Dixie Chicks

[hennible]

Totally agree with peeps_show about once the head is off, butchering is easy killing is not...
Good company for butchering makes a lot of difference, if you have friends who can come lend a hand it makes it fun...
Marshmallows chick is three quarters EE ( hatchery quality amerucana) and 1/4 red sex link...
Thick legs as a sign of a male, interesting...

 

[Peep_Show]

Unless you're talking about me, and then definitely female!

 

[perchie.girl]

@Amberjem

a few posts back you asked about keeping the processing area clean...

I havent processed ever.... I plan to take a class on it when I am ready.... But I think building a work area for it would be a good idea.

I could probably work in a space that would be around six by twelve.... I would put stall mats on the floor so I could work with my rolling walker or a wheel chair. I have seen processing tables with a channel down the middle and a drain on one end and a hole in the other for a trash bag. I could make something like that with a Corean counter top. Just buy the length you need you can work Corean with a table saw... Or buy one of the tables.... You could also get a stainless steel sink at a restaurant supply resale shop.

Acutally thats not a bad idea.... Those sinks have big basins in them one could be filled with ice for chilling down. They also have big side wings that drain into the sink.... One side for processing the middle for rinsing and the end for chilling down.

Something like this:


Of course the drainboards arent big enough for me but I could work around it. Do it like a production line.... Start with killing cones or station and a place to let the blood drain.... Then the scalder next to that.... then the plucker or plucking station.... then the eviscoration that any fluids would be run to the first sink... as well as the offal... you could leave the sink drain off and just leave the hole maybe with a short piece of PVC to keep the drips from rolling under the lip of the sink. then the next compartment would be plumbed to sceptic or a sceptic container or the sewer line. Same goes for the ice bath....

the whole room would have to be sealed from insects.... Here we have them year round. So hardware cloth as well as screens...Hardware cloth on the outside because predators will be drawn to the smell. and the screen on the inside to keep flying insects out.

For what its worth you dont want to put meat into a sceptic system. Thats why they dont recommend Garbage desposals on sceptic systems. It doubles the work a sceptic system has to do....

Then there are products for cleaning down a room. you can buy where you get processing equipment. Bleach is not one.

deb

 

[Peep_Show]

Gee, perchie... How many birds are you going to do at once? that's a pretty fancy sink and so industrial.

I'm far more, err, rustic. Scalding and dunking (large pots or -- if doing big turkey -- plastic rope-handled totes) and plucking done on the lawn with newspapers down so I can just roll up the feathers and head and toss as a neat little bundle. Put a dish towel down near the sink and eviscerate, rinse, dry, plop in gallon bag and use vacuum cleaner hose to suck the air out. Put down fresh towels for the next bird and repeat.

 

[Alaskan]

Al, why is the house being blessed? And I hope you got the water dried up in time, so that it doesn't cause any trouble. You might want to keep it a bit warmer in there for a while, maybe even get a heater with a fan in there. A bit extra heat is a lot cheaper than tearing up the floor in a year or two.

no ghosts that I have noticed....

The house is blessed every year, right after the blessing of the waters.... the feast is the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan.

We get to go bless the bay this morning.... kid #3 has to jump into the water to retrieve the cross that is tossed in. He actually want to do it.

Can you imagine? He wants to touch ice cold water? Actually jump into it?

Anyway, I gave up on cleaning..... I would rather be embarrassed at the mess... than clean the mess. Sad...

And the water flood was NOT due to frozen pipes!

IT turns out that the boys' sink was draining slowly..... and then one of them left the faucet running on high.... for about 2 hours. That = a waterfall that spawned a lake.



eggs... incubating... I am saving my Marans eggs to incubated, I think I will put in a few of my olive Egger, and a few backyard mix/leghorns too.

 

[Beer can]

Question of cleaning the coop? I don't. Deep litter method. I did take about four inches, right down to the hard ground before I got this new bunch, and added a bale of straw. This fall I added about six inches of dry sawdust. And boy do they bulldoze it around. The coop is definitely dry, it's warm today and I caught the roo and a pullet taking a dirtbath together in a big hole they dug. The coop is big 8'x16' x10' high, for eight birds.the only vent is the rafters are open and is plenty. I do make sure their nest boxes are clean. A used wood shavings they use for hamsters and gerbils, etc. It seems to stay in the boxes better than hay. I'm glad it was aspen shavings and not ceder, I heard cedar is toxic to chickens???

 

[hennible]

Oh, good idea one of those sinks is sitting at "the farm" I wonder if boss would give it to me...

 

[chickwhispers]

We have a place not too far that butchers and cleans and plucks how many ever you have for $2 a bird. Worth my money if I ever raise any meaties.

 

[Peep_Show]

That is very reasonable. I'd worry, though, about the scalding/dunking aspects and used water....what some processors refer to as "fecal soup"

 

[perchie.girl]

Gee, perchie... How many birds are you going to do at once? that's a pretty fancy sink and so industrial.

I'm far more, err, rustic. Scalding and dunking (large pots or -- if doing big turkey -- plastic rope-handled totes) and plucking done on the lawn with newspapers down so I can just roll up the feathers and head and toss as a neat little bundle. Put a dish towel down near the sink and eviscerate, rinse, dry, plop in gallon bag and use vacuum cleaner hose to suck the air out. Put down fresh towels for the next bird and repeat.

I dont have lawn The three sinks were just an idea...

What I would probably have is something like this:

Oh never mind....