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[Ridgerunner]

Skinning is just such physical work to me, I don't love doing it. Now, the next time I want to skin one, I'm going to try hanging by the legs in order to do down over the wings so that I can actually get some purchase and leverage, so that may help. Of course, I'm sure young birds and especially broilers are probably easier to skin than the typical older roosters and hens I usually do.

Absolutely. I find that skinning a cockerel starts to get hard around 16 weeks. Different ones mature at different rates so that can vary. By the time they hit 23 weeks, my normal butcher age for dual-purpose cockerels, they start to get rough. An old rooster, well that can be a real challenge.

I tend to butcher my excess pullets around 8 months, they are not too bad to skin. Some older hens can be challenging but most of them aren't too bad. Sex and age has an effect on how hard it is.

 

[Mosey2003]

Yeah, I have about 5 hens that are molting that really need to go, so I bet I'll be skinning. I'm going to try them in the plucker first, but don't have high hopes. Depends on how pin-y they are, I haven't laid hands on them. I have a good feeling about hanging them though, I think that will really make a difference. They're just so slippery, and the getting the skin over and off the wings is such a bear, that I think two hands will help.

 

[Betsy57]

Skinning is just such physical work to me, I don't love doing it. Now, the next time I want to skin one, I'm going to try hanging by the legs in order to do down over the wings so that I can actually get some purchase and leverage, so that may help. Of course, I'm sure young birds and especially broilers are probably easier to skin than the typical older roosters and hens I usually do.

Younger birds are very easy. I was surprised how easy when I did two this past weekend. They were 3 months old Rudd Rangers.

 

[trudyg]

I hose them off after bleeding out, rinse any poop away and wet feathers are easier to contain. Even when skinning, you want to pull out a bunch of feathers (the ones that come out easy enough) so you can see where the skin is v the tissues. I didn't do this the first time and couldn't find the butt for all the feathers! And when you get small feathers into that gel/sticky stuff on their tissues, it's hard to get it off. It's not appetizing to see black feathers on the meat in your chicken soup! Sharp knife, hose at the ready and off you go.