Where did you get your "processing" tools?

I have a friend who always says "Cheap is good but free is better!" and I've adopted that as my mantra. Since it's really not very cost-effective to raise our own meat birds I don't see the need to spend more $$$ on special tools to process them.

I really liked the Joyce Chen Unlimited Scissors I just bought, look for them at http://www.JoyceChen.com They were tough enough to cut through necks, legs, & backbones, and sharp enough to snip through bits of skin & flesh. I hope they keep their edge well.

The tomato cages made it easy to hold the bucket high enough to catch the blood from the birds as they hung from the swing frame. I always hold the birds' heads after I've sliced their throats, until they've stopped thrashing, so that the blood doesn't splatter all around and goes in the bucket. You can put some dry leaves or mulch in the bucket to help sop up the blood, then it's easier to dump out into the compost bin.

I really don't see the need for a special tool to remove the lungs, they do come out rather easily by hand/finger, or can first be loosened with the utility knife. A grapefruit spoon can help too. The parts I dislike the most are the kidneys & all those yucky bits wedged in the crevices at the end of their backs. I try to snip them loose with the scissors and/or loosen them with the point of the knife, then blast them with the hose. If that doesn't get them out then I can usually pry them out the next day after they've soaked overnight in ice water.

And I wouldn't worry about any chemical residue left behind in a plastic bleach or detergent bottle, it shouldn't be enough to taint the meat. The bird goes into the cone/bottle just long enough to be cut & bleed out, maybe 5 minutes or so. And he's still got all his feathers on, you'll be plucking or skinning him right afterwards, any residue would be on the parts you discard. The disadvantage of plastic is that it'll wear out much sooner than metal, but the advantage is that it's cheap & easy to replace.
 
I never bought anything special to do my butchering, but of course my husband is also a hunter, so that helps. Mostly I use regular kitchen tools. Wooden cutting boards. Sheet plastic to cover an old table. I bring along a knife sharpener, the V kind. I use a filet knife mostly when eviscerating. My husband uses his deer hunting knife to cut the jugulars. I put a big old galvanized pail on the grill for scalding. I had some scrap metal lying around and formed a killing cone (using a large plastic bleach jug for a model and a jigsaw with a metal cutting blade). I mounted it to a frame made of scrap wood. I don't use a lung scraper. I just dig it out by hand. If you missed any you can get it when you run them under rinse water. Also a sharp knife works fine to take off the legs, neck, etc. Once you do it a few times, you learn where to cut a few tendons and then twist and pull and they come right off. That's what I like about doing my own butchering. It's Free (except for my own time and effort).
 
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i have never killed my own yet but i would think a good fish filet knife would do wonders and they are wickedly sharp
 
I don't have a lot of tools at all yet. I have an old stump with a couple nails in it, and a machete, to cut heads off. I put the chickens in an old pillowcase with a corner cut off to keep them still, and I hang the pillowcase up on a nail on the side of the barn.

I have a big turkey pot in which I boil water on the stove, and then I carry it out to the barn to scald. I hang the chicken up by a couple of nails in the side of the barn, and some twine. I pluck by hand.

I have a big 5 gallon plastic bucket to put yuck into.

I have a big cutting board I prop up on top of the air conditioner back of the house, and a plain boning knife. (I need a better knife.)

When I started out I thought I needed a whole lot of equipment, but I've found that since I only do a couple of chickens at a time I can get by with just a tiny bit of stuff. I did buy a couple killing cones from jaku (on ebay, before I made the BYC connection), but I haven't put them up yet. I'm better with the machete than I am with a knife.
 
I did fair pretty well last time, most of the "oops" moments were my fault, with the exception that my knife should have been sharper. We did end up using the hatchet last time because the knife wasn't sharp enough to cut without effort. It also would have been better to have someone else do it the first time, not much gets done when your hands are shaking and you're looking at your bird saying, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm soooorrrryyy!" I'm glad that I wasn't the only one that had a problem with the kidneys. I'm not big on spending a lot of money, but I would like to get a quality knife that I don't use for anything else and keep it in my "Chicken Kit" along with my "sewing" scissors that are now my wing clippers and the cutting board and whatever else is only for the chickens. I was pretty proud of myself though, I ended up using a pallet that I built into a table myself so it hit me at about the middle of my torso so I didn't have to bend over to do it. I'm 6' tall so using a card table or something would have meant I'd be very sore the next day.
I love the tutorial on the cone! I'm definitely going to have to do that! I think though that I'll make 2 for the regular sized birds and adjust it to make a third for turkeys or geese. I read somewhere about doing turkeys where they used a completely clean metal barrel over a fire and filled it up with water to use for scalding. That would work fine for me if DH okay's it. I just can't see spending the extra money when instead it could be used to buy more chickens!
 
If there's one thing you ought to buy, it would be a filet knife. I use a Rapela fish filet knife that I got at Walmart in the hunting section. Under 10 bucks. I've had mine for 9 years. Keep your knife sharpener handy and it sounds like you will be good to go!
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The details were a bit different here, because of what we had around, but the whole setup cost about $10, for a scrap piece of countertop. You don't need anything special at all. Good kitchen knives and shears and your fingernails will do it.
 
good information here!

i'm getting ready to process my first bird ever. and i really don't want to spend a lot of money.

i definitely need a good knife though, and possibly something like the gardening sheers for their necks.
 
I too try to keep most of my processing tools in one place so they're handy when I'm ready for the next session. A list of needed supplies is also kept taped inside a kitchen cupboard. When I haven't processed for a while it's easy to forget something essential that will be needed in a crucial moment.

And LilChickieMama, you're smart to have built yourself a work table that's a comfortable height for you. It really makes a difference if you don't have to stay bent for a long time.
 

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