butchering roosters

Mostly cut up already. I have an aversion tho to raw chicken - I cant touch it. Have no problem eating it. But i want to vomit every time I touch raw chicken. Blech! Lol
 
I just butchered a year old rooster. He was not good for breeding and he was always sounding the alarm for nothing and had all the other birds on edge, he even would start crowing in the middle of the night. I scald at 165* because that is the temp whizbang plucker recommends. Electric tub plucker made it easier. When you scald add a drop or 2 of dish detergent, this helps get the bird wet. Plunge the bird up and down vigorously to get water down to the skin. Once the feathers and head and feet are gone it just becomes another chicken. As far as why to age the bird is a matter of choice. rigamortis sets in and the legs get stiff soon but if you age it this goes away. I recommend using a killing cone. They relax when they are upside down and it restrains them. get a good sharp knife and get the jugular vain. I recommend buying a knife like a havalon, it is razor sharp and has changeable blades. Your first time may be hard but you will get over it. It is a good thing for kids to learn whee food comes from, gives them more respect for things. If you get the roosters young they should be ok, older roosters take longer cooking because they are tough. This year old rooster I just processed became coq au vin, very tasty.
 
Here's how we do it. We raise American Dominiques, and usually butcher the extra cockerels at between 22-26 weeks. They usually end up being 4-5 pounds dressed weight.

We are a family of 6, but my wife doesn't help with the processing.... Our kids who are all somewhat still living at home Living at home while going to school is cheap and convinient for them) range from 26-17. They also recruit their friends, so we sometimes have 6-8 people on butchering day. We can easily do 20 cockerels in 3 hours, start to finish. With that many people, this becomes almost an assembly line process.

  1. On the day before, we select the ones to be processed and put them into smaller pens or cages with water, but no food. This makes it easier to clean them and the crops and guts are mostly empty.
  2. Early that morning we put a large kettle of water on the fire pit to heat. We like it to be between 140-160 F. Adding a tiny bit of dishwashing detergent to the water helps cut the oils in the feathers, assisting in the plucking process.
  3. We use cut down traffic cones, and place the bird head down, beak forward into the cone, then slit the throat. It usually takes about 5 minutes for him to drain.
  4. When the bird is drained, he is taken to the scalding station, where the scalder submerges the chicken in the water for a minimum of 30 seconds, moving it around to get the scalding water to all parts of the skin. As was stated previously, be careful of the temperature and how long it scalds. You don't want to cook the skin, as it will tear.
  5. When scalded, we take it to the plucker. We built our own using a drum and fingers we purchased. It is in a wood box cabinet that is mounted uner a work bench in the chicken area. It's driven by a 3/4 hp electric motor. We turn the plucker on and carefully hold the chicken so that the fingers grab the feathers and pull them off. The fingers should pluck against the lay of the feathers. If properly scalded, this will remove 90% of the feathers in about a minute or even less. We don't try to get all the feathers off with the plucker.
  6. At this point we move to the finishing station. This is where we have a wood closet rod mounted on some shelf hangers. From the rod are some twine loops which we place over one or both feet of the chicken, suspending it upside down. At this point we finish getting any remaining feathers. The twine loop cinches down tightly so we have both hans free to do the job. This takes about 5 minutes or less. any stubborn feather areas can be re-scalded and finished up.
  7. When completely plucked, we rinse the bird from the hose and move to the gutting table. This is a folding plastic / steel table we got from a popular bulk store. Each peerson gutting has one or two favorite knives and a large cutting board. I won't go into the gutting process here. My daughter who is 5' tall and weighs 110 is great at this station, as she can get her hands into the cavity for quicj cleanout. She can do this in less than 3 minutes.
  8. The bird is rinsed again, and placed into a cooler until all are done.
  9. We now move the operation inside the house. We do a final pin feather picking and make sure each bird is ready. At this time we also dunk the whole bird into a very mild bleach solution to kill any germs that may have been introduced.
  10. Now the birds which are going to be frozen whole are placed into freezer bags, and plut into the fridge. The others are cut up into pieces and sorted. Some are deboned, while others are left bone in. Wings are placed into bags for hot wings. legs and thighs are bagged. Breasts are bagged separately as well. The backs and necks we also bag for use in making broth.
  11. Clean up everything and you are done.
  12. We refridgerate for at least 24-48 hours before freezing or cooking.
 
