Maine

[MainerChick]

West Gardiner Beef will do poultry, you just have to reserve a time slot with them. They're located in Bowdoinham.

 

[lazy gardener]

Thanks. A bit of a hike. I think hubby will help me tonight. Hopefully, we can knock a few off, and perhaps do a few more Wed night.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Any one out there know of any one who will process birds for a fee? I'm finding that no matter how many birds I process, it takes me 45 minutes to complete one bird, and I'd rather pay some one to do it for me.

Pretty sure that Westin's in Gardiner will do it.

I've got it down to 20 minutes but the set up and take down add significantly to that time. Getting a lung scraper was one of the best decisions.

 

[buckabucka]

There's also Jason's in Albion (certain days of the week). We go to Greaney's in Mercer because it is closest, but we've also been to West Gardiner Beef. We've released roosters and hens at all locations but Jason's . It seems the workers get accustomed to the hundreds of docile meat birds rolling through, and are quite taken by surprise when they get a rooster jack-in-the-box!

 

[lazy gardener]

2 hours start to finish last night with 4 birds. Hubby was water boy. So, 30' is better than 45'! I think I can cut the time a bit more by draining one while plucking and completing the prior one. Key is having the water hot enough, and having the hose set up for easy management. It would be sweet to have the hose secured and able to be managed on/off with a foot switch. I bet it could be arranged with some red neck engineering.

 

[MainerChick]

We spent the money on the sportsman's table at Tractor Supply.

Actual price was much lower than currently displayed $99, probably close to $60. Right now the ones in Lewiston that I've seen are also on sale so I would check with your local store to see if they're still in stock. This made all the difference in saving stress on my back and speeding up the process by having a water faucet that you could just turn on and off to rinse the bird as you work. And of course it hooks directly to your regular garden hose. While you'll just get faster naturally by repeating the process, I strongly recommend getting something like this to make the process more efficient.

 

[Hiltonizer]

Wife and I got it down to 10 minutes or so if we hustle, without a plucker.

The trick is to have the water temperature on the money with a candy thermometer, 150F... and then use rubberized gloves to more massage the feathers off than pluck them. We assembly line it too, so we always have 2 birds going and stick to our own tasks we've gotten good at.

We just typical plastic tables and a hose with a gun style nozzle.

 

[lazy gardener]

I was going to make a garden harvest table, but if that can be had for around $60, it would be well worth the price. I don't find that the plucking takes long at all. I use rubber gloves. And am finding that I want to start by scalding the hocks/feet for longer time, so start there and then do the whole bird, and finish up with a second bath on the hocks if the scales are not separating easily. It's the breaking down the rib cage from the back that takes me a long time, separating out the crop from the connective tissue.

I bought some kitchen scissors this weekend, and am finding that they are my most useful tool for the job. I also use a pair of stainless garden clippers. Keep them specific to the job. Broom stick for the kill. Interested in hearing what the rest of you are finding to be good equipment, takes a good edge when sharpening, and maintains that edge. My best knife is a fillet knife. Hubby is my knife man.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

The crop doesn't take long for me. I chop head off then cut down the neck skin with scissors until I get near the crop. Pull trachea. Start pulling esophagus until get to crop then use fingers to kinda scoot around it and pull it from connecting tissue. Once released use scissors to snip as far down as you can get then throw out. Neck then comes off with scissors to use in stock and meat then cut with knife at end of sternum kinda up pointing then rip open with 2 hands.

 

[Hiltonizer]

What i've found handy instead of poultry/kitchen shears though is construction shears. The $10 special from Home Depot works twice as well and last longer than $40 kitchen scissors. Funny how things are marked up for different uses. For turkeys though, I end up using cutting dykes to cut the neck, I can't brute force them like I do with the chickens. The chickens I like to cut the connective tissue on the neck with my boning knife and just pop it off so there are no sharp edges of neck bone to pierce the shrink bags.

For a knife, I use a 6" Victorinox boning and keep a little carbon kitchen sharpener handy. I just do a jugular slit and the lights go right out from lack of blood to the brain, gets a great bleed on them too. The boning also makes for great nuance for opening the cavity for evisceration. I also keep a junk transfer station swap knife for cutting the leg joints.

We did about 40 for our own freezer this year and maybe another 40 for clients.... not looking forward to thanksgiving... probably going to end up doing 25 or so turkeys.

One of our finished goods: