Processing meat birds

[maf2008]

I did call a local college and asked for the "poultry science dept" there are lots of students that are studying poultry to earn their degree. Also call 4H in your area and see if there are any older people there that my let you "rent" them for the weekend and pay in chickens to have them slaughter the birds.

I have a poultry science college kid on standby and I will pay him $14 per hour to process our chickens. this willl be cheaper than the other place.

Good luck!


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[jenikay63]

We processed 50 cornish X that were 8 weeks old this past Saturday. It took us 9 hours from killing to packaging and there were 6 adults that worked hard all day. It is alot of work and takes patience to get all the pin feathers out. Next time I will gladly pay the $2.25 to have them done. It addition to the 9 hours of actual processing there was at least 3 hours of getting set up and 3-4 hours of clean-up. We haven't eaten any yet, but they better taste good or we won't do it again!

 

[maf2008]

this kid is a pro and works for all of the county fairs... he comes highly recommended by the college. But I am planning on contracting for a few hours. If I see him picking pinfeathers he can go. He has been contracted by LOTS of farmers after local FH shows. I hope this kid is good. We have 100 meat birds to do in December!

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It seems that paying someone by the hour to process your chickens would motivate them to do a nice slooooow careful job. Sure, the birds would be wonderfully clean with every pinfeather picked out individually by tweezers, but you might find that you're paying $14 per chicken to get the job done. I'm not trying to cast aspersions on your particular standby college kid, but I just wonder if paying a processor by the hour is the best way to go.