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

[yinepu]

How long after the initial cut does the heart beat? I understand that this is mentioned as a benefit over stunning first because the heart continues to pump blood out of the body, but I was wondering if anyone knew how long it kept going.

I think that would depend on the bird's mental state (calm or terrified = how fast the heart is beating which would tell how quickly it would lose enough blood) as well as the severity of the cut (a nick won't cause as much blood loss as a good clean slice through the vein)

so a calm bird with just a nick to the vein would (or should) live longer than one with a good cut severing the vein completely.


I have read on here where someone botched the job a bit and the blood congealed enough that the bird lived.. (I don't remember if they decided to finish the job or not)

 

[stayathomechick]

great job, i workrd at a prossessing plant many years ago and never fully learned everything you just showed and exspaind thank you sooo much.

 

[twinzmom]

We just used the pictures and explanations in this thread to cull, eviserate and butcher our first chickens. We only had 3 to do (roosters, we arent allowed to have) and this was very helpful. The first one was very calm and took the longest to expire....the 3rd was the hardest to catch and the quickest to go......
Thanks for helping with an unpleasant job......chickens are in the freezer!

 

[Henicillin]

This thread is great - it definitely helped me with my first kill this morning!

 

[TMNfarm]

I am 6 days away from my first buthchering day... This thread was exactly what I was looking for! I'll let you know how it goes...

 

[darkfox907]

wow this is very helpful!!

 

[citizenkahn]

Thank you. This is a huge help. we got back from a a trip to Polyface farm and have decided to start raising broilers using the method. The processing is new to us as stealing eggs from layers has been our only animal faming to date. I had no idea that I could rent a plucker and was not looking forward to that part of the processing.

by the way, if you are unfamiliar with the polyface method is uses a low capital management practices that are highly mobile. We need to build a 10x10x2 mobile copy with top fed drip water and feeder (more mobile and less cleaning needed). We'll scale down to a 5x5x2 structure. We move it daily to a new patch of grass allowing the chickens access to new grazing area and spreading the manuer over space and time allowing for break down and fertilizing the land. After 8 weeks or so, we process. Moving the coop is a one person job taking about 5 minutes. Polyface had 20+ of the 10x10x2 coops with about 50 birds per (I think) and they use a 5 hens to 1 turkey ratio but split the turkeys off later on. They also use a lite weight nylon electic fence that's also mobile.

The key is that the system (and the cost) scales up or down as you need it allowing you to find the right level for your economic situation.

I don't know how the numbers work out on the super small scale but I plan to track everything about this project to see how it pans out. If it makes financial sense then it's possible to raise a few crops a year on tiny amount of land (we have about .5 acre).

Thanks Again.

 

[chicken pickin]

This absolutely great. Very informative and pictures always help with us who dont know what we are doing lol. Ill be reffering back to this, will probably even print it out for our big day when it comes. One question, I have seen other things about after scalding and plucking to let the bird sit in ice water for like 20 mins to lower the body temp before cutting and removing insides. Is that not neccesary? And also you who have processing equipment, do you know where to purchase the tools(shears, knifes, lung remover, cones) relatively inexpensively?

 

[LightningTFarm]

I have just spent hours going through this entire thread. Amazing! I was smart enough to copy and paste the stuff I really wanted to remember to a Word document, so I wouldn't have to search the thread for those nuggets of knowlege. Because I did this, I can answer a few of your questions. You can buy cones, but you can also make them. Here's the advice I copied: 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.

The knives and shears are just basic kitchen equipment, but I also saw in one post that you can use grapefruit spoons to scrape out the lungs, etc. You can use your fingers, but if you are doing a lot of birds it can make your fingers sore.

Hope this helps!

 

[LightningTFarm]

I forgot I had a question myself! I am rasing ducks, not chickens, so I am wondering about the process for cleaning or skinning duck feet. Also, do you make "duck stock" like you make chicken stock? And lastly, how do you build a "whizbang" plucker I saw mentioned in a couple of posts here? Is it detailed in another thread somewhere?

Thanks!