Finally we have chickens in the freezer!!!! *Graphic*

[Justin]

After losing our first batch of meaties to a weasel at about three weeks, we did our second batch this weekend....

Laying out our game plan...that's me on the left, my brother in the middle and a good buddy who has butchered thousands of chickens...

I tried a variety of cones for the 40 birds we did. The traffic cones worked well, as did the bleach bottles. However, I will be getting some galvanized cones from Jaku or someone for next year.

I've watched enough Salatin videos on youtube to know exactly where to make the cut even though I've never actually done it!

I have a Featherman plucker (worked awesome!), but we had to use a turkey fryer for the scalding...It's amazing how important the temp of the water really is.

Taking their suits off!!!

My brother's father-in-law. We butcher hogs every year, but this was my first time doing chickens. He has been a very important instructor for me in my meat projects.


All in all everything went very well. Kind of anti-climactic really. (just a sign of good preparation I guess) Other than the cones, I probably won't change much until I can afford a Featherman scalder..

 

[KellyHM]

Very nice! We're getting ready to do our second batch in a few weeks. Our first batch we didn't have cones for, but I plan on using milk jugs this time. We ended up skinning most of ours the first time since we didn't have a plucker. We will probably do the same thing this time since we still don't have one...lol.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Good for you & your wonderful crew too! I'm glad you all had such a great first session but still learned things to help with the next time. I don't know how much better a professional scalder would do than your turkey fryer (something I've been trying to score from FreeCycle) but if it's in your budget, go for it.

One thing I was wondering about is the amount of blood on the table in the last photo. I usually don't have that much blood on my cutting table, I wonder how long you all let the birds bleed out before cutting?

 

[Slinkytoys]

It doesn't look like much blood, mostly watered down. Good Job guys!!

Carrie