New (for me) processing setup

[Buster52]

Got this setup on Sunday for $900. Not a great price, but it will look good at my place and certainly do the job. Besides, it came from one of the sustainable broiler pioneers of Oklahoma, so it has a strong legacy and will be put to good use.





Pickwick plucker ($8,885 retail) with turkey size scalder ($2,295 retail) in the background, along with two turkey frier type scalders in the far back.



Big professional style evisceration table with all the fixins... except her moron sons and grandson ripped off half the fixins to get it through the door, rather than use a wrench. Easy enough to fix, though. Retail $2,495. Very nice.



Awesome kill cabinet that can hold 20 birds at a time and uses shackles rather than kill cones. Cabinet $2,850 retail, shackles $95 each.




I now have two complete processing systems, enough for my home, and enough to build a mobile processing unit to share with friends. Not bad for a day's work.

 

[Buster52]

Which brings up a question...

Anybody out there in Meat Bird land ever use shackles? To either kill or eviscerate? We are planning to use them for both, and I'm looking for any helpful hints folks might have. Using them for evisceration where you can hang the bird in front of you is supposed to be easier on the back than bending over a table.

 

[trifecta]

WOW, I am totally jealous... sure beats my bleach jug cone and stock pot of water, LOL. I have recently upgraded to a drill plucker, so we shall see if it truely is better than going by hand. Maybe next year I'll get a real cone or scalder!

I tried using a rope (obviously not quite the same as shackles) instead of a cone and greatly prefer the cone, but with the box setup I don't know it will make that much of a difference.

I bet eviscerating them on shackles is a heck of a lot easier. My back was killing me after processing and I only had a few birds to do.

Out of curiousity, what did you plan on charging to process? The reason I ask is I was trying to figure out if it would be worth the investment in "real" equipment if I could offset it by doing some custom work. The only person that does custom poulty around here is 3 hours away.