What do you do with the innards and blood?

[imfowl]

You can use the blood to make sausage. The innards can be burned.

 

[trueblueshowgirl]

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We skin the bulk of our meat birds. The skin does add good flavor, but it's not healthy for a person- just adds a lot of fat to the meal. (Besides that, I've never been a skin eater- even with fried and bbq chicken.) I don't own a plucker and hate plucking birds- it takes forever- esp. the young ones with their endless supply of pin feathers. I also don't appreciate the added measure of dealing with a hotplate and managing a big pot of scalding water. (Scalding birds helps make plucking "easier"... ha- yeah.)

Skinning takes about five seconds and is a cinch - the trickiest parts are the back/base of the wings and around the end of the drumstick. I make a verticle cut in the skin just below the breast bone in that "hollow" area (go shallow with the knife- you do not to stab any guts!) and then simply peel it away by hand, insideout on itself like a sock.

Now, that said... If I had one of the drum style pluckers, I would change my tune and wouldn't skin any birds. I would decide at meat time weather to keep or get rid of the skin.

 

[max13077]

We take the "leftovers" out back where our land meets state land. I have a big compost pile there. I doubt there's much composting going on though. If you were to go back the morning after you dumped the leftovers, you'd see they were dug up and eaten by the coyotes, foxes, etc; Which I'm completely fine with.

I'd rather have them eating that than the deer.

 

[skeeter03]

we butcher over 5 gallon buckets - it seems to catch most of the waste - cept the darn feathers from plucking.
tip from a BYer here was to use the gardening gloves with the rubber grip like things in the palms for plucking - well after a nice warm bath it was a piece of cake to pluck the feathers - the cleanup/getready for the freezer crew inside the house was amazed that they didnt have to sit for hours over a chicken pulling pin feathers out.
and then after we are done we do the feed the critters way out in the wilderness bit. this year we forgot a few feet still hanging from the ropes opps!
and then we hose down the area really really really good a few times.

 

[damselfish]

Ooooh, skeeter03 big thumbs up for passing on the kitchen gloves tip, I'm definitely going to try that next time! Hate those pesky feathers.

We do the 5 gal bucket thing for the innards too, with some water in the bottom to keep the blood from drying up while we're working, and we might spray a bit of water as we go to keep the sides washed down. Then you don't have to do as much scrubbing on the bucket later.

Glad to hear you have a helper crew, you'll do fine.

 

[goldnchocolate]

Quote:
Can you be a little more specific on how this is done...please and thank you

 

[jaku]

trueblueshowgirl

Now, that said... If I had one of the drum style pluckers, I would change my tune and wouldn't skin [i :

any[/i] birds. I would decide at meat time weather to keep or get rid of the skin.

Thats what I started doing this year, and cut a full day out of my processing. I used to butcher one day, then cut up another day. Now I just butcher and throw them in the freezer whole. It's a bit more work the day I want to eat, but then you aren't stuck with a freezer full of the cuts you don't want, and you don't have to spend a day cutting birds up. Plus, they hold up better in the freezer when whole, I think.​

 

[19sarah90]

I haven't butchered any of my own yet... I'll be a first-timer in a couple of weeks. But I helped a family gut their 100-something-odd chickens one year and they hauled buckets of the stuff to the back of their field by the woods where they had a huge hill that they dumped it on and then covered each layer with dirt. The kids called it "Mount Entralis".

 

[skeeter03]

well you need a big big pot of hot water just below boiling - we had ours going over a campstove set up right by the chopping block and the ropes for hanging the chickens. dip your chickens in after they are dead of course lol. my dad did this part and he just kept dipping and pulling at the feathers when they come out fairly easy then your bird is done the bath. my husband brought home some rubber palmed gardening gloves/work gloves I think even the fingers were kind of rubberized with little bumps on them and he said really all he had to do was rub the chickens feathers and they came out in his hands - circular motions worked well at getting them all

 

[bja105]

I dumped the blood on my tomatoes. The feathers and entrails went into the garbage.