Note to self: Do not go to slaughter house near passover or easter!

[snowhorse]

So I called a slaughter house that does poultry. Which in my area is not easy to find. Closest I came up with was a full hour away.

They only do poultry on Thursday by appointment and Saturdays first come first serve, cut off is 100 birds.

I work weekdays, so Saturday was the most reasonable choice for me, and they open at 8am. You can call and they write your name down and how many birds, but when they get to them is dependent on when you drop them off. He said you will be in and out in 1 hour.

So me and DB loaded up bright and early and got there at 10 past 8. And it was a Zoo.

I am not religious at all, so I had no idea it was passover. So there was a huge demand for goats, and lamb.

I unloaded my 30 birds, and they told me come back in 2 hours. Me and DB got breakfast bopped around town for a bit and went back a little more than 2 hours later because they told us to take our time.

Wellllll. We got back and they hadn't started my birds. They said we will get started on them now......we sat in the parking lot until 2pm.......

They came out every hour or less and were like they are almost done, no worries, almost done, we have 3 guys on them. No problem.
Of course they then tell me the guy that booked me should have never booked me on passover weekend, they were waaay too busy. So next time I call I should see if its a holiday. Because even tho they were bombed, they said next weekend (Easter) would be twice as bad.
I would have much rather them come out and say....hey we screwed up your birds are not going to be done until 2pm, if you want to find something to do that would be great

We would have gone to a movie, or gone shopping, not sit in a parking lot alllll DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY long. Oh man were we so frustrated

Waste of an entire day, but I guess live and learn right!

Thought I was share my experience in case anyone else is thinking about processing birds anytime soon!

 

[terri9630]

Man, I'd just be happy if I could find a processor that would do birds. None around here will touch poultry. The livestock inspector said it would be best if we just did them ourselves because there is nothing within 200 or so miles.

 

[Illia]

Yeah I don't think I even have a poultry processor for another 100+ miles. As for that, I agree with you about the waiting and lack of knowledge on the passover and easter thing.

I wouldn't know, and would actually be a little surprised, then really upset.

 

[Olive Hill]

I have never heard of sitting around waiting for your processing to be done. Don't they have a meat locker for storage?

 

[yotetrapper]

If you dont mind sharing, just what does it cost to pay someone to process a chicken?

 

[Olive Hill]

Like everything, geography plays a big part in the cost of processing -- as does state law and availability of processing facilities in the area.

 

[rufus]

Quote:
Also, in Arizona the health department has pretty much shut down all small processors. You have to go to a carneceria and ask. They will tell you where to go and who to ask for. You have to either do it yourself or deal with an illegal operation.

Rufus

 

[TimG]

I live in Maine. I've only had a couple of batches of birds processed, but both times I waited while they did it. Yes, both facilities had cold rooms, but I wanted to take them immediately rather than wait for them to be chilled.

There is no inspector on site, so these birds are marked "not for sale". If the birds were intended for sale, there would have to be a USDA inspector onsite (and I imagine it would cost more). At least that is my understanding of the way it is done in Maine.

Cost last year was $4 per bird. As someone else mentioned, this varies greatly from region to region. Someone will undoubtedly chime in that the Amish farmer down the road will do their chickens for $1.75 each. Someone else will say they wish they could find someone for as little as $4 that wasn't three bazillion miles away.

 

[Buster52]

I like free processing.

 

[snowhorse]

It wasn't easy finding a processor near me either, Most people will not do "other" peoples poultry. They will do their own.

I know someone close that does Turkeys, but not chickens.

I would do them myself but I'm not set up for it, and because I can't sell them to anyone with out a really really expensive permit, I have to get 25 birds for myself and it was just be me doing them, and I know it took me 6 hours sitting around, but I doubt I would be able to do 30 chickens(I also had 6 layers that don't lay anymore) in that amount of time by myself, especially when once they started them it only took them an hour.

It cost me $5 dollars a bird to process them. They don't bag them or freeze them. I had to go home and bag them all myself, which isn't really a big deal - but I am already looking into airtite sealers on ebay, Anyone know of a good airtite sealer to use on poultry?

I did find a place in Maine and maybe its the same one you are talking about which was only about 20 min further than the one I went to, that I was going to maybe look into next time. If I could have the USDA check some of them out to sell them, atleast I could sell them to friends. So I didn't have that much frozen chicken. Buuut I don't know anything about crossing state lines, which is something I have to look into and maybe the place in Maine will know.

And trust me as happy as I was to find someone- with the 6 hours I waited I had an additional 2 hours driving time. And I was mostly upset at that fact that they didn't have the courtesy to tell me they would take more than hour like I was told because they had 20 people in front of me. It just ended up being a waste of a day when it didn't have to be. I'll drive and hour to an hour and half to have them done- but next time I will research the area and find something to do for the whole day so atleast it isn't a waste of day, thats really what burned me. I mean when you are told on the phone they have a couple people doing that many birds, you'll be in and out within 1 to 2 hours and you can wait for them ( and I have never done this before) your going to believe the guy on the phone. The other guy there says most people drop them off and come back at the end of the day. Just a total communication gap.

So it was more a heads up for anyone that can take them- the guy at the slaughter house said stay away from here on holidays (mostly religious) because he said next Saturday before Easter they will go thru 100 lambs! And to plan your day right accordingly!