Using shackles for eviscerating.

[pasturedchickendinner]

Hello,
I read an article in the APPPA book about the use of shackles for eviscerating. The article claimed the use the shackles doubles the speed at which one could eviscerate.
Has any one used a shackle and if so, would you mind explaining to me how exactly a chicken is hung in a shackle for eviscerating? Any good manufacturers I should know of?
Thanks much,
Joe

 

[Brunty_Farms]

I think that is for mechanical evisceration... I just can't see gutting a chicken upside down with my hands.

Even though it doubles the speed of the process... it also doubles the chances of contamination. Hand processing is very precise and seriously should be a marketing tool for selling birds.....

 

[pasturedchickendinner]

The article claimed it as an alternative to a table. With manual removal in mind. It claimed somehow the feet and head are supported, but I don't see any photos that clarifies such & offers a model number.
So far no manufaturers have contacted me about the shackles.

Maybe I need to have a Tyson email address?

Perhaps I will soon seek to contact the author of the article.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Would like to see how that turns out... I'm tying to vision it... and I can't.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

People keep telling me I need to post pics, but I don't know how. It would be better than a description in this case perhaps. I don't have an actual shackle, but this is what I do.
First I need to explain that I have an area to slaughter and clean my birds. Under my house there is a nail hang at my chin level with a piece of rope......2 strands hang down.
First thing I do is get a bird that I have had without food.....only water for a day and hang him by the legs. I might hold while someone else ties.
Then I put a large bucket or foot tub under the bird on a stool.
Then I slit the throat and allow to bleed out. I might hold the bird still if I don't want to have a bloody mess afterwards.
Then I start plucking the wings first and then go to the very bottom (top for me) of the legs and work my way up (down for me). Note: the animal is still warm. If it gets cold its harder.
Then I break the neck and cut off the head.
I then cut a single leg off and dislocate the leg joint, leaving the bird hanging by a single leg and exposing the vent area.
I pluck the vent area and inner legs and I then begin cutting arount the anus, carefully. I include a portion of the skin around the abdomen to give me more working room and start removing the inside carefully.
By the time I have the gizzard out, I pull out about a 7 inch piece of gut to hang out and cut it off, while I clean out the gizzard.
I am careful removing the liver and I cut close to the liver so the spleen doesn't color the liver green. It is hard to remove the liver intact, depending on the size of the bird.
After that, I just do the best I can removing everything else that is inside the bird. The esophagas is sometimes a problem.
Then I cut and remove the remaining leg. (my husband finds humor in me forgetting the chicken feet)
I put the bird in the outside sink and ......this is something I found I like doing.....I cut the bird in half and remove the entire neck and vertebral column in one piece. I just like the way it looks to BBQ a chicken that has been cut like that. Also I like to have a few spines with my gizzards, livers and hearts for soups. I did 4 roosters about 5 or 6 days ago.
Now if I had shackles for both feet, I could probably completely pluck the bird before cutting, but I like the leg hanging down when I am removing the insides. So I might undo one anyway at that point. Also if I had shackles, it might be easier to restrain the bird if I am alone, but other than that, I think I would do pretty much the same.
Now all that being said, I might be completely changing the way I do my slaughtering, because just this morning I ordered "fingers" and a book explaining how to make a homemade plucker.........although I think I can put one together anyway with a PVC pipe, cap, and drill and a few other things, but the way I clean birds is the easiest I have come up with. The memory of holding a hot wet chicken over a table covered with newspaper and the smell is not a good childhood memory........although at least my parents taught me how to take care of myself.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
That's don't think you're talking about the spleen. The spleen is that little round organ about the size of a small marble, about the same color as the liver. The little sac of green fluid,(bile), attached to the liver, is the gall bladder. Is that what you mean?

When you say you cut off the leg, do you mean the bare part with the foot and no meat? Not the drumstick?

 

[sylvar]

Pasturedchickendinner -
I happened upon this post because I am looking into building a small scale shackle line
This document has all the info you need: http://www.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/Factsheets/Marketing/Processing_chickens.pdf

One of the best processing guides on the net and it shows how to use a shackle.

Hey Jeff, How is it going? Can't believe you haven't gone to using a shackle yet as many birds as you do. There is actually less contamination because the birds never touch the work surface. and it IS faster. gravity is your friend!

Later

Shane in Stoutsville

 

[theOEGBman]

We have a processing plant on campus set up like a commercial processing plant. The birds are hung upside down in the shackles, stunned, killed and then removed for scalding, plucking and leg removal. After that, they are hung back in shackles and eviscerated. They cut around the vent and then turn it towards them so the bird it laying flat in the palm of their hand, they then use their other hand to pull out the innards. It seems awkward when you picture it in your head without seeing it, but it really does appear pretty simple. I've never done it because I always pluck. My monster hands werent made for eviscerating!

 

[dancingbear]

I would think a loop around and under both wigs, so the bird hangs bottom-down, would be better for gutting. Then, if anything got cut that shouldn't, it would fall down away from the chicken, not into the chicken. I gut mine on a table or in the sink, and after I loosen the crop, and do the initial cut/tear above the vent, I hold the bird under the wings with my left hand, while reaching in and pulling out with my right. I've thought how handy it would be to have a third hand to cut with, (like to remove the gall bladder) while the other two are full, hanging with a loop under the wings would solve that problem.