meat birds

[AA Maple]

i already have twelve kill cones, 2 scalders and 2 pluckers.

Hope you have a few friends to help with all this. Me plus 1 friend only use one cone. My helper will grab a bird, behead it and rinse while I eviscerate and pluck. I find you don't want them sitting in the cone longer than necessary for draining or they'll stiffen up and get harder to work with. We can do about 6 per hour. You could probably do better with more experience and may do fewer until you get into the groove.

For scalding I have a 60 gallon tank I use for getting a lot of water up to 150-160 and draw that off into a 5-6 gallon stainless pot for dunking, changing the water after every 3-4 birds. I'd recommend more burners if you're only doing a small pot of water at once. The water gets disgusting fast and I like frequent changes.

I would avoid getting 4-5 months of feed at once unless you are very confident in your storage. A bit of mold and your feed is ruined (and your birds' health can be ruined as well) and it may attract rats or other vermin which can chew through/into a lot. I buy 1000-2000 pounds at a go and split it up with a neighbor.

 

[Carson213]

Hope you have a few friends to help with all this. Me plus 1 friend only use one cone. My helper will grab a bird, behead it and rinse while I eviscerate and pluck. I find you don't want them sitting in the cone longer than necessary for draining or they'll stiffen up and get harder to work with. We can do about 6 per hour. You could probably do better with more experience and may do fewer until you get into the groove.

For scalding I have a 60 gallon tank I use for getting a lot of water up to 150-160 and draw that off into a 5-6 gallon stainless pot for dunking, changing the water after every 3-4 birds. I'd recommend more burners if you're only doing a small pot of water at once. The water gets disgusting fast and I like frequent changes.

I would avoid getting 4-5 months of feed at once unless you are very confident in your storage. A bit of mold and your feed is ruined (and your birds' health can be ruined as well) and it may attract rats or other vermin which can chew through/into a lot. I buy 1000-2000 pounds at a go and split it up with a neighbor.

i have a big family...2 catchers, 1 killer, 2 scalders, 2 pluckers, 3 eviscerators, 3 packers.

 

[Carson213]

i have a big family...2 catchers, 1 killer, 2 scalders, 2 pluckers, 3 eviscerators, 3 packers.

plus another 7 helpers for cooling, etc

 

[Carson213]

plus another 7 helpers for cooling, etc

the cooling tank is kind of like a cold version of a sous vide...same way you cool down wort when making beer

 

[AA Maple]

i have a big family...2 catchers, 1 killer, 2 scalders, 2 pluckers, 3 eviscerators, 3 packers.

Nice! My neighbor and I split 100 broilers with me so hopefully between the two of us we can recruit a few more volunteers to get a big assembly line going.

 

[Carson213]

Nice! My neighbor and I split 100 broilers with me so hopefully between the two of us we can recruit a few more volunteers to get a big assembly line going.

my birds are dual purpose. however, the ones we caponize...if not all of the cockerels...will go back into the brooder house for a bit with no roosts. my biggest concern is not the caponizing procedure...it’s identifying all of the cockerels vs pullets at 6 weeks. i am comfortable with caponizing but more worried i’ll be looking for testicles in a bird with no testicles.

 

[RoosterML]

So we have two dentist on this site that I know of. Is it time to open a BYC client only practice? I could just see the slogan in the window. No chickens no service. @muddy75
Payment by bags of feed accepted would that be a redneck form of EBT??

 

[Carson213]

So we have two dentist on this site that I know of. Is it time to open a BYC client only practice? I could just see the slogan in the window. No chickens no service. @muddy75
Payment by bags of feed accepted would that be a redneck form of EBT??

So we have two dentist on this site that I know of. Is it time to open a BYC client only practice? I could just see the slogan in the window. No chickens no service. @muddy75
Payment by bags of feed accepted would that be a redneck form of EBT??

i want to caponize next week. who is the other dentist?

 

[RoosterML]

i want to caponize next week. who is the other dentist?

Not sure what being a dentist has to do with caponizing a bird. Don’t really think it’s a qualifier.

 

[Carson213]

Not sure what being a dentist has to do with caponizing a bird. Don’t really think it’s a qualifier.

probably nothing aside from working with my hands all day in a world starting less than a millimeter...inside the mouth....with saliva and a moving tongue. dentistry and caponizing are totally unrelated but caponizing seems WAY easier. i’m guessing you aren’t a dentist.