Processing cockerels for other purposes

[SarahGfa]

I only hatch a few eggs a year, so I only end up with 1 or 2 cockerels at a time. I used to take them to a butcher for processing for $5 per bird, but they closed down due to COVID.

So I processed my first cockerel by hand this week! It took all afternoon to do one tiny bird. Honestly I don't think I ever want to do that again.

Are there other things to do with cockerels, like turning them into plant fertilizer or feather dusters? Looking for ideas.

 

[iwltfum]

Depending on how much land you have and your access to wood chips, you could definitely compost them. Other options might be selling the saddle feathers to people that tie flies, or skinning them and drying/framing the skin to sell. I made one a while back:

 

[B-Goock]

Which part took so long?
Plucking can take some time if your doing it by hand.
You can also skin them.

 

[Ebony Rose]

If you don't mind sacrificing the skin, you can process a bird at your kitchen sink in far less than an hour (for a beginner). I'm able to process my birds in about a half hour.
Remove head.
Cut bony end of wing off, determine if there's enough meat on it to justify the work involved to get at it.
If so, bring some water to a simmer so that you can scald it (and later the feet) to remove plumage, or in case of the feet, the scales.
Carefully pierce the skin at the pointy end of the breast, just the skin, not the underlying tissue.
Insert fingers in the hole and tear/pull the skin and feathers off of the carcass and put into your waste container.
This next cut is the hardest. Remove the remainder of the wings from the joint at the breast, set aside. (These should not have any feathers remaining on them).
Bend the thigh/drum towards the back and using kitchen shears or a sharp knife, separate them from the back bone, set aside.
Carefully pierce the tissue at the pointy end of the breast (the entrails are located in the cavity below) near the location where you started the cut to remove the feathers and skin. Cut along the thin tissue along both sides of the breast to enable you to remove the breast from the back & carcass. I prefer shears for this part as it gives me a bit more control.
Remove heart, kidney and gizzards if you like them, set aside. Caution when removing the kidney, the gallbladder is connected. You'll see a green 'tube', that's bile, so cut into the kidney far enough to excise that tube in its entirety.
Remove remaining entrails from the carcass and put these in your waste container.
Put the back & those cleaned chicken feet into a pot of water (or your instant pot) to make homemade stock or soup.
Either cook the chicken immediately, or, that's a big or... put them in a ziplock bag in your refrigerator for a few days (longer if it's a very mature bird) to rest. This resting time makes for a much more tender meal, and if I intend to fry the chicken, I prefer that it's been rested.
Please give this another go, you only get better at it with practice, and home grown meat is the finest.

 

[SarahGfa]

Which part took so long?
Plucking can take some time if your doing it by hand.
You can also skin them.

Plucking took a long time. I don't have a large pot, so I had to boil small batches of water and carry it out to a bucket. I think the water ended up being too cold to loosen the feathers. Cleanup took a long time too, washing out all the buckets, wrapping up guts, disinfecting everything.

 

[SarahGfa]

Depending on how much land you have and your access to wood chips, you could definitely compost them. Other options might be selling the saddle feathers to people that tie flies, or skinning them and drying/framing the skin to sell. I made one a while back:

View attachment 2525528

That is pretty! If I had prettier roosters, I might think about trying taxidermy.

I have pine shavings. Can a rooster be composted whole, or does it need to be opened up? Also worried about the flies and rotting smell...

 

[B-Goock]

Plucking took a long time. Cleanup took a long time too, washing out all the buckets, wrapping up guts, disinfecting everything.

I use one bucket for the yuk.
A cutting board & 1 good boning knife.

If you hand pluck get some of those grippy rubber coated gloves. While scalding when primary feathers will pull easy just grab handfuls and yank.

 

[SarahGfa]

Can a bird go into the freezer if it is skinned? It sounds like skinning would make things a lot easier

 

[B-Goock]

I vac seal all of it & freeze.

Plucking is no fun and thats why ive got a plucker. Btw if you scald too long guess what happens when you pluck? The skin pulls off. Never thought of it before but that may even make skinning easier. Lol

 

[aart]

Cleanup took a long time too, washing out all the buckets, wrapping up guts, disinfecting everything.

That's the part that gets to me.