lot, so I won't have too many to process. From the time I ordered 100, I knew that I wasn't going to put all 100 in the freezer. 50 would be great and selling the rest would be great as well. And I hope I don't have to process the ones that I will be selling.

I'm sure that I will be on the edge come processing day. How hot does the water have to be for the scalding process and how long do you leave the bird in there?

 

[kuntrygirl]

I wanted to mention the cons (for me) as far as using the shavings.


This may sound picky but for me every second and every minute that I waste doing something else (that can be avoided), has an impact on the chores with my animals because those seconds and minutes add up. I say that to say that now I am having to take the waterers out of the brooders and get the shavings out of there. There are so many shavings in there and I don't want the shavings to be in the way of them drinking, that I have to clean it out twice a day. In a normal situation, I would simply walk outside the garage door and empty the water out. BUT since there are shavings in the water, I can't dump the water filled with shavings in the yard because shavings (littered yard) will be everywhere. So, I a bucket that I carry back and forth to both brooders and I tilt the waterer over so that I can pour the water in the base part out or swipe my fingers around the base, multiple times, to remove the shavings. This takes time because I have 4 gallon waterers total in all of the brooders. Same thing for the FF. Before I was using the shavings, I was scraping out any uneaten FF and giving to the animals in the chicken yard. Now, I can't do that. There are shavings in the FF and I'm afraid to feed this to my other animals because I know they will eat the shavings. Not sure what eaten shavings would do to them but I don't want to find out.


So, that's another thing that I will add to the PRO/CON list of raising my broilers at the end of this project.


Learning process.

You should lift the waters up on blocks of wood. Don't set them right on the shavings.

Also, you could bring a bucket and empty the rims of the waterers out in the bucket and dump the bucket in the compost later on. 

I would go for the lifting of the water. A few flakes still get in, but nothing big. 

Good idea. I have some blocks of wood that I can put under them.

 

[foreverlearning]

Sorry. I didn't mention if they were straight run but yes they are. I will have to include that when I complete my final notes for the project. Thanks for asking that question.

Sounds good as far as scheduling the processing. Thanks for the tip.

As far as hands, some days it will only be me and other days it may be 1 other person. I think I will have to recruit more people to help. 100 birds is A LOT! I know that this is going to be crazy, so I will probably have to process on a Saturday and Sunday.

Reading your plucking experience, I am getting scared but I guess I should prepare myself for the worst. The You Tube videos look like it's so easy.

I'm hoping to see a lot, so I won't have too many to process. From the time I ordered 100, I knew that I wasn't going to put all 100 in the freezer. 50 would be great and selling the rest would be great as well. And I hope I don't have to process the ones that I will be selling.

I'm sure that I will be on the edge come processing day. How hot does the water have to be for the scalding process and how long do you leave the bird in there?

For me, I took a large stock pot and brought it to a boil, then took it off and brought it outside. The first hour I just dunked them in for 15-30 seconds and then plucked. As the water got cooler I would put one bird in the water while I processed the next and so on. There are many things I will change for next time. first I would find the base for the crawfish boil pot and keep the water at a simmer instead to keep it warm enough long enough. Also, the water level went down quite a bit with every bird that came out of it. The larger pot would help with this. You don't want it at a boil because the hotter it is the quicker it cooks the flesh and that causes tearing while trying to pluck. The first things you want to pluck (without a plucker) is the tail and wings because they are the hardest to get out if it cools. Having a second person really speeds up the process. I started by myself and it took forever, when I got help we seemed to get a rhythm going that speed it up. I would cull, scold, gut and rinse. They would pluck and pack for the freezer. Get a lung remover if you can, those things are a pain to remove!

 

[kuntrygirl]

Sorry. I didn't mention if they were straight run but yes they are. I will have to include that when I complete my final notes for the project. Thanks for asking that question.


Sounds good as far as scheduling the processing. Thanks for the tip.


As far as hands, some days it will only be me and other days it may be 1 other person. I think I will have to recruit more people to help. 100 birds is A LOT! I know that this is going to be crazy, so I will probably have to process on a Saturday and Sunday.


Reading your plucking experience, I am getting scared but I guess I should prepare myself for the worst. The You Tube videos look like it's so easy.


I'm hoping to see a lot, so I won't have too many to process. From the time I ordered 100, I knew that I wasn't going to put all 100 in the freezer. 50 would be great and selling the rest would be great as well. And I hope I don't have to process the ones that I will be selling.


I'm sure that I will be on the edge come processing day. How hot does the water have to be for the scalding process and how long do you leave the bird in there?

