51 chickens in less than 3 hours! Pictures

[RareBreedFancier]

Wow! Many hands makes light work is certainly true!

Glad you had so many willing helpers, I wish I could round up some help but all my family would think it's disgusting.

 

[Pineywoods Peepers]

Quote:
Well, we were all splitting the chickens, so they weren't necessarily helping out of the goodness of their hearts.

But it was an enjoyable time. It's nice getting together and doing something that's productive.

 

[Noobchick]

Wow!! Thats impressive. Ive learned a lot from your post and am filing it away for future reference. (We need way more land before we raise more than 5-6 chickens.)

Your chickens look fantastic. Hope you all enjoy them!

 

[Pineywoods Peepers]

Thanks for the compliments, all. Honestly the process of slaughtering the chickens was much easier than I had imagined. For those of y'all who haven't gotten to this stage yet - You can do it!!! After a bird or two you'll get the hang of it, and it will go much more quickly!

Yesterday evening we cut up, vacuum packed and put our birds in the freezer. We vacuum packed 3 whole chickens and sectioned up the rest. Based on the vacuum packed weight our cost per pound was $1.06. Not too terribly shabby!

Can't wait to do it again this fall!

 

[GJ_Kate]

Pineywoods,

Do you mind sharing about how much it cost to build the Whiz bang or did you buy it already made? We borrowed a basic model plucker this past weekend and my hubby wasn't as impressed as he thought he'd be. It was one that you can buy for about $300 on ebay and he was really planning on buying it... if we ever get our tax refund!
BTW after we processed ours, I had to run to Vitamin Cottage/Natural Grocers and I took a look at their naturally raised, no hormone fresh chicken. The breasts were $7.95 a pound!!!!! Awesome that we can have our own for a fraction of that... well if you don't count all our labor!

Thanks!!!

 

[FeedYourself]

Nice job.

 

[RareBreedFancier]

Quote:
Well, we were all splitting the chickens, so they weren't necessarily helping out of the goodness of their hearts.

But it was an enjoyable time. It's nice getting together and doing something that's productive.

Yeah, wouldn't mater if I offered to split them with my family, they wouldn't eat them 'cause they aren't from the shop.

Apparently eating my chickens would be gross but shop chicken is 'clean' so that's ok. They are even suspicious of my home grown veg "because bugs might have crawled on it".

 

[Pineywoods Peepers]

Quote:
It cost us about $650 to build our plucker, but our friends who split the chickens with us are also splitting the cost of the plucker. We bought the Shebang kit from the Whizbang guy, plus all of our parts were purchased new. You could probably save a good deal of money if you were to scavenge some of the parts rather than buying them new.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Wow, they look great!!! Very clean and plump.

 

[Pineywoods Peepers]

Quote:
haha One of the ladies who split the chickens with us also has layers. Her mother refuses to eat the eggs Fran's hens lay because "they've been with that dirty old rooster". It's strange how people's minds work...