Not meat birds but culled

[JacinLarkwell]

Honestly, depending on your eating tolerances and how you cook, you might not even need to remove the feathers. I know it sounds kinda nasty, but some little feathers aren't going to cause stomach issues after being cleaned and cooked on the bird.

Very good job. I know it's tough, I'm in a similar boat in terms of age and caretaking position, so I know how it feels to care for birds that you later eat

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Great job! Others have mostly answered the feather questions. With the gallbladder, if you wash the area ASAP it should be fine, unless it gets on a more porous area like the skin. Then I would probs discard that part of the skin and wash the area around it. I also wanted to add that you need to rest the bird in the fridge for 24-48 hours so rigor mortis passes and the meat isn't chewy like rubber bands - in case you didn't know. You'll know it's passed when you can grab one of the legs or wings and the move it and the joint moves freely and is not stiff.

Good luck and let us know how they taste!

 

[BarnyardChaos]

A few of my tips:
I scald at 145-150-deg-F, and swish the bird around in the water for about a minute, give or take. I grab a few wing feathers and pull them out. When they come out freely with little resistance, it's ready. If I have to tug, it's not ready and back into the pot it goes for a few more seconds. But keep it in too long and the skin cooks a bit, and then tears too easily. It takes a few times of doing it to find your 'sweet spot' of when is the right time to remove from the scalding pot. From your photos and description, it sounds like you just didn't scald long enough. Next time you'll do better, I promise.

As for the liver and gallbladder, I'm picky about that too. You only burst ONE? My goodness, you're doing great. That's a tricky bit to get it cut off without destroying either part. If one bursts and the liver is still pretty whole and shiny, I quickly rinse it off very well. If the liver is a bit damaged and the bile gets on the damaged parts, then I throw it out.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Oh, and another trick I use to get the remaining feathers out: I scrape the skin with a dull knife, or the backside of a paring knife - kind of like scaling a fish.

 

[FunClucks]

You did a great job!!!

As you do more of them, you'll get better/faster at it, it takes practice.

I scald at 145-150F until the primary feathers (largest wing feathers) come out easily. I dunk them under the water, including the feet, and check by pulling on the feathers periodically until one comes out easily. Takes mine 1-3 minutes or more, depending on the size of the bird and the amount of water in the scalder, etc. I use a candy thermometer to make sure the temperature is correct, and a bit of dish soap in the water.

You can peel the skin off and pop the nail coverings off the bird's feed and they get squeaky clean and make great chicken stock or dog treats. Also, if you want to grow out cockerels longer, you can make a bachelor pad for them. There's Articles in the Articles section that tell how to do both of these things, or you can search on here for threads about it.

For my bachelor pad, I put chicken wire down the middle of my enclosed covered run, and grew the cockerels out on one end of it to keep them away from the hens, and therefore keep the fighting down. Worked great.

It can be hard to process your first birds. I grew out and processed 21 CX in March of this year, and it was my first time slaughtering anything. It helped that the CX all pretty much looked alike and I didn't name them. Tried to care for them as a group rather than individuals.

I had 12 cockerels I grew out for 3 months (I was trying to breed olive eggers and only got 8 hens), and when it came time to process them, I was just as happy to sell them in the hopes that a few of them would find a flock home, rather than becoming dinner straight away. They were so gorgeous and such individuals, i was not looking forward to processing them at all. But if I hadn't found a good price for them, I would have eaten them. I keep my egger flock for pets, and my other flocks for breeding/selling/eating.

You can also use a torch to burn the feathers off the skin if they don't pluck well, like a cooking torch.

 

[Sussex19]

You did a great job! From one young woman to another

My questions are with the process, I think I messed up blanching but not too bad. Some of the feathers tips are kind of stuck in the meat and I popped some out but there are a good amount left, is this ok to still eat it this way?

To be honest, I don't worry about the odd feather stub left. They are not going to hurt you, it just doesn't look as nice.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Better than my first try.

