Processing day!
My Brother, his wife, Me & my wife banged out 20 birds in about 2.5 hrs. We took a few birds to get the hang of it, but then we cruised on to victory. I used a wheel barrow to load 4 birds at a time. 1 Cone, a turkey frier scalder (we used the basket) and a Vevor plucker worked out well.
I did get a poop shower right in the face on the last batch of 4, but remembered Joel Saltin's advise. 1) keep mouth closed. 2) If ya feel somethin on yer lip, don't lick it. Got my faced washed off and soldiered on. Needless to say it IS a messy process and that shower felt really good.
We're gonna keep em on ice till Tuesday then shrink bag half and break the rest down. There'll be at least two whole birds going in the BBQ (low & slow) this week then most of that broke down and vac bagged.
We're very pleased with Windy Meadows. No early casualties, but one bird died over night last week. No injuries that I could see, and no signs of predator intrusion. Just a random death I suppose.
Ok the numbers. I weighted 4 random birds and got avg Live of 7.46 lbs and dressed at 6.2 lbs
