Slaughtering Molting Hens

[Ridgerunner]

I was pleasantly surprised how easy the whole leg skin peeled off, only a couple attachments at front and back of thigh(which can be frustrating when you want to grill with skin on). Course in my case, scalding had been done, leg was already detached from body and feet were long gone.

Even when a fully grown feather is fully plucked out after scalding, that follicle 'slime' remains..I've found a butter knife scrapes most of them out pretty easy.

@Ridgerunner .....when you skin a feathered bird, is it just laying on a table or feet or neck tied up or.....???


These work great for plucking, but wound't hold up(haha!) to skinning I don't think.View attachment 1575535

Laying on a table. I've never considered hanging one,not sure how that would work with skinning.

 

[H@tcher]

Ugh, I have hens to slaughter. I wonder if the electric plucker will take care of the pin feathers.

I'm going to find out in a couple of weeks. I made one that chucks in my drill motor. Worked great on some older hens that didn't have many pins but I don't remember if they came out.

 

[sourland]

Yeah, it's a learning experience. Pin feather plucking is aggravating and ineffective at best.

 

[GrannyHeeney]

My experience with owning chickens only started last February. After learning the basics, I started working things around to eventually having freezer birds. My biggest Brahma girl is creeping around the back of the run, digging herself little scoopy nests in the straw, so she's probably within a couple weeks of laying her first egg. I was looking for a post exactly like this, so THANK YOU! I have *loads* of time to study up on this stuff!

I am surprised to hear plucking can be tough--I remember once when I was maybe 9 (I'm 50) my granny sitting on the back porch, plucking dinner; the feathers just flew. I know some experience was surely involved, but I had no idea! ;P About the skinning, though (be gentle, I'm new to this LOL), with the carcasses from the grocery store, the skin just generally comes right off. Thinking Purdue (etc.) must do all sorts of stuff to them before they wind up in the cooler at Fred Meyer's?

 

[rjohns39]

Ugh, I have hens to slaughter. I wonder if the electric plucker will take care of the pin feathers.

Plucker doesn't get them out. I end up using tweezers and hopefully don't have too many.

Skinning or plucking an 8 week old CX is way easier than a 2+ year old bird.

 

[aart]

About the skinning, though (be gentle, I'm new to this LOL), with the carcasses from the grocery store, the skin just generally comes right off. Thinking Purdue (etc.) must do all sorts of stuff to them before they wind up in the cooler at Fred Meyer's?

Those grocery birds are only about 8 weeks old...so, yeah, much easier to skin than the older hens were are talking about here.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I am surprised to hear plucking can be tough--I remember once when I was maybe 9 (I'm 50) my granny sitting on the back porch, plucking dinner; the feathers just flew. I know some experience was surely involved, but I had no idea! ;P About the skinning, though (be gentle, I'm new to this LOL), with the carcasses from the grocery store, the skin just generally comes right off. Thinking Purdue (etc.) must do all sorts of stuff to them before they wind up in the cooler at Fred Meyer's?

Perdue or Tyson doesn't do anything weird or strange to them to cause that skin to come right off. As Aart said it's purely the age of the birds when butchered.

When I was a kid Mom would tell me to get a chicken for supper. So I'd get one and take off the head. Mon would bring me a pan of boiling water in a sauce pan not terribly big. I'd pour that over the bird before plucking. Most of the feathers came off pretty easily anyway but wing and tail feathers could be more challenging. I was a kid, I did not know I was doing it all wrong by not carefully measuring the temperature and dunking for a very precise amount of time. Some of those chickens were fully matured birds. Don't rely too much on how it used to be done. We did not realize we were doing it all wrong. Now you can do it right.

Seriously if you do it the way most recommend it will be easier.

 

[GrannyHeeney]

Thank you very much for saving me grief...I'm old and cranky now, anything to make things easier

 

[Mosey2003]

My last four hens that need to go and I keep putting off are molting now. I won't bother plucking at all, no point as there's no way in heck I'm pinning that many.

I skin on a table, I think hanging would be harder. The main trouble areas I hit are the wings (miserable) and then often a spot on the lower back will want to stick and tear, so I usually just filet there. The part of skinning that's hard is the darn thing is so slippery, you really can't get a good grip, especially trying to do the darn wings. I actually popped the hip joint on one trying to hold it there and pull the wing skin off.

 

[aart]

My last four hens that need to go and I keep putting off are molting now. I won't bother plucking at all, no point as there's no way in heck I'm pinning that many.

I skin on a table, I think hanging would be harder. The main trouble areas I hit are the wings (miserable) and then often a spot on the lower back will want to stick and tear, so I usually just filet there. The part of skinning that's hard is the darn thing is so slippery, you really can't get a good grip, especially trying to do the darn wings. I actually popped the hip joint on one trying to hold it there and pull the wing skin off.

Was it you who posted a skinning video of that guy with cockerels to skin, he clipped the wings and feet and took the breast, legs, and upper wing meat? Yes, here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/good-skinning-videos.1275828/
He was pulling pretty darn hard. Best of cLuck!