Tweezers,

and yes, you can eat as is. Mostly keratin (think fingernails) and a bit of protein. After cooking, its a texture thing, but not otherwise dangeorus.

But I'd use tweezers.

and its difficult to get the temp just right, and also even over the bird. I usually dirobe the bird, but when I scald I often have to "rescald" a few spots if the water doesn't move over the birds adequately - between the thigh and the leg is a problem spot for me, likewise between the wing and the breast.

 

[Morrigan]

it was very hard and it was so sad to do especially because I am the sole caretaker it just hurt me but I really wanted to learn and no one was going to teach me so I did it

I'm very impressed. It's not everyone that finds the strength and will to do what needs to be done. It is an emotional and difficult task, but you did and did it alone. And, by the looks of the end result, you did it well.

As for the pin feathers, I keep a pair of needle-nose pliers on hand, but as others have said is mostly for aesthetics.

 

[aldanfac]

A few of my tips:
I scald at 145-150-deg-F, and swish the bird around in the water for about a minute, give or take. I grab a few wing feathers and pull them out. When they come out freely with little resistance, it's ready. If I have to tug, it's not ready and back into the pot it goes for a few more seconds. But keep it in too long and the skin cooks a bit, and then tears too easily. It takes a few times of doing it to find your 'sweet spot' of when is the right time to remove from the scalding pot. From your photos and description, it sounds like you just didn't scald long enough. Next time you'll do better, I promise.

As for the liver and gallbladder, I'm picky about that too. You only burst ONE? My goodness, you're doing great. That's a tricky bit to get it cut off without destroying either part. If one bursts and the liver is still pretty whole and shiny, I quickly rinse it off very well. If the liver is a bit damaged and the bile gets on the damaged parts, then I throw it out.

Thank you so much all these comments have really made me feel so much better about this process. I am familiar with processing animals so it’s not too foreign for me but it definitely is nothing like hunting, plus their organs are so much different. It’s nice to know tho that I don’t have to discard the liver next time I make that accidentally little cut, thank you so much

 

[aldanfac]

You did a great job!!!

As you do more of them, you'll get better/faster at it, it takes practice.

I scald at 145-150F until the primary feathers (largest wing feathers) come out easily. I dunk them under the water, including the feet, and check by pulling on the feathers periodically until one comes out easily. Takes mine 1-3 minutes or more, depending on the size of the bird and the amount of water in the scalder, etc. I use a candy thermometer to make sure the temperature is correct, and a bit of dish soap in the water.

You can peel the skin off and pop the nail coverings off the bird's feed and they get squeaky clean and make great chicken stock or dog treats. Also, if you want to grow out cockerels longer, you can make a bachelor pad for them. There's Articles in the Articles section that tell how to do both of these things, or you can search on here for threads about it.

For my bachelor pad, I put chicken wire down the middle of my enclosed covered run, and grew the cockerels out on one end of it to keep them away from the hens, and therefore keep the fighting down. Worked great.

It can be hard to process your first birds. I grew out and processed 21 CX in March of this year, and it was my first time slaughtering anything. It helped that the CX all pretty much looked alike and I didn't name them. Tried to care for them as a group rather than individuals.

I had 12 cockerels I grew out for 3 months (I was trying to breed olive eggers and only got 8 hens), and when it came time to process them, I was just as happy to sell them in the hopes that a few of them would find a flock home, rather than becoming dinner straight away. They were so gorgeous and such individuals, i was not looking forward to processing them at all. But if I hadn't found a good price for them, I would have eaten them. I keep my egger flock for pets, and my other flocks for breeding/selling/eating.

You can also use a torch to burn the feathers off the skin if they don't pluck well, like a cooking torch.

Thank you this is so helpful! I kind of have a bachelor pad started but it’s more of a separate run for one mom and her babies, she is a big bully so she gets her own corner lol and she raised all the roosters including the 2 I just processed so now that her babies are grown maybe she can move out of there, play nice with everyone else and I can make that the discrete bachelor pad, smart idea! Thank you for all your help that torch idea is a great one too i didn’t think about