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dunno about salt-tanning chicken hides, but I did tan the opossom that we dispatched on our deck
I have tanned deer and elk hides too (more elaborate procedure, also depends if you want the hair on, or off)
I'll let CL tell you how SHE did it ... I just rubbed on, rubbed in, enough salt that there was still some in granular form, on the surface
then when all the salt seemed to have been absorbed, but the skin was still flexible, I put more on ... left it pinned until it was hard and dry
after it stayed dry for a week, because I wanted to use it as a table mat, I rubbed it, bare skin side down, over a rounded log until it was flexible; rubbed some neatsfoot oil on it to keep it soft
That is a very good use of a opossum.
Doing a hide of a mammal takes different steps.
It depends on if you want to leave the hair on, or have it all fall out such as for use with belts & shoes.
You can use a acid soak for getting hair & fat off & then wash the hide & 'work' it on a tree stump rounded.
You then rub oils back in.
The leave the hair on method is different...the hide must have as much fat scraped off, and then it is often dried/salted/boraxed, and then scraped clean & oil rubbed in.
It is alot more involved than this quick post.
And you can tan with lye (run water through hardwood ashes, in a bucket & soak the hide) removes the hair..in the case of deer & goats you end up with a chamois.
Using brains does the same.
To tan a hide with the hair on is alot of different ways, I suggest you study a few hide tanning web sites on line.
It is not hard to do at all, but alot of methods involve acids & stuff you may not care to deal with.
