Processing cockerels for other purposes

[Geena]

There is a quick and easy way to process, no gutting, no plucking, very little clean up. With whole bird breast side up cut the skin down the keel bone and peel to the sides. Filet the breast meat off the bone. Cut off the feet, sever thigh joint from the body and remove from skin. Done. You have two boneless skinless breasts and two skinless leg quarters.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

The temperature of the scald water in the pot is critical. Either swap to a skinless processing method, or buy a big pot.

Now this isn't 5 star dining, you don't need Le Crueset, Cuisinart 5-Ply or All-clad. You don't need anything designed for even heat transfer, the water inside will do that for you.

A very large, very thin walled aluminum or stainless steel pot - as often used by home brewers, and frequently used in commercial kitchens, is all you need. Should cost $35-40, and last a lifetime, assuming you don't leave it empty over a propane burner. and if you don't have an outdoor propane burner, I do recommend getting one - likely as one of those "fried turkey" kits when they go on holiday special. Because heating 3 gallons of water on an electric element takes forever, and you really don't want to be carting 25# + of pot and hot water thru doorways.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

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.

I put up a bantam Cochin rooster and an large cockerel last week...

it was cold so I just used a broom stick and did the cervical dislocation method in the garage, so that I didn’t have to deal with the clean up of a bunch of sticky chicken blood...

then I just made a small cut in the skin and ripped open the skin and pulled the breast and leg quarters...

I did all that on some cardboard, so the little bit of blood that there was stayed on the cardboard and made clean up a snap...

I just swept out the feathers and dropped the carcass remains in an old feed sack and put it in the trash for pickup... (I’m pretty strict about not just “tossing it in the woods” because that teaches the local chicken eaters to look for food around the house and coop)

It took about 15 minutes to do both birds... but I’ve processed a lot of critters over the years... still I’d think anyone could have had it done in less than an hour...

I don’t have any ‘alternative’ ideas for you, but thought I’d mention the alternative methods and that it can be done quickly... might just need to practice and streamline it a bit for the weather conditions. Hope that helps.

edit: oops, just saw Geena’s reply... that’s basically same as I was saying, lol

 

[K0k0shka]

If you're just looking to get rid of the cockerels without having them sit around and smell and attract flies and predators (like with composting), you could just drive out to the woods and toss them into the bushes somewhere off the beaten path. Some wild animal out there will thank you.

 

[SarahGfa]

@Geena @OhZark Biddies do you scald before skinning?

(also just saw that amazon sells bags of chicken feathers as fertilizer! https://www.amazon.com/Down-Earth-Organic-Feather-Fertilizer/dp/B001B2W842 )

 

[bobbi-j]

There is a quick and easy way to process, no gutting, no plucking, very little clean up. With whole bird breast side up cut the skin down the keel bone and peel to the sides. Filet the breast meat off the bone. Cut off the feet, sever thigh joint from the body and remove from skin. Done. You have two boneless skinless breasts and two skinless leg quarters.

This is probably the easiest, most efficient way to do it. I also take the wings. This is how I process my spent layers when I’m in a hurry. Sometimes I will skin and gut them, take as much meat off the carcass and make broth or stock from the carcass. (I pressure can the broth, but it can also be frozen.)

 

[bobbi-j]

@Geena @OhZark Biddies do you scald before skinning?

(also just saw that amazon sells bags of chicken feathers as fertilizer! https://www.amazon.com/Down-Earth-Organic-Feather-Fertilizer/dp/B001B2W842 )

I’m not Geena or OhZark, but there is no reason to scald before skinning.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

@Geena @OhZark Biddies do you scald before skinning?

(also just saw that amazon sells bags of chicken feathers as fertilizer! https://www.amazon.com/Down-Earth-Organic-Feather-Fertilizer/dp/B001B2W842 )

nope... I’ve never scalded anything in my life... other than maybe my tongue on hot hot coffee by accident, lol

My general feeling is every chicken keeper should know how to process a chicken... it makes all the “rehoming roo” issues irrelevant, and it allows the keeper to maintain a young flock by turning older non layers into soup, rather than just letting them grow old and become unhealthy and require doctoring ( other than those couple of pet hens that we all have ) ...

basically about 80% of the problems that people on BYC have to overcome, go away by simply processing your own birds... so I say give it another try in the future... maybe when it’s warmer

you can do it though!

Here is a quick video of taking the breast on a goose... this is often all that’s taken on wild geese because they are older and the legs are stringy... there might be other or better videos out there of this for chickens... but this is just the first one that popped up in my search.

did I mention... give it another try and you can do it!!

 

[OhZark Biddies]

I should mention too, that often I just skin the whole bird (not pluck) and use more of the carcass... but for bantams and when it’s super cold or when I just need to get a cockerel processed quick to make space, etc... I’ll just pull the breasts and leg quarters.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Breasting any bird doesn’t take longer than a few minutes.