Can't add much to what Wsmith gave you--what a great response. Just wanted to add that this is your chicken--cut it up and package it however you will use it best. We package ours in meal-sized portions of skinless breasts, thighs, and drumsticks and use the backs and necks and wings for stock. I only keep a few whole roasters. I do this because, for me personally, the meat will be used more often and with less grumbling if I package it the way I want it from the get-go. Also, I do a lot of skinned chicken, since it's really easy to do (no plucking) and I don't like chicken skin in the first place. To skin a chicken, you just pull the skin (with feathers attached) off kind of like a shirt.

We also let the meat rest in the refrigerator for three days before freezing.
 
Some very clear advice above. As one who just started this part of poultry raising, I would not suggest doing all 7 in one day. You are leaning something new, and it will be fatiguing. I think your original plan of doing 2 a week-end was not unreasonable. My sister in law and I did 4 the first time, and we were tired when we got them done.

By doing it a couple of different times, you will figure out what table works best, what will you do with the feathers, if you have a big enough pot, and other small problems that you have not thought of. Each time you do it, you will get more efficient and faster, you will get it down.

Once the feathers, head, and feet are off, it looks just like a chicken you buy, and really I lost that sense that this was my bird, the bird became anonymous. Really once it was dead, I was so busy trying to remember what the directions said, it was much easier than I thought.

But it really helps if there are two of you to do it.

Mrs K
 
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W Smith. Thank you so much for your informative write up. I sent 3 young cockrels to freezer camp several weeks ago. Chose to skin them. I'm interested in how strong your bleach solution is and if you use it equally for skinned or plucked birds. The 3 Doms headed to the block party this week end are hardly big enough to be worth the effort, but I will, just because it will be organic meat. On behalf of the breed of Dominiques, I've found that the roos are more tolerable of being in a group roo situation, though still overly attentive to the pullets, just can't stand the crowing long enough to allow them to size up. Hope to get some nice Dom pullet chicks in the spring.
 
W Smith. Thank you so much for your informative write up. I sent 3 young cockrels to freezer camp several weeks ago. Chose to skin them. I'm interested in how strong your bleach solution is and if you use it equally for skinned or plucked birds. The 3 Doms headed to the block party this week end are hardly big enough to be worth the effort, but I will, just because it will be organic meat. On behalf of the breed of Dominiques, I've found that the roos are more tolerable of being in a group roo situation, though still overly attentive to the pullets, just can't stand the crowing long enough to allow them to size up. Hope to get some nice Dom pullet chicks in the spring.
You're welcome!

Its a very mild solution. A clean sink about 3/4 full of water, and about 1 splash of bleach. You don't want the chickens to taste like clorine... LOL

We usually leave the skin on unless de-boning thighs and breasts. .

I have found that, at least with Dominiques, they have the most weight gain in weeks 22-26. After that is slows considerably, but they are usually still about twice as big as the pullets of the same age.

When we have a bunch of cockerels, we put them together until processing time. While they are together, it is easy to compare one to another so we can pick out the best one or two to keep for the next year. Last year only one made the cut.
 
Wsmith - thank you! That was very specific and just what i was looking for!! Perfect!
You're welcome.

This past May we hosted our 1st annual Colorado chickenfest. As part of this we did a chicken processing demo. We did two LF roosters and one bantam rooster. The people who provided the birds wanted to learn how to do the processing, and they all learned how easy it really is. Nothing to be afraid of.

I would add this however:
We don't joke around while doing the deed of actually killing the chicken. We are respectful, we do it quickly and as calmly as possible. These chickens are giving their lives , providing us with good quality meat that we raised. Thats one of the reasons we don't do the "chop and flop" method. We even say a prayer of thanksgiving before we start, thanking our creator for the chickens and His bounty. There are some humorous moments sometimes when cleaning out the bird though, and you sometimes just have to laugh.
 
We have never done this but recently found out that out of the 10 birds we have 7 are roos. Yay. Ive watched youtube videos on the butcher technique. Now, how many can realistically be killed in one day? Ive heard they need to be refrigerated for a few days before cooking or preparing for freezing. Is this true? We dont have a spare fridge so space is limited. So I'm guessing about 2 roos a week to kill until we are down to 1 roo. Is that realistic? (Hubby has to do that and so it has to take place on weekends)

What is the realistic time frame from capturing to killing and defeathering or skinning? How long does the bird drain? (Wasnt clear on the videos)

Any first timer tips?
My son skins the roos to make it quicker. We usually do two at a time. We usually cook one right away after being thoroughly cleaned and vacuum seal pack the other for the freezer. We did do 10 Freedom Rangers all in one day but it was a LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Day! Never again.. I believe it took not even an hour to do two BUT my son hunts and is fairly quick.
 

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