QuaiI are the easiest to process, and once you have done the first few, it becomes "matter of fact". It took me a bit of watching you tube, talking to others that raise quail. Its a scaled down version of processing chickens, much easier. It takes me about 5 minutes per bird. There is a thread/article right here on BYC, a little girl helps her mom process birds. Please guys, this is graphic so do not read if easily offended!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/147712/how-i-process-quail-my-6yr-old-helped-warning-graphic-pics
I do the processing here myself, from the hogs all the way down to quail. Its hard for me to do the killing in some cases, DH will shoot the hog for example. I can't pull the trigger, am so afraid I won't do it right and cause it pain. From that point on, I do the rest. I have learned to come to terms with processing birds myself. The whole reason I raise poultry and livestock is to feed my family SAFELY. I want to know what the birds eat, how they have been treated, and when the bad day comes, how they are killed, processed, etc.
I worked animal control several years, one of the things I saw was complaints on a specific butcher shop. Folks took in a pink pig, got back a processed black pig! Similar complaints with poultry, sheep, etc. This was more a concern for USDA/FDA or other federal inspectors, but I still had to take a report per my Sgt..Since then, I want to know what I am eating is safe, where it came from, how it was fed and treated.
Long story short, I will not let anyone else process our food. I know start to finish where our meat products came from! I have a hard time even eating out at restaurants anymore, if I do, its seafood.
