First medium processing day. (warning, a little blood)

[Dogfish]

Butchering day. Started with the kill cone.

Headed to the scalder and the feather plucker. (I didn't save the video correctly, dammit!) Hooked up with an extremely nice gentleman and his wife who gave us use of their Featherman, just to see how it worked. They hadn't used it yet, so it was a learning experience for all. 30-40 seconds and those chickens really were spotless. I was truly amazed.

Iced them down and took them home for a nice final dress. Started saving the gizzards and hearts, so we'll see how those turn out.

The runt was just under 3lbs, but he was also only 6 weeks old. The big rooster was 6.5lbs dressed. The other hens were 5-6lbs each. Not bad for 8 weeks.

In addition to my filet knife, next time I will bring a 10" chef's knife and another kill cone or two. Other than that, everything went pretty darned well. Heck, I even have all of my fingers! Next butchering day is in two weeks, 3 roosters and a hen CX. That will leave me with 25 CX to butcher in 6/19 & 6/20. I started small to work the bugs out first, and I'll scale up as I learn more and more.

Thanks for the help here folks. You folks have a bunch of knowledge, and I appreciate you sharing.

 

[blk90s13]

I bet that cone is a life saver. I am getting one soon

 

[Beekissed]

Those are lovely and very impressive weights! How many did you have with this batch? They look so clean and well done.....you did a great job for your first processing!

 

[Dogfish]

Quote:
I think the chickens would disagree.

Literally, I picked it up off the side of the road in front of our property 4 years ago, as it had been run over and was missing the base. I was going to toss it in the trash, but tossed it next to the shed instead. Found it the other day and used it for the first kill last Saturday. I need to trim the skinny end a bit more, maybe another 2 inches.

I bought a batch of four 8 weeks ago, and then another batch of 6 two weeks later. Last Wednesday I picked up 25. Start small, learn from mistakes. Ended up culling two birds from the second batch, one at 5 weeks, the next at 6 weeks, because of injuries.

I've processed plenty of pheasants and ducks I've shot, but never plucked them, so I had some experience with the knife.

 

[Rebel Rooster]

Now those are some beautiful meat birds there!

 

[jaku]

Great looking birds- looks like your scald was perfect!

 

[Kim_NC]

Very nice looking!

 

[Dogfish]

We let the big rooster rest 2 days after butchering, but yesterday I used the marinade injector to impart some herb and garlic seasoning into the bird, and then 75 minutes in the Popiel Showtime+ compact rotisserie and BBQ oven. OMFG, and I'm not religious, that was the best chicken I ever had. Seriously, it blows away anything you have had in the restaurant.

I can hardly wait for the eggs. I finished the roll-out nest box last night. I dropped eggs from 8", and they didn't break on the floor, plus I installed a bumper in the collection area.

Feed stores need to sell those rotisseries.

 

[Peeps Paradise]

Hi Dogfish, I would love to see a picture of the nest box that catches and rolls eggs away.
That sounds like a great idea.

 

[halo]

I agree, what a beautiful job you did there.