Killing, Plucking, Eviscerating, & Cutting Up Your Chicken - Graphic!

[chickeypoo]

im glad you took the time to do this. i am only processing a few birds and i have done it before.. but i can't always remember what i need to do lol. so.. i am glad that this is here for me. my grandma will be happy when i am done with the birds for her.

Sue

 

[BeccaOH]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

My aunt had shown me butchering on one hen this summer, but your tutorial was so valuable in refreshing my memory. I butchered 2 hens on my own this weekend. All went quite well, though I really want one of those killing cones. Had to use the chopping block method and saw a chicken body dance.

 

[95yj]

thats a nice set up, this summer me and a couple people did 43 chickens, i got really sick of kneeling in chicken blood and pinning struggling chickens. next year i think i'm gonna steal a traffic cone.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I have a metal porch swing frame to use for hanging the birds I process. Recently I bolted a 2X6 across the top and attatched 3 cones I made from 3 different materials, to see which one worked best. One is a big plastic bleach bottle, best for smaller birds. One is a cut-down traffic cone I found in someone's discard pile (no need to steal one!), that works best for the biggest birds. And one from a plastic plant pot, those black flexible ones from the nursery, I cut off the bottom & cut through the side, then twisted it into a cone shape & secured it with zip ties, that one is the best all-purpose one.

Otherwise you can zip-tie the birds' feet and wrap duct tape around their sides to hold their wings secure. This works best if you're only doing a few birds in one session, otherwise it's handier to have something for a cone.

 

[chickeypoo]

i just string mine upside down. no cone or anything. and then slit the neck. i only do a few so it's not a need to have a cone
Sue

 

[Kiwi Chicky]

Thanks Frugal!!

This is exactly what I was looking for

This thread should be a Sticky in this section!!

 

[TarzantheChickenMan]

Great post, nice picts Now i just need a plucker to cut down on time.

 

[101morgan]

Hi - a processing question...I had to kill our rooster this morning, pluck him, and then leave before eviserating him; we left him in an icewater bath for 7 hours, then came back to finish processing him. Is this ok? We normally would do it all at once, but we had unexpected stuff come up this AM so had to leave in the middle. Any thoughts on our future 'coq au vin' - IE I'm concerned about bacteria due to the innards being inside the water chilling rooster from 6:30 til 2:00 pm. Many thanks, and what a great set of instructions - the best we've seen!


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[jaku]

Quote:
I would say that you're ok- I would highly advise against doing this, but if something came up and you had to, I think you'd be fine eating the bird.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I know this is done with fish, that they can be kept in ice water for a while until you dock the boat & have time to clean them. And when you hunt you can carry your ducks, turkeys & pheasants around for a while. My only concern would be if there was any poop left in the intestines & it leaked out into the ice water through a limp vent, and contaminated the meat.

Perhaps you could contact your county extension office for information. Meanwhile, go ahead & clean out the carcass as if it were edible (use rubber gloves, sterilize your cutting board & knives afterwards), rinse it out really well and use double bags to store it in the refrigerator. That may be more effort than is needed, but better safe than sick & sorry.

This is why I advise folks to not pre-kill more than one bird at a time. I will slice my first bird & hang it out to bleed while I'm catching up the second candidate. Then I slice & hang the second one while I pluck/skin & clean out the first one. And continue in that way until I'm finished. That way if something comes up to interrupt the processing process, darkness, bad weather, Publisher's Clearinghouse coming to my door with a million-dollar check, etc, I may only have one extra dead bird to do.