For me, I took a large stock pot and brought it to a boil, then took it off and brought it outside. The first hour I just dunked them in for 15-30 seconds and then plucked. As the water got cooler I would put one bird in the water while I processed the next and so on. There are many things I will change for next time. first I would find the base for the crawfish boil pot and keep the water at a simmer instead to keep it warm enough long enough. Also, the water level went down quite a bit with every bird that came out of it. The larger pot would help with this. You don't want it at a boil because the hotter it is the quicker it cooks the flesh and that causes tearing while trying to pluck. The first things you want to pluck (without a plucker) is the tail and wings because they are the hardest to get out if it cools. Having a second person really speeds up the process. I started by myself and it took forever, when I got help we seemed to get a rhythm going that speed it up. I would cull, scold, gut and rinse. They would pluck and pack for the freezer. Get a lung remover if you can, those things are a pain to remove!

Great information. From the sound of it, it leads me to think that we will need an outside fire going to keep the water at the correct temp for scalding.

Bravo to you for doing a lot of those birds by yourself. Do you think that you will ever get a plucker to help you with the plucking?

Lung remover? Never heard of that. I need to check that out to see what that is. Sounds like I may need at least 3 people for this job.

 

[Arielle]

FElt like I was reliving my processing experiences.


I like working on a plastic topped folding table. Easy to clean as needed.

Plenty of sharp knives. THen never seem sharp enough.

I only process abot 3 at a time max because the boiling water cools down too much after that to do a 4th. I kill, dunk, pluck on a grain bag. Drop in a 5 gal rinse bucket. Repeat.

For gutting I like to work on a jelly roll pan: low sides and about 14 x 11 ish. I sort the guts using a good poutlry scissor. Liver and gall bladder separated. Livers in one bowl, Gizzards, cut and cleaned, into another bowl with hearts. Necks I usually leave on the bird. Head, and GI and scraps get boiled up. Bag with feathers-- into trash or sort feathers into compost and bag into trash.

Good plastic bags to contain final product-- I haven't purchased nice ones I use what everI have handy and will fit. Again, I process only for me, not for sale.



Kuntrygirl-- you might want to start collecting names of people that will buy live broilers. Some will back out too. Many prefer to have the bird oven ready so that might change the customer sign up.

How long will you keep the chicks under heat lamps??

 

[foreverlearning]

They look like this:

The lungs get stuck in the creases between the ribs and after a few times your nails are just not strong enough to keep plucking them out. They are really soft and tend to rip but even the high power jet spray of a hose can't get them out. I keep thinking about getting a plucker because everyone that has them loves them, but I struggle with the thought that I can do it myself for free. I have a hard time spending money on something when I know I can do it myself. Who knows, after a few batches I may just get fed up enough to give in to the price or just build my own.

 

[kuntrygirl]

 FElt like I was reliving my processing experiences. 


I like working on a plastic topped folding table.  Easy to clean as needed. 

Plenty of sharp knives. THen never seem sharp enough. 

I only process abot 3 at a time  max because the boiling water cools down too much after that to do a 4th. I kill, dunk, pluck on a grain bag. Drop in a 5 gal rinse bucket. Repeat.

For gutting I like to work on a jelly roll pan: low sides and about 14 x 11 ish. I sort the guts using a good poutlry scissor. Liver and gall bladder separated. Livers in one bowl, Gizzards, cut and cleaned, into another bowl with hearts. Necks I usually leave on the bird.  Head, and GI and scraps get boiled up. Bag with feathers-- into trash or sort feathers into compost and bag into trash. 

Good plastic bags to contain final product-- I haven't purchased nice ones I use what everI have handy and will fit. Again, I process only for me, not for sale. 



Kuntrygirl-- you might want to start collecting names of people that will buy live broilers. Some will back out too. Many prefer to have the bird oven ready so that might change the customer sign up. 

How long will you keep the chicks under heat lamps??

I'm dead.

That's a lot of work to do. I know I have 1 person already and will call my cousin to see if he can help. If he is not working, I know he will be there. He likes that kinda stuff.

I have a long table that I got free on Craigslist, so I can use that. Will have to sharpen up all of the knives.

As far as the heat lamps, it depends on the temps in the garage. Last night it got COLD COLD COLD, so I'm glad I had it on them. I think it was in the low 40's when I woke up. I had to bundle up to go to work, so I know they would have froze. Any suggestions on how long to keep them under the heat lamp. I'm so ready to turn it OFF. My electricity bill will be up about $50.00. I already know it. That's about the average when I have to turn on the heat lamps.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Temps for this week.

I wanted to put them out in the yard this Saturday but I had too many errands to run and I got back too late. And Sunday was too cool for them.