Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[Sally Sunshine]

Yes!

DOH

Sally, our plucker works better with 3-4 birds in it at a time, seems like they roll against the sides better when there are multiple birds in it. So if you need to process some try to do groups of 3 or 4. Cut and drain them, scald and pluck all at once, stash in cold water and then gut them and put into the second container with ice water to finish chilling. Then do the next group of 3-4. This way none go without being gutted for long and you aren't overwhelmed.

I will keep that in mind, as I bought the XL model too because of turkeys. Its huge! I was saving bleach jugs, but I think I will just use the dog fence to hook loop legs since the fence is right there anyways, and there are about 6 inches of stones underneath so I can let them drain right into the stones without issues and if I poor my cleaning bleach over that area the dogs wont want anything to do with the area, esp since they may be getting some of the parts lol. its on the outside of the fence and they have hot wire on the inside anyways. lets call it a teaser tester.

Hubs said he may take a half a day.


which reminds me.... chicken feet..... I need some help.... I know we wont eat them but can the dogs?



kids were freaking out, because they wanted to help, so if hubs comes home maybe I can call the P and see if he will be ok with hubs picking them up after lunch to head home for the processing. I think they will have NO problem with it. Kids were more excited about the plucker than I was!!! Fighting who was going to run it and who was going to run the hose and put birds in and out!!!! geeezzzz

 

[Sally Sunshine]

We processed a few of the meaties on Sunday, we picked 4 who were either very large already or seemed lethargic and were cause for concern for Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) We isolated them early in the morning in a crate covered with a sheet and placed out of the sun and away from the coop area so it was quiet.
We had all of our equipment gathered and used a couple of coolers to prewash and chill the birds in. As Sally said, prewashing the birds in warm, soapy water with bleach added sure makes for a cleaner process over all. So once the birds were bled out they went from the cones to the prewash cooler.
Birds resting in the crate....

We used an outdoor fryer with a black canning kettle for the scald water, it is very touchy for controlling the temps though, so you have to keep it very low and use a thermometer to get an accurate temp. 150 worked for us. The cooler with the warm, soapy water is seen here to the left.
Our cone stand, we also use a nail into a tree to hang the cone on if we are only doing one or two rooster culls... The birds can bleed into the black tub but for the initial cut we hold a coffee can under their head until any muscle contractions are done, Our stand holds 8 cones, but we only use 2 or 4 at a time usually, especially since it is just the two of us doing the processing.

Tub plucker with hose attached. Works great for processing multiple birds, but hand plucking works fine if you aren't doing a large number of birds or you have a few helpers. This falls under the 'convenience' list rather than a necessity list. Can be rough on the birds if you aren't doing 2 or 3 at a time, it seems to work best that way.

The kettle set up, needs to be a stable/flat area out of the wind for best control over temps.

a couple of must haves for us.... very sharp knives and a nylon rope with a slip knot set up on either end for looping over the feet (another pic of the hobble set up below)


After dispatching in the cone, the bird is taken direct to the prewash...

A close up of what I call my 'hobbles'... this allows you to firmly keep control of the bird and be able to swish it around in the pre wash and then the scald water without having to get your hands near the water. It also provides a good way to carry the bird from cone to wash to scald to plucker, etc. Their legs can be slippery and it is worse when your hands are wet or tired. They hobble I made is one piece, so you can hang the bird from it simply by hooking the rope over something and we used it to weigh the birds before and after processing.

A squirt of soap in the scald water and a few swishes was all it took. I overdid the first one and it caused the skin to tear. Submerge and swish a couple of seconds and then check to see if the wing feather pulls out. When a wing feather pulls out without problem then you are ready for plucking. Also, if you have any unusually large birds leave them till last so you don't overflow the water and end up having to reheat fresh water to bring it back to being deep enough for the other birds (you can just remove a few cups of water to lower the level so it doesn't over flow with the large birds) . It only took a few minutes with this set up to heat the water, but it would still be a pain to have to stop the process because the pan over flowed.

Toss them in the plucker and let it do it's job...

