pressure cooking skins and feathers

[CanadaEh]

Just wondering if anyone have tried to pressure cook butchering and skinning offal - namely roo's skins with feathers - for the purpose of making high protein treat for the chickens? Our pressure cooker can make chicken bones soft and palatable after ~1.5 hours. Will it do the same with feathers?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Just wondering if anyone have tried to pressure cook butchering and skinning offal - namely roo's skins with feathers - for the purpose of making high protein treat for the chickens? Our pressure cooker can make chicken bones soft and palatable after ~1.5 hours. Will it do the same with feathers?

Hi, hope you are enjoying BYC!
It's an interesting concept and great idea...

My understanding is that feathers being keratin only have about 2% digestible protein despite them being MADE from 90% protein and it's amino acids.

More often it seems as though skin is associated with fat and not protein.. or at least that's the reason it is suggested for removal for people who are "dieting".

I have made dog treats from pressure cooked bones and blended to spread into biscuit shaoes... but decided that may just be too much calcium for them. I KNOW excess calcium in chicken CAN (doesn't mean will) cause kidney issues including gout and failure... so decided not to risk that type of treat for my dogs anymore.

In nature... things don't get cooked. Many people here on BYC simply let all their offal fall to the ground and the animals do as they please... without issue. I'm not that easy going.

My personal thought... either feed what you can, as is... or maybe make a maggot bucket for the skin as feathers will be left behind. Feathers are essentially trash or maybe garden waste/compost. But feather meal in and of itself isn't worth the effort or nutrients and certainly NOT worth an hour and a half of my homes energy being used to produce it... much less my own time which is more valuable than gold!

I DO think it can be done... I just question the actual nutrient (and energy) content.

 

[CanadaEh]

here is some info I found outside of BYC:

Rich in protein
The most important poultry by-product at a rendering plant is FM. Feathers are rich in protein content called keratin and constitute 7% weight of the live bird, therefore producing a considerable mass which can be converted to valuable meal. Feather meal is also an excellent source of escape protein. Raw feathers are relatively insoluble and have a very low digestibility of 5% due to the high keratin content and the strong disulphide bonding of the amino acids, but with the controlled technology available today, we are able to convert a relatively insoluble protein into a palatable and highly digestible protein source for mulching ruminants. To make FM digestible it must first be converted through a hydrolysis process. Hydrolysation is completed by cooking the feathers with steam. Hydrolysed feather contents 40% to 65% moisture. This moisture must be reduced to 8% for improving shelf life as an animal feed.

https://www.poultryworld.net/Nutrit...ather-meal-and-its-nutritional-impact-95745E/

Bottom line: it is worth to try it. Not expecting to feed flock for a month with it, but don't want to discard a valuable resource either. It seems everybody on BYC however is either composing or trashing the offal from skinning.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

It seems everybody on BYC however is either composing or trashing the offal from skinning.

Thank you for sharing information!

According to your link.. if you get your cooking right, it can be a viable source of nutrients... but suggest parameters....

"A possible means of maintaining supply of broiler meat all year round at cheaper prices is by reducing the cost of production. Feeding of feather meal can fulfil the requirements for growth promoting protein in an economically viable form. Hydrolysed feather meal may be added up to 6% of the ration for broilers, 7% for layers and 5% for turkeys in well balanced diets, without harmful effect as far as production or health are concerned. Inclusion of the processed, water boiled feather meal up to 3.0% in the diets did not significantly affect mean body weights, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio of broiler chickens. The carcass data from the slaughtered chickens showed that birds fed diets containing 0, 1.5, and 3% feather meal had higher (P<0.05) carcass yields compared to those fed the 4.5% feather meal diet.>"

So it seems as though the diminishing point of return might be about 3% feather meal added into the total daily ration (if water boiled) and 7% if hydrolyzed? Would love to see the full explanation like how long it has to cook and other informative stuff. Also, I don't think this includes any skin but just the stuff from plucking.

Sounds like it *could* save you 3-7% off your feed bill... or maybe just the protein part of your feed bill? Seems like it would make for a great daily "treat" that doesn't diminish nutrients. It's always good to look at this type of thing! Depending on how many you process verses how many you are feeding... it COULD be worth your time.

I like the idea of not wasting anything..

3-7% would not be worth my effort in savings especially if spending fuel for cooking. But it might be worth it to you.

Things like this are fun to try! I hope you will let me know how it goes.. if your birds like it, if it stinks up your house, how long it took you, and maybe the changes you see after certain cooking times?

Good for you for thinking outside the box! I had considered it, but didn't find the information you have. One reason I LOVE BYC!

And it will be wonderful to see big chicken become more efficient.

 

[CanadaEh]

follow up on this:

cons:
- it stinks and you don't want eat any chicken after that on the same day as you will be able to smell slight hints of that feather cooking smell in your other chicken/rooster dishes

pros:
- they like it and eat it all - bones, skins, and feathers. The legs that came out from the pressure cooker pretty much unaltered I had to cut them in small pieces to not give them any idea of pecking legs.
- I could put processing discards from 3 roosters into one 11 quart pressure cooker packing it *very tight* and adding 2-3 glasses of water. The volume was reduced by 2 times after cooking for 1 hour. I am feeding it to flock of 9 over a period of one week. The only thing that went into garbage was stinky guts and the gizzards I did not want to clean.

 

[aart]

- it stinks and you don't want eat any chicken after that on the same day as you will be able to smell slight hints of that feather cooking smell in your other chicken/rooster dishes

That was my first thought.
Wonder how commercial FM is processed?

to not give them any idea of pecking legs.

Like crushing eggs shells will keep them from breaking and eating whole eggs.