First time processing - great difficulties and then SUCCESS!!

[crj]

Quote:
Ema, hold the bird upside down until it relaxes then tie it to the post. They will fight at first but within less then a minute they will just relax and the wings will open up. The blood goes to the birds head and they passout. Keep the bird upside down from then on. The bird won't struggle after that. It will be much easier to cut and bleed out. You will get the slight twitching after the bleed but it's not that bad.

Below is a site that helped us with processing. My husband recently passed away so I no longer process. We've only did it once and I think we did very well. I did the culling and he gutted the bird. We too wondered why the feathers weren't coming off as easy as it was suppose to so after the second bird we warmed the water up a few degrees and pretso..... worked like a charm. The feathers fell out. The water had cooled and that was the problem. Good luck.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/livestocksystems/DI0701.html

 

[4H Amy]

Hi Ema,
This is our first year processing our chickens and it has been quite a learning experience for us as well. My husband is an engineer so he has our processing set up in a way that makes it super efficient to get thru alot of birds in a short amount of time. There are normally 3 of us helping out on processing day. My husband, my 11 year old daughter and myself. We each have a specific job.
We use kill cones. My husband has 2 kill cones that are attached to a rack made out of 2x4's. Then we have a turkey fryer that we use to scald the bird, it has a propane tank attached to it so it stays pretty hot.
My daughter feathers the bird in this automatic de-feathering machine (it kind of looks like a washing machine tub but with black fingers on the inside). I think you can rent them in some areas, they really shave alot of time off of processing. We can put about 3-4 birds in at a time and it only takes 30 seconds.
Then the bird is brought to the processing table, which is my job. I bought the table from Cabela's, it is made for processing fish but it works great for chickens because there is a recessed area in the middle where the bird is held and there is a drain in that area. If I am not ready for the birds yet, we cut off the feet and put them in a small cooler to hold until I finish the birds I have on my table.
When I finish my birds I put them into a large marine cooler filled with ice, water and a little salt to brine the bird.

I normally refresh my memory before I process by watching a video on utube Survival Skills with Russ - How to Butcher a Chicken. I don't know who Russ is but he is so descriptive and I have to laugh every time I watch that video.

Good luck with your turkeys.
Amy

 

[ScottyHOMEy]

There's a learning curve, and I can sympathize with you running smack into it. Lots of things.. Water temp for scalding, and realizing that the water may need some time to recover its temp between birds . . . For keeping things orderly and the kerfuffle to a minimum (both for you and for the birds still afoot who may be listening in), cones are the way to go. They will contain even those birds that flop dramatically as they bleed out and after.

Just by way of keeping it real (a key part is to have your head in the right place when doing this kind of work) I recall a post here a while back from a fellow who was worried that the plastic in traffic cones (a common and popular alternative to the stainless-steel cones made for the purpose) not being of food grade plastic. Umm . . . the bird still has its feathers on . . . we are not getting anywhere near anything that is going to pass someone's lips . . . To do the job we ask of them, they will need trimming of what is the top in their intended purpose, but traffic cones work great. By the time they're bleeding out, the birds are beyond stress but, for those new to or not comfortable with the reflexive flopping and whatnot, they can take a lot of the human stress out of the enterprise at hand. I recommend cones, of any type.

I said it differently in another, much more lengthy, post a while back. There's both a pride and a rightness to be acknowledged in raising meat critters. That you take pause when it actually comes to killing them . . . well that speaks well of your character. That you were able to continue beyond that point speaks to your dedication to husbandry.

That pause, to my mind, is a right part of the process that should never go away and will always be appropriate. The rest, which is not necessarily pleasant work, can be a chore, but we do it so as not to squander any part of the lives we take to sustain our own.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
I looked up the video she mentioned and it's pretty good:

 

[Beekissed]

It sounds as if you really need to have some killing cones and they don't have to be a big deal...you can make some real quick out of bleach jugs. I like the 2 gal. jugs because they can also hold CX breeds or small turkeys. The one gal. jugs can hold a DP bird easily.

Also? When you skin a bird, it's much easier if you already snipped off the wing tips and the legs. It all becomes much easier with these obstacles out of the way and then the skin comes off like taking off a jacket, first one side/arm and leg, then across the back and then the other side.

When I am going to process, I take the birds off the roost the night before, zip tie their legs and place them somewhere comfortable, quiet and dark. This way they are contained and pretty helpless the morning of....no clawing, no fighting, just a little flapping of the wings is all. As previously mentioned, just stand quietly and let them settle down on their own and then deposit them in a killing cone. This contains the wings and cradles them for the bleeding out...I think you will like the results you get with this method.

As for the slitting....no matter what anyone says, you don't have to cut just the carotid artery. For years I've just run the knife completely across the throat from left to right. A nice, decisive cut that opens up any vessels the bird may possess but doesn't cut the spinal cord...when the knife grates against the vertebra you will feel it, so this gives you a depth to stop at. Placing a little tension on the beak allows for taughtness of the skin which makes for an easier and cleaner cut...sharp knives help also.

