many hands make light work!

[Mrs. K]

I started at 5:30 and by 10:30 4 adults had them harvested, cleaned, cut up and bagged in the fridge. 15 birds done.

We field dressed them, then butterflied them, which really allowed us to clean the inside well, and they cooled quickly. Tossed them in coolers of cold water. When we were done, we drained the water, came up to the house and hosed them off again. Brought into the kitchen, washed them with a tad of cholorox, rinsed again and cut up and bagged. We got one hen whole into a gallon bag.

A couple of problems, the bones on the wings often popped through the skin, possibly from the occasional flapping at the end? Should I use a velcro band around them, while hanging them to bleed out?

We used a drill mounted chicken plucker, sometimes the skin tore, I think the scald might have been too hot? I was using a thermometer, but maybe not quite accurate enough, it is kind of old.

We used banded razor blades, but next time, I think we will go with scalpels, the handles will help with the work. Sharp is best, and things dull quickly.

Going to set the pot on to simmer up the necks, backs and feet. I will can that later today.

Feeling quite accomplished, and when the people that helped me left, they were talking about doing it again! I sent them home some meat.

Mrs K

 

[Oakdale Farm]

We just did 23 Cornish-X last week. When our scalding water was 150F, we did have some skin tearing. When it was 140F to 145F, it took longer to scald, but we had zero skin tearing. Here's an interesting observation and I wonder if anyone else has noticed this: At 140F range, it was always the flight feathers on the RIGHT wing tip that pulled last; every time. We waited long enough for the right flight feathers to pull, and the scald was perfect and with zero tearing. We used a Whizbanger to pluck them, and this way they cleaned usually within 10 to 15 seconds in the machine. We let them spin a little longer to be sure but we had just no tearing or problems scalding them at the lower temp and making sure that right wing slipped. Anyone else?

The 23 birds dressed out at 9 weeks. We had 177.6 lbs of meat, and we canned up 32 pints of the best bone/feet/neck stock you can get. Wonderful!

 

[Mrs. K]

I am making a note of this. I am also going to check my thermometer's accuracy.

 

[Mosey2003]

I'm a huge scalpel fan. Even with very sharp filet knives, I still just like the scalpel. I picked up a box of 100 blades from Amazon for under $10.

The wing and tail feathers are just harder, period. I'm going to try using some needle nose pliers on those if the rest of the bird is scalded right and call it a day.