Sally asked I let ya'll know how my process went and any advice I could give so here goes:
We had 4 cornish Xs (I plan to get more and some slower growing meat birds such as red-rangers or similar), which I processed before Memorial Day.
I'll be honest the first bird was a bit hard to dispatch, while I've hunted for years it is different to dispatch an animal with a knife. Once I did him it was easy to do the rest, I'd gotten over that first hurdle. I also made the mistake of slicing the wrong side of his neck, and quickly corrected my mistake. With the other 3 it was the right hand side on the first cut. I used an old porch swing frame with painter's plastic laid underneath to hang them from and placed a 5 gallon bucket under the bird. I did one bird at a time, and allowed them to hang for a little bit after I decapitated them (once they were dead). Allowing more of the blood to drain before I went on to the next step.
To scald them I had a large pot (large enough to dunk one bird) on my grill's side burner. I dunked them for a minute at most.
Because I only had 4 to do I did the plucking by hand, but I am looking into a plucker as the next batch will be larger. If you have fibromyalgia, arthitis, carpal tunnel or any issues with your hands/wrists I would recommend looking into buying a plucker or seeing if you can rent/borrow one. I have fibro and carpal tunnel and my hands were killing me after I was done.
Once they were plucked I placed them into a cooler with ice as it was warm outside. I used the same bucket to place the feathers, heads, and innards which I disposed of on our property (but we have 8 acres and we dispose of innards from all animals at the furthest edge of our property). I honestly don't know how to dispose of the waste if you can't do so on your property. I would check with your garbage disposal person. Gave the feet to my dogs, which they loved.
I did not buy any of the specialty tools for processing my birds. I used a very sharp filet knife for the necks. A very sharp chefs knife for the joints and quartering. A pot I already had for scolding. A small spoon and my fingers for the lungs.
In hindsight the two biggest things I would do differently would be not to feed them for at least 12 hrs before processing (there was food coming out of their crops when they were decapitated) and to get them at a time of year when they would be processed in cooler weather.
We had 4 cornish Xs (I plan to get more and some slower growing meat birds such as red-rangers or similar), which I processed before Memorial Day.
I'll be honest the first bird was a bit hard to dispatch, while I've hunted for years it is different to dispatch an animal with a knife. Once I did him it was easy to do the rest, I'd gotten over that first hurdle. I also made the mistake of slicing the wrong side of his neck, and quickly corrected my mistake. With the other 3 it was the right hand side on the first cut. I used an old porch swing frame with painter's plastic laid underneath to hang them from and placed a 5 gallon bucket under the bird. I did one bird at a time, and allowed them to hang for a little bit after I decapitated them (once they were dead). Allowing more of the blood to drain before I went on to the next step.
To scald them I had a large pot (large enough to dunk one bird) on my grill's side burner. I dunked them for a minute at most.
Because I only had 4 to do I did the plucking by hand, but I am looking into a plucker as the next batch will be larger. If you have fibromyalgia, arthitis, carpal tunnel or any issues with your hands/wrists I would recommend looking into buying a plucker or seeing if you can rent/borrow one. I have fibro and carpal tunnel and my hands were killing me after I was done.
Once they were plucked I placed them into a cooler with ice as it was warm outside. I used the same bucket to place the feathers, heads, and innards which I disposed of on our property (but we have 8 acres and we dispose of innards from all animals at the furthest edge of our property). I honestly don't know how to dispose of the waste if you can't do so on your property. I would check with your garbage disposal person. Gave the feet to my dogs, which they loved.
I did not buy any of the specialty tools for processing my birds. I used a very sharp filet knife for the necks. A very sharp chefs knife for the joints and quartering. A pot I already had for scolding. A small spoon and my fingers for the lungs.
In hindsight the two biggest things I would do differently would be not to feed them for at least 12 hrs before processing (there was food coming out of their crops when they were decapitated) and to get them at a time of year when they would be processed in cooler weather.
