Yesterday (fri) was processing day!
went as uneventful as a first time processing can go i suppose.
the highlights
what a raw killing cone looks like in flat form before ive trimmed the top and bottom edges. The finished result (sorry no pic as of yet) is almost exactly what a commercial one would be. 26 ish gauge galv steel from the local HVAC shop in town. cutoff/leftovers enough to make 4 cones cost $6
the before product weighing in at between 6-7lbs
our setup not quite finished. Of course once we got it setup we started processing birds and didnt think about pics again till it was over done with and we were cleaned up grrrrrrrr
I checked my local craigslist for a stainless steel counter for about 2 weeks and about 2 days before D-day i found the "counter" you see for $75. its 7' long about 2' deep and was a "floor shelf" all stainless with included drain. (bottom is slopped and everything) We really felt having a work space like that was a requirement for processing and i after having done it, its hard to imagine doing it without a similar setup.
The overhead tarp was not planned, but yesterday was preplanned weeks in advance (of course) and was a rain or shine event and of course there were showers in the morning so i put up the tarp. ended up not needing it as the rain stayed away....
Also you can see my tub plucker, more on that to come in a different thread, still working up a detailed page about it. Suffice it to say it worked awesome. A few quick notes, it worked much better with 2 birds than with one. and make shure you get your scald right! i had one that got left in to long and the skin just disintegrated (while i was dealing with the UPS driver that showed up) and i had another that came up a good half as long as it should and left us plucking by hand quite a few feathers... again not fun)
We had a total of 4 people, 2 of us and 2 friends. i ran cones, scalded and plucker, 2 on the processing table and a third that kinda floated around (mostly grabbing birds from the pen on the other side of the yard) Our evisceration table was slow, mostly due to first timmers. There are a few items we will be improving to get our efficiency up some.
Processing time for 26 birds. I had run the last chicken through the plucker at about the 2 hr mark, but there was another 1.5 hrs between then and when the last ones were put in bags and put in ice coolers for customers. most birds had about an 2 hr soak before packaging. There was 2 hrs of setup and about an hr of cleanup afterward. Tear down is not yet finished figure anther hr or 2 especially with trying to find semi-permant homes for our new items (tub plucker, counter etc)
I cut a second 55gal plastic tub in half and used each half for pink water/clear water tubs. the 25 gal tubs about half full of water/ice will easly hold 20+ birds. I estimate we used a more than a lb of ice per bird. mostly in the form of chunk ice from frozen 2L bottles, gallon milk jugs etc. (id beat them up with an axe) could i have used more? shure... did i feel my water was "ice cold" with what i used, yes.
Finished weights ranged from some hefty roos at 5.5lbs down to some small hens 3.5 lbs. our avg weight was 4.5 lbs with a standard deviation of about 7 oz. Grow time was 7weeks.
went as uneventful as a first time processing can go i suppose.
the highlights
what a raw killing cone looks like in flat form before ive trimmed the top and bottom edges. The finished result (sorry no pic as of yet) is almost exactly what a commercial one would be. 26 ish gauge galv steel from the local HVAC shop in town. cutoff/leftovers enough to make 4 cones cost $6
the before product weighing in at between 6-7lbs
our setup not quite finished. Of course once we got it setup we started processing birds and didnt think about pics again till it was over done with and we were cleaned up grrrrrrrr
I checked my local craigslist for a stainless steel counter for about 2 weeks and about 2 days before D-day i found the "counter" you see for $75. its 7' long about 2' deep and was a "floor shelf" all stainless with included drain. (bottom is slopped and everything) We really felt having a work space like that was a requirement for processing and i after having done it, its hard to imagine doing it without a similar setup.
The overhead tarp was not planned, but yesterday was preplanned weeks in advance (of course) and was a rain or shine event and of course there were showers in the morning so i put up the tarp. ended up not needing it as the rain stayed away....
Also you can see my tub plucker, more on that to come in a different thread, still working up a detailed page about it. Suffice it to say it worked awesome. A few quick notes, it worked much better with 2 birds than with one. and make shure you get your scald right! i had one that got left in to long and the skin just disintegrated (while i was dealing with the UPS driver that showed up) and i had another that came up a good half as long as it should and left us plucking by hand quite a few feathers... again not fun)
We had a total of 4 people, 2 of us and 2 friends. i ran cones, scalded and plucker, 2 on the processing table and a third that kinda floated around (mostly grabbing birds from the pen on the other side of the yard) Our evisceration table was slow, mostly due to first timmers. There are a few items we will be improving to get our efficiency up some.
Processing time for 26 birds. I had run the last chicken through the plucker at about the 2 hr mark, but there was another 1.5 hrs between then and when the last ones were put in bags and put in ice coolers for customers. most birds had about an 2 hr soak before packaging. There was 2 hrs of setup and about an hr of cleanup afterward. Tear down is not yet finished figure anther hr or 2 especially with trying to find semi-permant homes for our new items (tub plucker, counter etc)
I cut a second 55gal plastic tub in half and used each half for pink water/clear water tubs. the 25 gal tubs about half full of water/ice will easly hold 20+ birds. I estimate we used a more than a lb of ice per bird. mostly in the form of chunk ice from frozen 2L bottles, gallon milk jugs etc. (id beat them up with an axe) could i have used more? shure... did i feel my water was "ice cold" with what i used, yes.
Finished weights ranged from some hefty roos at 5.5lbs down to some small hens 3.5 lbs. our avg weight was 4.5 lbs with a standard deviation of about 7 oz. Grow time was 7weeks.
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