For months I have had extra roos hanging around. DH always said we could process them after he built a plucker, but he has so many projects going I still have yet to see the start to a plucker. I finally got tired of taking extra roos to the auction for someone else to go home & slaughter them. Yesterday I saw we had 4 extra roos that are just starting to crow. Gathered all 4 & put them in a cage (with drinking water) after they went to roost for the night.
I woke & did a few chores then gathered a few supplies.
rope
3 knives --- just to make sure had a good one, and the right size
large stock pot of ice water
2 buckets-- one for blood one for parts
water hose with sprayer
bottle of bleach to clean with afterwards
I did one bird start to finish before I reached for another. 11 yr old DD would bring the bird to the rope, then I hung the bird by its feet, slit the throat & let it bled out. Once it was finished flopping I took them down & put them on my processing station. Made a cut in the skin by the breast & removed all the skin. then cut off the feet. When it came time to cut the neck I had a hard time on every bird, not sure what I was doing wrong there. After the neck was off, I would cut around the rectum & then removed all the insides. I didn't keep any extra parts. I know the dog would have enjoyed them, but just getting started, figure I was doing enough.
After all parts were in the bucket told DH he could discard them since I did all the butchering.
Once all 4 birds were on ice, brought them to the house, rinsed them again, weighed them 2-1/4----2-1/2 lbs each, then put in a brine in the fridge. I will remove them from the brine in the am. My plan is to cook them all together Tuesday & use them in soup, since it suppose to get cold later this week.
The menu is
Mexican Corn Soup-- double batch, one to eat & one to freeze for later
Chicken & Dumplins
maybe enchiladas if there is any meat left
Biggest struggle was cutting off the neck, going to spend a little time reading up on why it was so hard for me.
Next time I will have the birds counter height for skinning & gutting. My back was KILLING me from working with them at table height. I skinned them so didn't have to mess with setting up a scalding pot & trying to get water temp right for 4 birds & thought plucking would be much harder
This was my first butchering experience, and I spent 2 hours set up to clean up. Did everything 100% on my own (expect DD took the bird out of the cage & hand it to me-- could have done it faster on my own I am sure). I would do it again, and I am sure I would do it even better. As far as the knives go, I only used a buck knife the DH takes hunting. I didn't even reach for the other 2 knives. ~~~ Now I am think Santa will bring me a tub plucker. That way I don't have to wait on one to be built. I was looking @ the EZ-131 from cconly.com~~~ any others I should consider?
I woke & did a few chores then gathered a few supplies.
rope
3 knives --- just to make sure had a good one, and the right size
large stock pot of ice water
2 buckets-- one for blood one for parts
water hose with sprayer
bottle of bleach to clean with afterwards
I did one bird start to finish before I reached for another. 11 yr old DD would bring the bird to the rope, then I hung the bird by its feet, slit the throat & let it bled out. Once it was finished flopping I took them down & put them on my processing station. Made a cut in the skin by the breast & removed all the skin. then cut off the feet. When it came time to cut the neck I had a hard time on every bird, not sure what I was doing wrong there. After the neck was off, I would cut around the rectum & then removed all the insides. I didn't keep any extra parts. I know the dog would have enjoyed them, but just getting started, figure I was doing enough.
After all parts were in the bucket told DH he could discard them since I did all the butchering.
Once all 4 birds were on ice, brought them to the house, rinsed them again, weighed them 2-1/4----2-1/2 lbs each, then put in a brine in the fridge. I will remove them from the brine in the am. My plan is to cook them all together Tuesday & use them in soup, since it suppose to get cold later this week.
The menu is
Mexican Corn Soup-- double batch, one to eat & one to freeze for later
Chicken & Dumplins
maybe enchiladas if there is any meat left
Biggest struggle was cutting off the neck, going to spend a little time reading up on why it was so hard for me.
Next time I will have the birds counter height for skinning & gutting. My back was KILLING me from working with them at table height. I skinned them so didn't have to mess with setting up a scalding pot & trying to get water temp right for 4 birds & thought plucking would be much harder
This was my first butchering experience, and I spent 2 hours set up to clean up. Did everything 100% on my own (expect DD took the bird out of the cage & hand it to me-- could have done it faster on my own I am sure). I would do it again, and I am sure I would do it even better. As far as the knives go, I only used a buck knife the DH takes hunting. I didn't even reach for the other 2 knives. ~~~ Now I am think Santa will bring me a tub plucker. That way I don't have to wait on one to be built. I was looking @ the EZ-131 from cconly.com~~~ any others I should consider?
