I finally got the opportunity to snap a few photos of my home-made processing station so I could share it here. It's been a work in progress. Each time I use it I think of ways to make the next session go easier and faster. After the first time someone showed me how to process I decided that I wanted somewhere to hang my birds while they bleed out and while I pluck them. That's when I started using this re-purposed metal yard swing frame.
At first it only had wire hooks hung across the top. I would hang my birds from their zip-tied legs to bleed out into a can below, and again after scalding to pluck them. Hand-plucking is a breeze when I have a sturdy place from which to hang the birds.
Before I added the board with the cones, I could also hang the birds for cutting. I would wrap a few lengths of duct tape around their wings to keep them from flapping. But that's a shameful waste of duct tape, so I bolted the board across the top, using holes already in the frame that were for the hooks that hang the swing. And I made the cones of different materials, to see what I liked best. Actually, I like the different sizes to use for different birds.
You can see the hooks that are still between the cones, to hang the birds for plucking. There's the lined garbage can in which they bleed, and where the plucked feathers go. The yellow 5-gallon bucket is where the birds are scalded. My teenaged son brings the boiling water out from the house, which is his contribution to his chicken dinners.
The chickens & the guineas are all pecking around the ground there looking for goodies among the stray feathers from my recent processing session.
I usually have to work alone, and will put 2 birds in at a time to cut & bleed. Then I scald & pluck them together, and take them to the cutting table. While I clean the first 2 birds, I'll hang & cut another two. Last session there were 4 of us and there was almost room for us all. If I regularly had so many helpers I would bolt a second board across the back and add more cones there. And bring the frame away from that fence so people could stand on both sides at once.
The chickens must have tacked that BEEF bumper sticker on the board, trying to persuade me to change my mind...
At first it only had wire hooks hung across the top. I would hang my birds from their zip-tied legs to bleed out into a can below, and again after scalding to pluck them. Hand-plucking is a breeze when I have a sturdy place from which to hang the birds.
Before I added the board with the cones, I could also hang the birds for cutting. I would wrap a few lengths of duct tape around their wings to keep them from flapping. But that's a shameful waste of duct tape, so I bolted the board across the top, using holes already in the frame that were for the hooks that hang the swing. And I made the cones of different materials, to see what I liked best. Actually, I like the different sizes to use for different birds.
You can see the hooks that are still between the cones, to hang the birds for plucking. There's the lined garbage can in which they bleed, and where the plucked feathers go. The yellow 5-gallon bucket is where the birds are scalded. My teenaged son brings the boiling water out from the house, which is his contribution to his chicken dinners.
The chickens & the guineas are all pecking around the ground there looking for goodies among the stray feathers from my recent processing session.
I usually have to work alone, and will put 2 birds in at a time to cut & bleed. Then I scald & pluck them together, and take them to the cutting table. While I clean the first 2 birds, I'll hang & cut another two. Last session there were 4 of us and there was almost room for us all. If I regularly had so many helpers I would bolt a second board across the back and add more cones there. And bring the frame away from that fence so people could stand on both sides at once.
The chickens must have tacked that BEEF bumper sticker on the board, trying to persuade me to change my mind...
