A few questions re: processing

[watchdogps]

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I forget this isnt like an email list, not everyone got to read how I acquired the birds. They were kind of dumped on me. I was told someone had about a dozen birds to get rid of, I went to get them and they had stuffed two dog cages full, left for work and the birds were in the sun crammed in the cages. There ended up being 43 birds, about half roos. I was not equipped to keep this many, and they are quite stressed being crowded together. I'm killing a bunch because it's not really humane to keep them this way for long. Plus they have leg mites and I dont want to treat that many birds if I dont have to. I feed the dogs a raw diet, so I need this meat for them more than I do for me anyway.

 

[Oregon Blues]

How many people are processing? With 2 of us, one kills and plucks and I gut and clean and we both work at pretty close to the same speed.

If it is just you, kill and pluck 1-2 and them gut them before you kill the next one.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Additional: my dogs eat home raised meat, home raised duck, home raised chickens, home raised rabbit. If I happen to have larger livestock, the dogs eat home raised pork and home raised beef. Lots of people raise meat for their dogs.

 

[watchdogps]

We just did three today. It didn't go as well as I would have liked. Hubby had trouble making the kill cut with the knife. He says its super sharp, but it wasnt doing the job well on the first one, so we went to the hatchet. We decided to wait on the others because I discovered they are rather thin, so we may as well put some weight on them to make it worth the effort. The three we did today only weighed 2, 2 and 2.75 lbs.
We ended up finding a big bucket and just pouring one pot of boiling water and one of hot tap in to make for good hot water. The feathers came out without a bit of trouble.
The dogs werent real impressed. Two of them ate them enthusiastically, but one of those barfed it back up. Not sure whats up there. These dogs have never had kibble in their life so it isnt like raw is new to them.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

You'll learn things with each processing session to make your next one go easier & faster. You may want to continue to do them in small batches until things go more smoothly.

I use a 5-gallon plastic bucket for scalding, and heat the water separately. I've used the BBQ grill, an outdoor fire, even the kitchen stovetop. My teen son will carry the water out when I need it, and heat up some more if I'm doing several batches. The water doesn't have to stay at scalding temperatures, just for the times you're actually plucking. I do my birds a few at a time, and do each step by myself.

I'll slice & bleed 2 at a time, then scald & pluck them, then eviscerate them, and repeat until done. So I'll only do 4-8 on each day.

I find that hand-plucking goes much easier if you hang the birds by their tied-together feet from something sturdy at shoulder height, that way you have 2 hands free to pluck. If you get a good scald on them, the feathers should almost wipe off, like taking the lint out from a clothes dryer trap.

You might want to search for remedies for the leg mites, I don't think they're hard to treat, maybe smear petroleum jelly on them or something. The mites may be contributing to the roosters' low weights.

 

[watchdogps]

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Thanks. I would really rather just spend a whole day doing the group. That way I only have to set everything up and clean it up once! How long should I leave them hang to bleed?
I plucked on the workshop table, its just higher than my waist so was a good height.
I think I'm going to go with the dunk-in-cooking-oil method for the mites. Smearing anything on 40 birds will take half my day. Not sure what this is going to look like once they are running around on the dirt floor, but...

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I haven't heard of that method for treating mites, I'd investigate further before doing it. I've heard of smearing vasoline on just their legs if it's the type of mites that get under their scaly skin. For the type of mites that affect their skin under their feathers, you can dust them with an insecticidal powder.

They don't need long to bleed out, maybe 5 minutes or so. I wish you great success!

 

[bairo]

all pretty good answers. I will just repeat and add a few from my experience.

If you are doing it for the dogs, then skinning is easier this time around than setting up for scalding. A very sharp (shorter) filet knife works well for skinning and after the first bird you will see it gets easier pretty quickly.
In the future if you process for your own consumption; I have found that plucking makes for a much better tasting bird. Leaving the skin on for aging and up until cooking makes a big difference in taste and tenderness, even if you decide to pull the skin just before cooking.

I think it sounds like you have gathered enough info to make a good go of it. The only thing I would add is it would be very beneficial for you to make or buy a couple killing cones. Learning how to make a good kill cut without cutting the esophagus and spilling stomach contents everywhere takes some practice. Check on you-tube for chicken killing cones and see how much easier and less messy it will be.
Good luck.

 

[watchdogps]

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It's in here, along with sveral other methods. Pretty much anything oily that will coat the mites will smother them
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=33903

 

[watchdogps]

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We wanted the cone, but couldnt come up with a traffic cone anywhere. Small town, the only place to get stuff is walmart and they only had small hard cones. Due to the crowding, we didnt want to wait any longer. Cone is on the shopping list for sure!