OMG! I processed a turkey today tryed pithing nightmare

[freshegg]

well I thought I understood this pithing through the brain something wrong here. I had hubby put him in a cone, then I pulled the neck down and opened his mouth, saw the slit at top of mouth and pushed knife upward towards the back and gave it a quarter turn. well the turkey didnt close his eyes peacefully matter of fact he looked around for like 5 minutes. So I cut on left side if the neck and he started draining blood really fast, 5 minutes later hes still looking around and opening mouth

so I tryed poking the brain again., few minutes later I sliced other side of neck it bleeds a ton and hes still alive at which time I sliced throat wide open and he died. This was horrible to go through, I chose this method thinking quick and peaceful. what did I do wrong, maybe not deep enough or far enough back? It wasnt a good day before I culled turkey I made purple chickens plucker for the drill but dont know how to lock it onto the drill

so we hand plucked. All this for a 15 lb turkey (after gutting and all). I have 5 more to do in a month or so.

 

[snowydiamonds]

Freshegg, I had nearly the same results yesterday...had to do the 10 cannibalistic RIR hens (only one seems to be rethinking on her aggression and she's on daily watch w/the Americana's since that roo only has 4 pullets).

I used not only my fillet knife but also tried my skinning aka butchering knife but out of 11 chickens done for the freezer not a single one died peacefully from that pithing and I tried on each one of them.

I ended up slicing their juglar vein on some and using the hatchet on the others and I do have to say that the one good thing was there was a whole lot less of the frantic, adrenalin flying/running motion which was very good in that respect.

I was wondering how the larger birds are easily defeathered, I put mine in the boiling water and counted to 10 so the feathers slide right off.

I can appreciate how cornishX has very few feathers, that's wonderful for cleaning them up but also, RIR's are truly a cold weather breed, their feathers are so dense, I had to count longer in the hot water bath for a few as the water never reached the skin, the feathers are that dense! And those birds had a very thick layer of fat beneath the skin and surrounding the gizzards (not the crops).

What in the world are we doing wrong??? It seems that out of 11 birds I might have had a chance to do at least one properly??? Or is that really it???
edited for spelling, very dyslexic sp today...tired!

 

[cjeanean]

I am very curious about this method, cause if anyone saw the vid I posted from our butchering day those chickens flapped and freaked like none other without heads. Can anyone elaborate???

(I gotta add, I didn't know it was called pithing, I read the topic and thought it was a new swear word)

 

[freshegg]

I learned pithing here on BYC so if I am swearing its from the BYCers I learned lol

Quote:

 

[Justino]

omg im sorry that must of sucked LOL

 

[freshegg]

sucked isnt the word every minute felt like 10 it was the never ending murder I felt like a big pile of turkey poo.

 

[freshegg]

snowydiamonds it wasnt hard to defeather I dunked in boiled water for 30 secs.

 

[brahma-momma]

dont feel bad we tried that with 4 of our brahma roos today. i think from now on we will stick with the hatchet.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Trust me, a very sharp axe or hatchet and then its over!!

 

[snowydiamonds]

As I'd failed in the quick end for all the first 10, when it came to my Randy (RIR), I couldn't do it, I asked my son in law to help me as I held him...there was a reason though for Randy not growing, mentally and physically, his crop was totally empty and his gizzard was so small, like a heart so it was a good decision to let him go but he was my big hope and I was failing the pith...

the hatchet works, but the adrenalin flying/running is pretty gruesome, especially if they still ahve the voice box and are...well, you know...cussing us out?