Looking for more details on processing chickens

[U_Stormcrow]

It couldn't be too unsafe because that is the way poultry was marketed for hundreds of years. If you check, I think you will find game birds were hung in a dry cool place for several days and they weren't drawn either. Do you remember that Norman Rockwell picture of the old lady at the butcher shop buying a chicken? The one where the butcher has his thumb on the scale pushing down and the old lady has her finger under the scale pushing up? Look at the chicken on the scale. It is defeathered but it has its head and feet and it obviously had not been drawn either. You may be too young to remember that but your grandparents probably can.

people also used the river where they disposed of their waste as their drinking water source for thousands of years. Older is not necessarily better.

What it was was risk management - by keeping the bird intact, there were fewer opportunities for pathogens to enter (the water, as you may recall, often wasn't particularly clean) and chicken was such a luxury (any meat really), it was highly unlikely it would be around long enough to spoil as the innards begin to decompose with time.

Now we (largely) have clean water and modern refrigeration, making it possible to leave a bird in the chill chest until, in spite of refrigeration, it begins to break down beyond the terderization that occurs during wet aging as enzymes begin breakign down some of the tougher connective tissues and rigor passes.

Differing initial conditions, differing solutions. Its a system, everything works together.

/edit and I like three days in the chill chest for my birds (generally aged, 4-5 months or 1 year+ to age), I frequently wet age in buttermilk or live yogurt (enzymes in both help, while also conveying flavor from whatever spices I add), and for ease of processing, I'll do a day in the chill chest for rigor to pass if I'm making sausage with the oldest birds (well, most of a day, since cullings tend to occur mid day, and saussage making gets an early start).

 

[Molpet]

Call me too sensitive, but I feel the other chickens shouldn't be witness to their flock member being killed by the person they trust to care for them.

My chickens get upset by the capture. When I'm gutting they come up to the fence begging for bits. I tell them they shouldn't want to eat their children.
The turkeys seem to understand what is going on better, even if it's out of sight.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

My chickens get upset by the capture. When I'm gutting they come up to the fence begging for bits. I tell them they shouldn't want to eat their children.
The turkeys seem to understand what is going on better, even if it's out of sight.

^^^ this is consistent with my experience as well, and I cull frequently. "The Chase" is very stressfull, they are prey animals, they behave like prey - I try to minimize this stress by walking among them, picking up the desired bird, holding it close, and walking off with it. Better for all involved - also, my chickens can out run me.

Once I'm processing??? The birds will brave an electric fence, and crest like a tidal wave over the gates to get at the trimmings I don't keep for myself.

That is ALSO prey behavior - at least, prey behavior in omnivores - they are removing evidence of a dead/injured pack member so as not to attract other predators, and for a free meal.

 

[Molpet]

^^^ this is consistent with my experience as well, and I cull frequently. "The Chase" is very stressfull, they are prey animals, they behave like prey - I try to minimize this stress by walking among them, picking up the desired bird, holding it close, and walking off with it. Better for all involved - also, my chickens can out run me.

Once I'm processing??? The birds will brave an electric fence, and crest like a tidal wave over the gates to get at the trimmings I don't keep for myself.

I have not been handling my birds and those that are several generations of being raised by broody are flighty. Even taking a cockerel of the roost after sunset or pre dawn causes panic. Poor bird is alarming for everyone to run. The other birds bash into the walls trying to run. I have found it's better to get them during the day. At least the birds can run and there's less chance for injury.
I was thinking less human contact made it easier for me. I didn't feel like I was betraying them. I now think I am not doing them any favors.

 

[Molpet]

Article on hanging pheasant

https://projectupland.com/wild-game-recipes/how-and-why-you-should-age-your-upland-birds/

 

[Ridgerunner]

I keep running across references to letting the meat rest, but no detail on why, for how long, or whether this "resting" needs to be done prior to or after gutting.

I'll go through the three things.

Aging is when you keep the bird long enough to let rigor mortis pass. If you cook the bird immediately (cook, not just butcher) rigor does not have time to set up. As Cassie mentioned, Mom would cook the bird immediately, no aging. no problems. You can tell when rigor has passed by the meat. If you have joints the joints should be really loose. With no joints the meat itself is very loose and limber, not stiff at all.

Brining is when you soak the meat in a salt and water solution, often when aging. There is some debate on whether the salt actually tenderizes the meat, I don't think it does directly but others do. What the salt does is retain moisture in the meat. If you are going to cook the meat a dry method like grilling or frying brining can help. If you cook it a wet method I don't see a lot of benefit in brining. You can add a salty taste at any part of the process.

Marinading is when you keep the meat in an acid solution. The marinade is usually wine, vinegar, or tomato based. The acid breaks down fiber in the meat. The stronger the acid and the longer it is left in the marinade the more the meat fiber breaks down. I don't consider a marinade necessary for really young chicken, might even turn it mushy, but for an older chicken it can really help. An example is Coq au Vin, how the French turn a tough old rooster into a gourmet meal.

You can add flavor at any stage. A lot of people use a marinade for that. The flavor itself doesn't affect tenderness but the acid will.

when you buy a chicken from the grocery store, I was taught it needs to be cooked within 24 hours or frozen right away. Does the freshly defeathered chicken not begin to stink/rot if left to rest in the fridge for a few days?

