First butchering day; Actually quick and easy!

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
I know you're supposed to avoid the frontal lobe, because it causes everything to tighten and lock down, and makes plucking more difficult.

I'm honestly thinking maybe I've left something out of my description, since it wasn't first-hand. If I can get a video, I'll try to make sure and have Alex narrate the process as he goes along.

 

[DawnSuiter]

NP... you needn't apologize for my experience, I learned about Pithing in one of my chicken care books... so it's perfectly normal on some level.

 

[dancingbear]

Yesterday, I butchered one of my roos, tried the debraining again. It didn't go as smoothly as the other one did, but wasn't a big trauma either. He didn't seem to die as quickly, but I'm sure he wasn't aware of anything, either, even though the autonomic reflexes were happening. I'm doing 3 more tomorrow, I'll post in more detail what happens then.

I'm not sure debraining is quite the same as pithing, there may be some subtle difference.

 

[ninjapoodles]

We REALLY need to do a few this weekend, too, but hubby's still not doing so well, and now my stupid back is O-U-T (typing this flat on my back, on ice packs with a TENS unit running, and muscle relaxers & painkillers on board, after having a steroid shot, and STILL in agony), so they may get another week. I really want to commandeer some of the space in the rooster pen to try and get hatching eggs from my Easter Eggers, too. Dangit. But whenever we DO get around to it, I will document with pics and video.

 

[AllChookUp]

Belinda - Your back is STILL out? Sorry to hear that. Well, don't push it this weekend, then. I think we can all wait to gain further wisdom from you on "Proper Poultry Processing".

Take care of yourself! Hope your DH gets better as well.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
My back is JACKED UP. And I didn't even DO anything to get that way! I just got a scrip for oral steroids and started those today, so I'm hoping for some relief this weekend. I had to wait on Hubs at the hospital for 4 hours today, and thought I was gonna DIE.

Don't hold your breath for "wisdom," but I'll sure share what we experience. Look over at my thread on incubating to get a glimpse of EPIC FAIL. I have two more batches of eggs going right now, with my fingers crossed BIG TIME.

 

[Zookeeper9000]

Well I had to get the pet taxi lady down the road to help me butcher, as the big strong he men around here were making so many excuses the roo's that have to go would be dead from old age before they got around to giving me an anwser. Deep breath Deep breath

I sent her a link to this thread and she tried it and she said that they closed the eyes right away and there really was no thrashing but she only did one of the two as she just prefered to do it the way she was sure of.

Me I know at this point that I can pluck and butcher but I am not ready to kill. I have to leave that to the stronger person. Maybe one day but I won't hold my breath as I would expire long before my roo's.

Oh she puts them in the cone and cuts the veins on each side of the neck.

We have 8 more to do and that will be done in the AM. She thought I was too slow on the plucking so she is bringing her chicken plucker tomorrow.

Thanks for letting me share.

 

[dancingbear]

I did the other 3 yesterday, I didn't get the instant kill on any of them. I'm sure they were insensible, I don't see how they couldn't be after a brain stick, but there was still lots of flapping, etc. The first one I did by debraining, quite some time ago, was an injured bird. Maybe that's why she dies so quietly. These were not. I tried combining it with neck slicing, and neck breaking, they all went about the same.

I'll be waiting to see how your DH does this NP, I'm sure I can get the same results, I just must be missing the spot or something.

I hope you feel better soon, I've had similar things with my back, it's sure no fun.

 

[Zookeeper9000]

Well this morning the chicken plucker arrived and we plugged it in and I will tell you I won't butcher chickens without one. The difference between today and last Thurs was amazing.

Last Thurs we did 2 chickens in about 2 hours today with the plucker we did 8 in about 2 1/2 hours I am impressed with the feather plucker.

Also the Pet Taxi lady from down the rode came again (she brought the plucker) and she decided to try the pithing again, by the 2nd one today she had it down and the reason we knew that was because the feathers just about fell out by themselves. Also the carcass of the bird was so limber it was like a wet noodle. The difference was great and she said that she would be doing this from now on.

Even the cleaning out of the bird was easier the lungs came out without an effort you didn't even need the lung remover tool.

I am so happy she tried this till it worked. She wasn't going to try it again but went home and studied up on it and gave it another try.

Thanks for sharing this with us as it really made things go so much better here and I didn't feel so mean harvesting my extra roo's.

Get well, I know what back pain is and it isn't funny. And waitng in an ER for help the worst.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
Well, to be fair about the flapping, we DID have them in cones before the stick. So they didn't exactly have the opportunity to flap. But we only saw some twitching, and that only happened after we began to bleed them out. I'm anxious to get some more experience.

Zookeeper--that limpness you're talking about was the HUGE deciding factor for us between pithing/not pithing. I was able to pluck the pithed birds in under 10 minutes, as a beginner, and everything was so loosey-goosey that I didn't have trouble with skin tearing. Everything was flexible.