Only 30 Gal Water and 50lb of Feed to Go - Mission Accomplished!

[bigredfeather]

I'm in the home stretch of my current batch of meaties. Last night when I was feeding/watering them, the title of my thread was running thru my head. We have decided to try and butcher this batch ourselves on Saturday. This will be our first try at butchering. Luckily, someone posted a few links to Joel Salatin videos, which has been a great help. After watching the videos about 20 times, I feel confident we can do this. It will be very gratifing to be able to raise broilers from start to finish.

Wish me luck!

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Good luck and lets us know how it works out. Once you get the hang of it and get a system going there's nothing to it. There is nothing better than sitting down to a meal from your own efforts!

Steve in NC

 

[EGGTASKTIC]

Good luck on Saterday- may you knife stay sharp.
How are you going the scald and pluck?

 

[bigredfeather]

Quote:
My uncle is a butcher, and he will be there with his steel in hand to keep them sharp.

How are you going the scald and pluck?

I have a small food grade barrel and a turkey fryer burner to heat. I will be borrowing a plucker from a friend to remove the feathers. Finding a plucker to use was a determining factor when decideing to do it ourselves. If I hadn't found one, I doubt we would try it ourselves. I don't think I have the dedication to do it by hand. Hats off to those that do.​

 

[the simple life]

How many weeks are they now?
Good luck with it!

 

[karl lutz]

I butchered 10 my first time out it was an afternoon ordeal. Catch all the birds you are going to butcher and seperate them the night before. I dont feed them that night and put them in a small cage so I'm not chasing them the same day I butcher. Then I chop heads and scald and pluck 3 at a time.
Good butchering!

 

[bigredfeather]

Quote:
8 weeks. That is my norm. Birds will average around 4.5 pounds, and there will be a few 6+ pounders. This is the first time I've done a Fall batch. They seem to be a bit bigger than when I do them in the Spring.

 

[the simple life]

Really, that is interesting. I had posted a question a while back asking about the whether anyone notices a difference in the spring and fall regarding the size of birds.

 

[bigredfeather]

Quote:
I not 100% sure they are going to be bigger. This is based on by the way the look. I haven't weighed any alive. If I would have had to predict, I would have guessed the Fall ones where going to be smaller, but that doesn't appear to be the case. I will find out Saturday. I always keep track of total butchered weight to determine price per pound.

 

[bigredfeather]

Everything went great! We started at 9am and threw the last one (#62) into the chilling barrel at 12:30pm. We netted 317 pounds of dressed chickens. The plucking was the slowest part of the process. We had a homemade plucker that made it easier than by hand, but it still took the longest. I think we have located a drum plucker for the next time. If we obtain that, we'll need to have a larger scalder. Other than that, my set-up worked great. I wish I would have taken some pics, but with everything going on, I just forgot until after we finished. I think the next time will be quicker. It would have cost us around $100 to have a nearby processor do the butchering. Was it worth $100? I would say yes. Outside of saving money, everyone that helped seemed to enjoy the day. It was nice getting together with friends and family and getting this accomplished. You can't put a price on that.