Processing question

[taz982]

My fiance feels like it will take too long to butcher a chicken (i'm trying to convince him otherwise, since I don't think i'll have the stomach). I am wondering if it is common to find people who will process chickens. People have mentioned to me before that such services can be found, but I can't seem to find them. Is it a common service I can find? Are such services usually attached to another service, like processing game?

Thanks for any insight here.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

There are places that will process chickens for a fee. There is one not far from where I live, but I prefere to do it myself. Once you get a system going it doesn't take long at all. I don't know where you'd find one though, just asking people who keep birds in your area might turn up a few ideas.

 

[taz982]

Dang it i need to talk to people in real life? No one told me I had to be sociable to keep chickens! lol.

Thanks ChickieBooBoo for that

 

[Sundown_Farmer]

Where are you? We teach a lot of farm visitors how to process chicken. A lot.

First time through? Plan an hour to get ready and maybe 15 minutes per bird as you figure things out and get over the gross factor.

 

[bigredfeather]

.................Plan an hour to get ready and maybe 15 minutes per bird as you figure things out and get over the gross factor.

......and then figure on determing how you can make it easier and more efficient. By the 3rd or 4th time doing it, you will have a smooth running operation. The first time my wife and I butchered 6 Buff Orpingtons, it took us several hours. Now it takes about 2 minutes per bird. I am not going to say I enjoy butchering, but I do get satisfaction knowing I can start with a day old chick, and turn it into meat for the freezer without any outside help.

Goodluck!

 

[Tena03303]

Our local extension gave a chicken processing workshop back in June. My husband and I both attended and found it very helpful. Maybe your local state extension service has something on the same order. Ours also does one on harvesting goats (surprisingly popular farm animals here in central NH) and tried to offer one on processing rabbits, but ran into resistance on that one.
There were about 40 people in our class. I know you can find videos on You-tube and such, and I've seen pictures on various websites, but I learn better hands-on. The fellow who taught the class is a local farmer who does flock butchering on the side. He charges per 25 birds to come out, plus mileage if it's any distance. If you only have a few birds, I imagine it can get pretty pricey to pay someone else to do it.
I have to admit, I took the class because I wanted the first chicken I slaughtered and processed to be one I was NOT personally acquainted with. We're raising a mixed flock of dual purpose birds now, with 10 roosters destined for the freezer.
BTW, the class birds, all Cornish X, were free ranged at the farm next door to the class site - we saw them out in huge pens the day before, happy & healthy. Mine was one of the tastiest birds I've ever roasted - and the carcase made a wonderful stock.

 

[Tena03303]

If you're really determined to find someone else to process your birds, ask at your feed store, or check with other local flock owners. Ask around your circle of friends and acquaintances as well, you never know what will turn up. After we started keeping just a couple of layers, we found out that our next door neighbors adopted son kept a huge flock when he was living in a refugee camp, in order to earn some kind of income. He told us about doing the whole process with a feather and a pocket knife.

 

[chicken pickin]

I would also ask your local feed stores. When I bought my turkeys I asked if they knew of someone just in case when it came time we couldnt bring ourselves to do it(which we fully plan to). But I got the phone number of someone in town and turns out they are literally right down the street from my house. I have yet to call them to find out prices becasue I dont want to be tempted just yet to pay someone to do the dirty work. I fully intend to make raising meat fun tastey and finacially worth it

.

 

[bruceh]

i would call all the deer processors . in my area also do chickens. where are you located. it can get costly any where from 2.50 to 5.00 a bird.

 

[kizanne]

There is none listed in my area but I checked craigslist and typed cornish in the search and CX and chicken. I found someone raising cornish and selling. I emailed them and asked if they were interested in just processing. They are willing to process for $3/chicken. Which I thought was a little high but if I decide to do cornish again I'll probably spring for the process to get them all done. Right now I'm doing broilers which grow alittle slower gives me a longer time to process so I'll do it myself. I have not gotten to the speed processing and don't think I ever will.