A few pics of the jugs and the slitting area:

And birds safely contained and awaiting their moment:

 

[Ema]

Wow, thank you everyone for all your help and support. For the links and videos and photos. I really appreciated.

Today after work we are venturing to process the rest of the turkeys, the ones that didn't go so well are in my freezer, the gutting part went well, but the plucking part as I previously mentioned not so much, but that is ok, I will take care of what is left when the time comes, its not much so it will be ok.

I went out and bought a turkey fryer, this should help me make sure the water stays at the right temp. and I will allow time for the water to reach the right temp between birds. I guess I will come back and update on how things go tonight

Ema

 

[EmAbTo48]

EEK! I still to this day don't understand how anyone can (after being a 8 year old girl watching my mother) slit the throat of the chicken and let is just bleed out! My mother would do this all the time and it still haunts me lol!

I have no problem culling our chickens, because instead of slitting the throat and bleeding, we have a logging axe (beyond sharp obviously if it cuts wood lol), a stump with 2 nails, and with one quick chop the head is totally off.... I don't know if I find this more humane in my own sense or because when my mother did it she would slit the throats when in the cones, and they were still thrashing and making noises while bleeding out that really bothered me.

We did a total of 50 birds this year took us about half a day to do all.... Next year though we are having a couple that does it for the extra cash to come do it at our place. We just really don't have the time to do it anymore with a baby, and both us working full-time jobs.

OP you will get better and better at it! and your one very brave soul if you use the knife/bleeding out method! HA!

 

[boxermom]

We have found that taping the feet together with duct tape and hanging them on a nail works well. We have the low nails on the fence, to bleed into a feedsack in a garbage can and the high nails in a tree for plucking.

We also found that turks are easier to pluck and clean than are chickens. We save them for last when our hands are tired. We also tape the turkey wings with duct tape. They take a while longer to bleed out and are very strong. Our first time was very slow too. We are getting faster and more efficient as we go. Last Sat. we did 10 DP hens and 2 BR turks. We were ready to be done, but we weren't overwhelmed with the amount of birds either. We still have some more old hens to do and this years cockerels. It gets easier.

 

[mama dixie]

ok I tell ya we are doing meat birds now and we have taken it to a place to have it done. I was so upset about the cost, as we are a one income family and barly get by. I do alot I garden can fish and I can kill a fish but a chicken, I just dont think I can. I think I shall put money into a jar from now on each time I take a chicken out of the frezer. the price is 5.50 a bird and I wanted to try to do this our selves becuse I think that is alot but did anyone have a really hard time the first time? my husbend has killed or put down birds that were not going to make it anyway but did anyone get sick the fist time they did this. I am no vegitariean and believe we should respect our food by giving it a good life and quick and as painless as possible death. I disagree with bleeding out as well. I was in a accedent and lost alot of blood, I got dizzy sick and it was horrid. feeling life slip from you is not fun. I walked around to get help though horse pastures and it was late at nitght so I guess my question is could you wring its neck then use the cones? One time I caught a fish and was playing with it on a stringer and my dad almost lost it he said that is food and it is not to be tourtured it is dying to feed us. I know they still flop even after they are dead but at least I would know they are not feeling life slip away. again I eat meat and know how horrid thoes birds and cows and such have it, you know the ones we get all pretty in the stores, in little packages and such but I hope to learn how to do this, maybe we, or I will just get a bit more jaddded to it..
I think I need to pay or bartor some meat with our neighbor to cut the heads off and hang them then I could learn how to do the rest. Gee's why was I not born rich so I could just pay to have the dirty work done...stinks to be a bleeding hart on a farm, but I am trying. I am proud of you for doing so many birds at once and thank you for sharing your experiance. the meat is so much better for you and the birds do have a better life. ok so I just watched the vidio about how to process a bird. it says it is biblical way to do it, and it did not flop alot. be truthfull people does it really go that easy? it is nothing like when I was wandering in the dark bleeding and in schock, so I wanted to edit this and say what the heck to I know, see I am learning, but is it really that easy and how much is a chicken plucker?

 

[ScottyHOMEy]

mama dixie,

Your own experience and your desire to avoid it with your chickens . . . nobody should discount it.

To address the issues you rightfully have, I'll just toss this out as a suggestion. Consider putting the live bird into the cone. Instead of an ax or hatchet, use a pair of stout pruning shears or a longer-handled limb lopper to take off the heads. It's important to get the blood out of the meat as quickly as possible before their reflexes stop all motion of the body and heart. Time lost in trying to round up a wrung or beheaded bird to get it into the cone will make a difference in the meat.

Though a stopwatch would show that it never takes all that long, yes, it can seem an eternity before a chicken will stop flopping. Before I started using a cone, I've had totally beheaded chickens lay still on the ground long enough to think that it was over, only to have them jump and actually do a backflip and go on a bit before coming to their true end.

There are those who would differ, but the shears or loppers used on a live chicken in a cone should address your concern and minimize, if not eliminate, any problem with the carcass not bleeding out sufficiently.