tomorrow is the day, another question

[Mrs. K]

Honestly, I swear I have butcher 100's chickens in my sleep now, tomorrow is the day we really do it. I have butchered chickens before, but never 15 all at one time. I am a bit intimidated by the numbers. Hope we don't wear out before we are done. There will be three of us, one novice and two with slightly more than novice experience.

So when you rest them in the fridge, are the already wrapped in plastic bags? Or do you rest them in bowls of water? Do you have to rest them less time because they are CX?

Wish us luck, we are starting at 5:30 so as to be cool. Raining hard now.

Good night
Mrs K

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

No real advice. Good luck it all goes quickly and smoothly.

 

[RUNuts]

Either way. Some people rest in ice water. Some say meat should be dry. I've done both & lived. Grocery store adds water to the bags. A few here say pat dry.

Rest until rigor mortis passes. Meat is meat. 24-48 hours or until limber.

Y'all will do great! Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Morrigan]

Good luck today.

 

[lazy gardener]

Having 3 sets of hands will make the job "doable", but it will still wear you out. I work alone. My hardest issue is keeping the scald water hot enough. If I can get a rhythm going, and had an endless supply of scald water, And, had some one to catch and truss the birds, And, my knife stayed sharp, I could complete a processing in 20 - 30 minutes. I'm very slow.

I would drop each bird in a cooler full of ice water as you process it. Have a separate bowl of ice water for the giblets. My preference would be to bag the birds before they go to the fridge. Then, you don't have to "handle" them again. Generally, I do the processing outdoors, but bring them in to the kitchen for a final going over and removal of any pin feathers that were missed during the first go-round.

 

[Morrigan]

I work alone.

That would be hard. How many do you do at a time? My DH and work together and it takes us about an hour to do 6 birds.

When a bird is finished, I put them into a cheap grocery store plastic bag and stick them in a chest freezer while we move to the next one. After the last one, I move them to the fridge to let them rest for 2 days. Limited fridge space is one of the reasons we only do 6 at time. After the resting, I do one final check over for feathers/pat dry and we put them in shrink wrap bags to finish the job. I never put the birds in ice water -- mainly because we have the chest freezer close at hand. I'm thinking that a good idea for the giblets, and will try that next time.

 

[lazy gardener]

Is your chest freezer running? I'd be worried that the tissue would start to freeze. If it freezes before the resting period, you risk having meat that will be tough as an old rubber eraser.

I work alone b/c the chickens are "my thing". Hubby hates to be involved in the processing, or even deal with them, so he may boil water for me, but I prefer to do it while he's at work, so our couple time can be spent doing things we both enjoy.

I usually do 3 - 4 at a time. Working alone, it takes about 40 minutes/bird. It would actually be best if I got up very early, and started at day light, while it is still cool. Cause, once it starts to warm up, the flies and yellow jackets find my operation. But, sleep is elusive for me... so getting up super early is not on my agenda most of the time.

 

[Morrigan]

Is your chest freezer running? I'd be worried that the tissue would start to freeze. If it freezes before the resting period, you risk having meat that will be tough as an old rubber eraser.

I work alone b/c the chickens are "my thing". Hubby hates to be involved in the processing, or even deal with them, so he may boil water for me, but I prefer to do it while he's at work, so our couple time can be spent doing things we both enjoy.

I usually do 3 - 4 at a time. Working alone, it takes about 40 minutes/bird. It would actually be best if I got up very early, and started at day light, while it is still cool. Cause, once it starts to warm up, the flies and yellow jackets find my operation. But, sleep is elusive for me... so getting up super early is not on my agenda most of the time.

I like early in the morning too, while it's still cool. 3 to 4 in 40 minutes seems pretty speedy to me.

The freezer is running, but the longest they are in there is 45 to 50 minutes, and given that they are starting out warm, in a plastic bag, it is not long enough where they have started to freeze yet. I check as I pull them out and the first ones in are pretty cold, but definitely not frozen. The chicken is still tender and delicious at the back end.

 

[lazy gardener]

You mis-understood me. 30 - 40 minutes EACH.

 

[Mrs. K]

I started at 5:15, I have a propane burner, but the water was constantly too hot or too cold! My hubby is like yours, but my sister in law and brother showed up, and a little bit later, a friend. We did 2 start to finish, then 3 start to finish, till the last 4, then I just did all four.

I did a prewash, then in the scalded, then used a plucker that attaches to a drill head, $70.00 it was within my budget. My brother likes to build things, loves to figure out easier ways... may send his some plans of a home made plucker, but really the drill head worked fine for me. Granted feathers were every where, but I live in the wilderness, and the wind and rain will take care of that.

I butterflied them, instead of cutting the neck off, just keep cutting down along the spine on both sides. This really opened them up for cleaning any missing pieces and cooled them down faster. We separated the feet and backs, and put all else in cooler filled with cold water. It was quite cool this morning, so that helped. Before we left, we drained those coolers, then washed them outside again at the house, then inside, then bagged. I am fortunate I have an extra fridge. I do not use it all the time, but for something like this it was perfect, and next week is branding, so that it will be all ready to go.

I threw the backs+necks and some of the feet in the soup pot when we got all done. Did not do the gizzards this time, maybe next time.

Worried about this big time, I really only had this window of time to get it done, and I was glad I did it early this morning, as when I went back down there to finish putting things away the flies where thick.

I am glad it is done, and when people left with their organic home raised chickens in their hands, they were already talking about doing it again.

Setting up, cleaning and putting away, took a fair amount of time.