First Slaughter, Success!

[ChrisS]

I processed my first broilers today. It was 24 birds and it took about 2.5 hours. I still need to figure out the best way to scald them cause I had a hard time getting the feathers near the base of the legs off. Used my chicken plucker and it was awesome. I couldn't imagine doing it with out it. Got 50 new birds last week, looking forward to eating my first meal.

 

[TigerLilly]

CONGRATS!

I wonder if it's easier to remove the skin (feathers & all) rather than plucking?

eta: what breed of chickens were/are they?

 

[ChrisS]

They were Cornish X from Mcmurray.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Can you slip a rope over their legs so you can dip them deeper into the water and make sure their feet go under also?

I used to help my cousins on slaughter day - chickens and ducks - and if I recall correctly, they had a short piece of wood with a rope tied around it. On the other end of the rope was a slipknot that they would put around the feet after they had bled out in the cone. This was used to lift and carry the bird through the plucking process and to the table for gutting. They would dip the birds into hot wax, they hang them to cool off a bit before pulling off the wax and feathers. They were then carried into the house where my aunt and her SIL would gut, cut off the feet for stock, sort the organs (heart, liver and gizzards) and pull the pin feathers.

 

[ChrisS]

I really like the rope idea. Scalding my hands wasn't too fun lol. And I actually was going to do the wax before I got my plucker.

 

[cravenchx]

Somewhere on here, I watched where they used
parrafin wax in the H2O and the feathers peeled
right off. Very interesting.

Does anyone know if there are local processors to
do this for you. I don't know if I can do this myself.
Where should I look for this service?

 

[ChrisS]

Quote:
I don't know of any processing places personally but I did see a thread that had some listed on here and if you can't find it you could always just google it. I didn't think I was going to be able to kill the chickens myself at first. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

 

[mikki717]

Quote:
I called a processor before I slaughtered several of my turkeys, but when the guy said, "no, the machine only fit chicken." I decided I would not use a processor for any of my birds.

If I spend months raising an animal to eat, I figure I can at least make sure that the slaughter is humane and as stress free as possible.