Do it yourself or take them to a butcher?

[Erin80]

Do you harvest your own chickens, or do you take them somewhere?

 

[FenwayFieldFarm]

Last weekend, we processed our own meat birds for the first time. Starting at 7:45AM, 3 adults and 2 teenagers finished processing 79 birds at 3:00pm. Barrel plucker was well worth the investment. Having folks help with the processing also makes things easier.

 

[TinyBirds]

Well my housemates have made it clear that their will be no disemboweling of animals on the premises. Unfortunately I cannot find anyone else that will do it for me either. Can you believe that? I am surrounded by farmers and hundreds of square miles of hunting areas, game processors as common as gas stations in a large city yet no one will do a chicken for love or money!

Are they vegan? If not, you should process them anyway since they dont have a valid argument if they eat animal products. More humane to grow and process yourself compared to store bought. Actually, even if they are vegan, they should support your doing things the humane way if they cant convince you to be vegan anyway. Stand your ground, it is the right thing to do and they will learn to respect you for it after learning more about the horrors of factory farming themselves.

 

[member 373180]

Are they vegan? If not, you should process them anyway since they dont have a valid argument if they eat animal products. More humane to grow and process yourself compared to store bought. Actually, even if they are vegan, they should support your doing things the humane way if they cant convince you to be vegan anyway. Stand your ground, it is the right thing to do and they will learn to respect you for it after learning more about the horrors of factory farming themselves.

Agreed. Unless they consume no chicken products they have no argument. Plus it's your house, too. You might let them know when you plan to do it so that they can arrange to be away from home at that time.

 

[Lynn-n-JimsVT]

We will be doing our first round of meat birds this coming week. I had the good fortune to have a friend ask for help in processing a bunch of his and that experience was invaluable. I have my stations ready to go and I'm excited to begin the harvest. Here's a picture of my just completed (today) DIY chicken plucker made of PVC end cap, 3/8 threaded rod and cut off bungee ends.

 

[Mace Gill]

We have a small backyard flock for eggs, so it doesn't come up often. But in the occasion where it does, we harvest ourselves ... it's only one bird at a time.

If we were raising for meat, it would 'depend' ... half a dozen for our own use? We'd harvest ourselves. Larger number for sale? We'd probably take them to a butcher, or call someone in who processes.

 

[member 373180]

I like to do six at a time by myself, it takes me maybe 3 hours including setup and cleanup. I pluck by hand. It all goes pretty fast once you've done it a couple times. Even faster if you skin them, that's what I do with the juvvie bantams now, not worth the trouble of plucking those little squabs

 

[Folly's place]

I take them to a local processor, because it's so much more convenient. One bird occasionally wouldn't be worth the time, but a group at once is worth the money for us. Mary

 

[Becky128]

My husband, daughter and a helper paid with a chicken or two do it themselves ! Last year we did 10 this year in about a week and half will do 26 more.

 

[Amandakae]

We harvested the first two batches of 15 ourselves, and then took the last batch in to the processor. Since we really like the skin to stay on, we have decided that it is not worth it ourselves to hand pluck, so we will not get chicks again until we have a plucker ready.