Butchering Day- 75 Cornish X's! (Graphic, and Pic-Heavy)

[al6517]

Very nice job !!!!.

AL

 

[BridgeTea]

Dog-gone it, Jaku! I wish I'd known what you were up to Saturday - we would have loaded up in the car and come down to watch some pros in action. I am only 45 miles or so from you! I could've at least kept the burning barrel stirred for ya!

Well thanks for all the pictures. I hadn't thought about a chicken being fileted. That was interesting! Great job on your set up. Your birds always look so clean (not to mention PLUMP and JUICY and TASTY) out in their pvc tractor. Good idea just moving their tractor on to the driveway. I also have "work table envy". We worked on top of a sheet of plexiglas sitting on an old door on top of some much-abused sawhorses. Oh yeah, it was definitely outside. Hey, no flies in November, right?

I seriously may bug you sometime for an invite to see how you do things. (I've got some freshly frozen Freedom Rangers, wanna trade??) Enjoy all those upcoming chicken dinners, Jaku and family, and hope you make lots of sales.

- Bridge, who roasted and helped eat 2 rangers and 1 turkey last week and could still handle some more poultry.

 

[Overeasyplz]

Jaku, excellent pics! I love to see how other people work!

 

[jaku]

Quote:
I was looking at the pliers that are on sale, I think for about $49... and wondering if they're worth the extra money. After reading your reply, I think I'll go ahead and order those.

One more question though... what size staples do you use? Do you use the same size for chickens and turkeys? Sorry to ask so many questions... I'm a huge believer in avoiding my own pitfalls by taking advantage of the wisdom of those more experienced than I am!

Thanks~

I think the pliers you're talking about are the ones I ordered today. The ones that load a "stick" of staples rather than individuals? I was going to order the regular ones, but they were like $30, so I just figured I'd spend a little extra and get something a little better. If we're talking about the same stapler, the staples were all the same size, so I just ordered 1000 of them. Cornerstone is so expensive, but it's really hard to find a company that sells the products they do on a small scale. As for the turkeys... I PLAN on using the same staples, but I haven't done any of them yet. I'm getting my first turkeys this spring.

 

[jaku]

Quote:
I think my Whizbang cost around $300 in materials. As for sterilization, I don't. I just spray it out with a hose when I'm done. I figure since it's just getting more poo covered birds put into it the next time I use it, there's not much point sterilizing it! As for the feathers, there is a gap between the spinning featherplate and the side walls, where the feathers just drop out. Then we just shovel them up with a pitchfork. Actually, I don't think I posted it, but here's a pic of that...

 

[jaku]

Quote:
Darn it! I totally meant to post an invite for people wanting to learn how to process birds, and in the week leading up to it, completely forgot to. We'd love to have you, although "professional" is about the furthest thing from how I'd describe our set up! I left out the pictures of us drinking beer, screwing around, and chasing down the chickens that escaped. In the spring, I'll definitely post that invite.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Great post. Fantastic looking birds.


Chicken free all winter - what will you do??

 

[StupidBird]

Very nice tutorial photos, I didn't find them a bit gruesome - maybe there's hope for me to do this myself someday. thanks

 

[Le Canard de Barbarie]

Nice operation Jaku.

What I've been doing is instead of throwing out the leftover carcass, I chop it up and feed it to my LGD. She loves it.

 

[BridgeTea]

Quote:
Okay, now I know we will be there. Will look forward to your next batch, then. Thanks!