"dispatching" & scalding ?'s

[LilyD]

One thing that we found is that the larger size of tin snips with blades about 4 inches long work great even with larger roosters. They come a lot sharper than the loppers and are easier to sharpen when they start dulling. I did 11 birds using them the last time and for each it took one snip of the tin snips to remove the head and I held them over the bucket while they drained out then we finished cleaning them. All in all we got started about 9:30 to 10:00 and were done completely by 1 or 2 and since we did everything over large trash bins with bags in them clean up was a breeze we just needed to combine the trash bags into one and we were done. It was all taken down to the burn pile and burned since it's way too cold to dig and bury them this time of year

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

I'm curious if y'all who cut the heads off initially get a good bleed out? My books say cutting the head off stops the heart from beating and pushing blood out. Thoughts?

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

I haven't noticed especially bloody meat. We cut the heads off with a hatchet and then let the bodies flap around 'til they go still. Not the most streamlined operation, but it works fine for us.

 

[LilyD]

I seem to get a good bleed out from them. I do let them hang for a bit and tend to like to do all the killing first and then go from there since I usually only do like 10 birds max at a time I figure this gives the first bird enough time to bleed out enough and then I scald and hand pluck each bird, take of the feet and they go in a tub of ice water while I finish the others. I finish all of one step and then all of the next step etc until done. It usually takes me about 4 or 5 hours for 10 birds if I have one other person to work with me. By myself it's about an hour a bird.

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

That makes sense.

We're in a desert climate, so I try to avoid keeping carcasses out longer than I have to. I prefer to skin them and air-cool in the fridge, so I do one bird at a time from start to finish. So, a quick bleed-out is better for me.

There's more than one way to skin a cat, and more than one way to dress a chicken, huh?