The majority of the feathers flush out into a pile for clean up later.


Here is the big fellow processed. He was 10 lb 2 oz live weight, and dressed out at 7 lb. We use a fish fillet table to cut up the birds, we place a 5 gallon bucket lined with a garbage bag under the hole in the table for handy disposal of parts while we are working. and have the hose there for quick rinsing of bird and table.



The birds are currently resting in our spare fridge, will package probably tonight. The big one we will bake like a turkey on Thursday probably.

As a reference, most of the birds were between 7 lb and 7 lb 8 oz pre process weight. After process they were in the range of 4 lb 12 oz and 5 lb 2 oz. Very nice birds for only 6 1/2 wks old.

I found your post!! yay

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Thank you this is a pretty cool article, I like at the bottom reference of cookbooks and the updates, like health issues and not to stuff ahead of time and such! Thanks!

This site has a video CLOSE UP of Slicing the two arteries.....
http://www.hsa.org.uk/POULTRY WEBSITE/Poultry Slaughter Project/PSPSite/Neck Cutting.htm

also the site has a suggestion & video for.....
"Checking Unconsciousness:
It is important to check unconsciousness by the absence of a blink reflex when the cornea (the surface of the eyeball) is touched. Presence of a blink reflex must be acted upon immediately: it may not indicate full consciousness but the return of this reflex after stunning is a sign of some brain function returning and it indicates the possibility that consciousness may also be returning. Do not hesitate to repeat the stun or use a back up method."

 

[CPF Kate]

If you hunted, it will come back to you quickly.

Story's Guide to raising chickens has a great method of killing them, break their neck.

I tie the feet up with a rope and put the rope through an eye hook. Then get a trash can lined with a trash liner--have a sharp knife ready.

Next step is to get a broom, put the chicken down to the ground and put the stick in the neck. Using both feet step on the broom and at the same time pull up by the feet and snap the neck. Then lay the body down over the stick and keep pressure on the stick until it is dead.

Pull the carcass up and place it over the trash can and tie it off. Cut the jugular and let it bleed out.

The rest is in the guide you have but after they are processed they become food like in the store.

I hope this helps you. I do not like killing by cutting because it can be very messy. A cone helps but still....

Isn't that a drawn out way for the bird to die? Seems like the bird would be suffering, which is something I'd like to avoid. :-( That and I'd probably lose it.

 

[fisherlady]

Isn't that a drawn out way for the bird to die? Seems like the bird would be suffering, which is something I'd like to avoid. :-( That and I'd probably lose it.

No, it isn't...it is a method which severs the spinal cord.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

excuse my no fuss no muss style, I dont use killing cones, a simple small strip of thin plastic to grab the clots is all on the ground under my rig of tie downs, with leg loop holds. simple easy cleanup. effective. Hubs had some issues of thinking he knew it all with the hot water, and wouldnt keep it at 140 as discussed, and kept taking it to 150 and scalding my meat, and after he figured it out it went better with the plucker, up for next time is hot water pot that can hold at least two birds at the same time so we can pluck two at the same time. Do you dunk them in cold water BEFORE the feather plucker? plucker worked really well, HOWEVER one bird at a time, wouldnt flip on its back to get a few of those last feathers off the immediate back, therefore needs to do more than one bird at a time, probably because this is a XL machine? Another thing we need doing this many is a lung remover and more sharp knives. Mom came and was complaining non stop..... guess those old folks have sharper knives or something??????? so I have to go back to the knives section on here eh? oooopsies.... I did the killin and my knife was killer.....

Lucas 8, did the catchin and foot hangin in the loops, he was strong enough to hang them this time. 6 months ago he couldnt do the rooster so he was proud and did almost all of them!

I did the killing

Lucas did the dipping cleaning rinsing before going in the hot pot!

