I just hatched out my first chicks that I intend to process myself. I have never done this before so I nged to know exactly what tools I need. Knifes to be specific. Where can I buy them? Thanks for any info.
If you are doing it yourself personally I use a razor knife made by havalon called a piranta edge. it's a great little 4 inch knife and I use that for bleeding out the birds and it can also be used to cut off the head but I prefer my small hand pruners for that. They are super sharp and ratchet so once the bird is gone I cut the head off and finish processing. You can use a cone I use a chair over a bucket and do one bird at a time. Next you will need something to dunk the birds in to loosen the feathers. I use a turkey fryer which was about 30 dollars and then hand pluck. I bought a drill plucker but I am having issues because the bolt is so huge it keeps spinning off my drill. Other than that all I use are a few 30 gallon trash bins with bags in them for the inedibles and feathers so they are contained and so is the mess. I also use a plastic folding table to actually cut my birds up on once they are done being plucked. I like this table because then I can cut the birds up without doing it in the house and the table is a solid piece of plastic so I can use bleach and water to wipe it down between birds to keep any contamination to a minimum. I put my trash bin right next to the table so I have access to it for cleaning the birds and then I bury the inedibles in the garden compost once done so there is no issue with critters getting it. You also want a bin or a cooler to put the cleaned birds in once you are done with salted ice water in it to keep the birds cooling until you are ready to get them in the fridge or freezer. Hope this helps.