The others have covered this. The devil is in the details. The fresh meat you buy (poultry, beef, pork) has been handled and treated certain ways. That's going to include aging. You don't know how long it has been aged. They also don't know how you are going to store it. So they give the advice to cook it immediately, to a large extent because they don't trust the customer to know how to handle it.

That wasn’t a very safe procedure! As mentioned before, the innards are the first thing that breaks down, I wouldn’t advies ever leaving the innards in, I pluck the chickens and then get the innards out , after that, you wash the meat thoroughly and put it in a fridge

I also like to get the innards out when I butcher and not wait. I just feel better about it. I'm making a mess while butchering, make one mess and get it over with. Again, the devil is in the details. If you study how they hang pheasant in Scotland they often leave the innards in for several days. The detail there is that it needs to be cool enough that the bacteria doesn't grow. I don't know the details in their techniques so I just clean them out. As mentioned in that article, a larger bird takes longer to cool down.

There is a reason hog killing time was in the fall after it turned colder. After Dad got a day job he did not have time to butcher our hogs himself. The country butcher he took it to had a huge walk-in cooler so he could age the meat, even in warmer weather.

You probably gathered this from your video, but you don't want to leave your bird in the hot water very long for the defeathering process. Certainly not long enough that the bird starts to cook at all. Just enough so the skin relaxes. Good luck to you!

If your dunking water is too hot or you leave the bird in the hot water too long the skin can tear when you pluck. That doesn't make plucking harder but makes for an ugly carcass. If you cook with the skin on and appearance is important to you that can be a problem. Personally I skin mine instead of pluck, my wife wants it skinless anyway, so I don't bother heating water to pluck.

We will likely burn the blood and any bits (not the feathers) we don't plan on utilizing. Does that sound ok or would you change anything? What do you all do with the feathers, if anything, besides discarding them?

We all have our own ways of doing these things. Whether you are urban, suburban, or rural can affect your options.

When I butcher I have two buckets. One is for the bits and pieces that I'm going to feed back to the flock immediately. I only save enough that they can finish it before night, I don't want the leftovers attracting predators though I don't worry about any blood left on the ground. The other bucket, which includes feathers, gets buried in my garden in an area that won't be disturbed for a while. The garden is fenced so dogs, coyotes and such can't dig it up. I used to bury it in my orchard. There I'd cover the area with wire weighted down with pavers so critters could not dig it up.

If you are going to put the offal in your trash you might want to freeze it so it doesn't stink before pick-up. Some garbage pick-ups don't take the leftovers from butchering.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I have not been handling my birds and those that are several generations of being raised by broody are flighty. Even taking a cockerel of the roost after sunset or pre dawn causes panic. Poor bird is alarming for everyone to run. The other birds bash into the walls trying to run. I have found it's better to get them during the day. At least the birds can run and there's less chance for injury.
I was thinking less human contact made it easier for me. I didn't feel like I was betraying them. I now think I am not doing them any favors.

Honestly, the only time I handle them is when I pick them up for culling, or twice a year (this AM, actually), for my NPIP testing. But I do walk among them pretty frequently - usually bringing food, so my presence doesn't cause them great concern - though they remain predator aware. Critical, since I free range acres.

I'm probably doing something wrong, or could improve on the practice in some fashion, but lacking good reference experience, we (the flock and I) are all muddling thru together.

Oh, and my NPIP Cert has been renewed - everyone tested clean for the stuff they look for. Unfortunately, the FL Ag confirmed a diagnosis I had made, but was hoping was in error. I have a very mild case of (dry) fowl pox working its way thru the flock. Evidence is only in the younger birds, so I'm going to hold off incubating any new eggs for a while, try to break the cycle. I'm guessing the older birds have already had it, none of my birds over 1 year in age had any evidence of it. Apparently, our weird weather allowed a mosquito hatching that's been a problem in this part of the Panhandle.

 

[MadGardener]

What do you all do with the feathers, if anything, besides discarding them?

Love the sound of your processing station!

I am very new to this, and have only harvested a couple birds so far. I've had no issue with adding blood and feathers to my compost. I'll add as I'm turning to avoid large clumps of similar materials, cover with more compost and straw. Only my dog has shown interest so far and I'm surrounded by possum, raccoons, coyotes, unleashed dogs, and black bears. The dog is back to grub hunting with our warm weather. I'll proceed until I have a problem.

 

[CNJ]

We will likely burn the blood and any bits (not the feathers) we don't plan on utilizing. Does that sound ok or would you change anything? What do you all do with the feathers, if anything, besides discarding them?

I place a trash bag under my killing cone to catch the blood and head. I pull off its head in the killing cone when it stops kicking. I tie the trash bag up and put it in my freezer with the guts and put it out on rubbish day.
My small feather plucker sits on two 2x4 across an eight inch high planter box. I dig a hole for the feathers before I use the plucker. The feathers decompose very fast, Id say with in one month.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Ive processed birds last season and stuck them in the freezer right away...didnt make a difference eating them. I use a kill cone i slice and snap so it goes quicker then i dunk em in water no hotter then 150 otherwise you will have rubber chicken then pluck, gut and either fridge for a day or straight to the freezer. To me birds over a year doesnt matter how you do it they taste tough. So i process mine at 5-10 weeks now best tasting ones. Old hens i will either sell or cull and give to my rats