Daddy did the hot pot and plucking with luke assisting

I did the neck, esopho, crop, and feet, then mom (69) and harmonyann (10) did the guttin and cleanin

Me and dad had clean up of course

I have to get pics of the birds in gigumbo igloo cooler dad had from his boat, I was beat and needed a shower till we were done, and then they were downstairs and I was upstairs and still had to clean up hearts and livers and stuff... ughhhhhhh




some chickens were HUGE and some were NOT SO MUCH is this normal?????







OMGAWWWWDDD look at all those liverssssss these go to mom,,,,, my freezer is filled with beef liver already!!!




ALSO some of the hearts had a blue black look and HUGE water sacks, and all but three little hearts had huge amounts of fat on them.
our roosters never had this much fat on them. also normal?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

ps not that black spot, that is blood....just the over all color of the heart

 

[fisherlady]

ps not that black spot, that is blood....just the over all color of the heart

The water sacs are from the heart failure, the heart is normally in a sac with just enough fluid to cushion it and prevent rubbing, the pericardial sac should not have that much fluid however. As the sac fills fuller and fuller it makes the heart have to work harder and harder to refill and pump blood against the pressure in both the pericardial sac and the pressure against the walls of the arteries in the abdominal cavity and even the tiny arterioles within the organs, this causes cardiomegally (enlarged heart). the bird can only compensate and overcome for a limited time and eventually the circulation begins to fail, oxygenated blood doesn't get to where it's needed, organs begin failing, tissue becomes oxygen deprived (hypoxic) and any hypoxic tissue looks bluish or purplish, which is called cyanosis or cyanotic.
The butchering process and bleeding causes some cyanosis, but tissue which was cyanotic to begin with would appear even darker.

There is always some fat on their heart (in my experience) but should not be a large amount, larger amounts reflect that the bird was getting more feed than needed for their growth rate, they had tipped from converting food to muscle and bone growth and were storing the excess.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

The water sacs are from the heart failure, the heart is normally in a sac with just enough fluid to cushion it and prevent rubbing, the pericardial sac should not have that much fluid however. As the sac fills fuller and fuller it makes the heart have to work harder and harder to refill and pump blood against the pressure in both the pericardial sac and the pressure against the walls of the arteries in the abdominal cavity and even the tiny arterioles within the organs, this causes cardiomegally (enlarged heart). the bird can only compensate and overcome for a limited time and eventually the circulation begins to fail, oxygenated blood doesn't get to where it's needed, organs begin failing, tissue becomes oxygen deprived (hypoxic) and any hypoxic tissue looks bluish or purplish, which is called cyanosis or cyanotic.
The butchering process and bleeding causes some cyanosis, but tissue which was cyanotic to begin with would appear even darker.

There is always some fat on their heart (in my experience) but should not be a large amount, larger amounts reflect that the bird was getting more feed than needed for their growth rate, they had tipped from converting food to muscle and bone growth and were storing the excess.

good to know! thank you!
mostly they had an extreme amount of fat at the neck and under belly butt, I was going to try to render it for the first time, but mom was tossing it away before I knew what was happening, she said I was gross for wanting it and for fear of a huge argument husband stepped in and basically told me to shut up I have help to clean them dont press my luck. So perhaps I will do my homework first for spring.

ALSO bones were VERY brittle, did I do something wrong?

 

[fisherlady]

good to know! thank you!
mostly they had an extreme amount of fat at the neck and under belly butt, I was going to try to render it for the first time, but mom was tossing it away before I knew what was happening, she said I was gross for wanting it and for fear of a huge argument husband stepped in and basically told me to shut up I have help to clean them dont press my luck. So perhaps I will do my homework first for spring.

ALSO bones were VERY brittle, did I do something wrong?

I understand the fat can be used for numerous things, but also haven't researched it yet...

Bones are more brittle than what you expect because even though they are big birds they are still only 8-10 week olds and the bones haven't 'hardened' yet, or calcified. Growing bones are generally porous and easily broken. The faster the growth the less time the bone has to fill in the pores. I don't know that adding calcium could even keep up with the growth rate of the average broiler. Most folks just try to balance it so the growth rate is as high as possible without causing an extreme issue with the bird's mobility which would force early culling.