Practical Matters at Processing Time

The time to process birds grows near. I am looking for input on
your way, your set-up, what works for you? I feel confident about
dressing a bird, but there's so much more. How do you deliver
your final blow? Do you do it in a barn, a kitchen, outside? What
do you do with the blood and parts? I know there will be lots of
answers, as different states require different handling of carcasses.
Would you recommend outside sinks? A stainless table under a
tree? Do you employ the garden hose, wash it all away? Do you
think I could have my coffee at the same table? ha. How many do
you process at one time? How long does it take? Do you have friends
over to help? Is it a family affair, or do you take care of things when
the little ones are not around? I would love to hear from you, and
what works best in your circumstance.

Hi truest. There is a great description of processing chickens outdoors with friends and family at Salatin's famous Polyface farm in Pollan's "The Omnivores Dilemma". Based on everything I've read you really want to do it outdoors. Messy, very messy......

Well Hi Miss Joan!

Definately, definately outside and cover your coffee.

And make sure you wear old clothes. I have a pair of pants I call my "chicken killing pants" because it doesn't matter how much blood I get on them, that's the only thing I wear them for. As for plucking, we skin ours. Much easier. We (I) am thinking about building a "whiz-bang chicken plucker" if I can get DH to okay it. (He would have to do the building).

BTW, neat picture you have there...did you draw it yourself?

This message was edited Mar 25, 2008 6:12 AM

LOL, chicken killing pants. Must find some of those! Yes-
it's my feeble attempt at chicken humor.
Sorry I missed you, Miss Tammy!
Salitan, Polyface, Pollan, is that a book, Cat?

Are you guys going back to the princess program? I was having so much fun watching that. I hope you got the problems worked out and go back to it.

I think we may be still planning to honor our Princess
with little gifts of affection and such, but it will have to
stay confined to the games forum. That's ok, we all have
a good time no matter where we are, Granny. There was
some un-kindness dished out by someone who did not
see the humor, and it put a damper on things. I think that
has passed, thank goodness. I hope you had a good
weekend.
So, Granny, how many chickens do you process at one time-
I want to keep it manageable.

What we did last year was to take 5 at a time. We killed them, cleaned them and bagged them for the freezer. Had a packed freezer by the time we got through. We did give some of the stewing hens to friends so we wouldn't have too many to keep. We finished using up the hens and are now on the roosters we culled last fall. I think we have about 3 left so might have to buy chicken. (Yoicks!!! don't really want to do that.)

The ones in the incubator-if they hatch- will be this years eating chickens. I will probably take some of the year olds too for stewing. We like chicken and dumplings about 4 or 5 times a year and you just can't get the flavor with store-bought or young chicken.

Make sure you have a good way to hold em down. They will fight it, after all who wants to loose their head! We had 3 roosters to dehead. My husband did one a week before he did the other two. When he got to them, he took care of one and by the time he got to the other I think it had figured out a plan of escape. It got away from him about 3 times. Once he was running all over looking for him. He found himself a hiding place in some brush next to a tree. He fought a good fight but in the end my husband won the battle.

I had to cull my mean hen, Blanca. I am happy I have
6 chicks hatched in the bator from her, though. Blanca
attacked me one time too many----now, Davey is very
polite and keeps his distance.
So what did DH use to lop off their heads, Smedge?
I used sharp scissors for the sick little ones, it worked well,
but scissors 'won't cut it' when it comes to the bigger
birds. I plan on a killing cone of metal, that way they can't
wiggle around. I just want it to be quick.
5 at a time sounds manageable, Granny. We don't have a big
freezer yet. What day of incubation are your eggs at now?
DH said 'So, where's the freezer going?' haha
He's no dummy, and knows if we want some yummy fresh
chicken, we will need one. For the garden veggies, too.

Hi truest, It is a book, called "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" by Michael Pollan. Its about how the modern food stream is messed up. Salatin is the man who came up with the concept of the "chicken tractor" and Polyface Farm is the farm in Virginia where he practices totally integrated grass-based agriculture. Rotations of grass, cattle and chickens with lots of other livestock and crops. There is a chapter called "Slaughter: In a Glass Abattoir" where Pollan describes how Salatin has his family, friends and customers come and help with the processing of the broiler chickens. It is very interesting. His chicken and eggs are in great demand at the best resturants, but he sells to everyone. A real character.

Hi, Cat. Thanks, and I have to agree. If there was
proper management of smaller farms, we would all
be more healthy. I'm going to look into that book- it
sounds great. I am trying to get our place to a point
where we grow most of our own. I don't use chemicals,
and I think restaurants are going to be a bigger demand for
quality foods. Also, we don't know where the economy
is going, or how low it can go, yet.

Exactly, truest.

When I used to help my grandmother kill fryers we'd do 40-50 birds at a time. She'd set up the block of wood with two nails about an inch apart from one another and catch the chicken's head between them to stretch the neck and use a sharp hatchet. She'd kill one after another and the yard would be full of flopping birds. It was the youngest kids responsibility to make sure they didn't flop somewhere where we couldn't find them. We had a 5 gallon lard bucket over a fire heating water. I usually dipped the chickens in the boiling water until the feathers pulled easily. Then the kids, my mother, grandmother and grandfather started plucking feathers. There'd be one big barrel we'd pluck around. while some were plucking, usually one or two of us would start gutting. Innards went in the barrel too. We'd have plenty of big pans of cold water with the garden hose nearby to clean and hose off as we went. After gutting if she wanted whole birds they were packaged and put in the fridge to cool out before going in the freezer. If she wanted them cut ready to fry we did that and then packaged to cool. After we finished cleaning up the barrel with all the mess in it went on the wagon and was hauled to the back of the farm and dumped. I guess the coyotes and foxes ate good that night.

It was pretty much an assembly line and usually took most of the day for 50 birds.

Janet

To catch the hens we had to cull, we used a large fishing net. After they were caught, I had short pieces of twine (from hay and straw bales) in my pocket and tied their legs and twisted their wings together so they couldn't fly or run.

We used to use the stump and nail way, but last year DH had the axe, and I held the head and he held the body with one hand and chopped. Then I would fling it away from me so it wouldn't flop around too close to me. Hence the blood on the pants. We might use the stump and nail way again, it's easier to do it that way. And, we skinned the birds so that wasn't a problem. But, like I said, we might be building a chicken plucker, if I can justify the cost.

Truest,
My DH used an ax. After the escapee got away a couple of times he rigged something to tie him down to the board good since he wiggles out of his grip. Then whack and that was that.
My brother never chopped the head off he would just hold them up and slit the throat.
My Dad always stuck their neck between two nails and whacked with an ax. He would do several at a time and have a large boiling pot ready to dunk them in so we could pluck feathers.

If you didn't want them flopping all around the yard you dropped the killed chicken in a sack of some sort. That will restricted the amount of movement they made.

When we killed ducks my brother just took the .22 rifle out there and shot them in the head. Needless to say he was an excellent shot. We usually just skinned the ducks. Plucking ducks was the pits.

Granny usually caught the chickens with a heavy piece of fence wire that had a hook fashioned on the end of it. Snagged the foot and reeled 'em in.

Janet

Most of what I've read says to bleed them out by slitting the throat rather than chopping off the head. The beating of the heart helps move out the blood. But it sounds like either works. I think the killing cone helps keep them calm when you slit their throat. I admire everyone who does this--I'm not a squeamish person and could probably get in the rythym with broilers. But when you only have a few hens for eggs and are treating them like pets--not so easy.

Well, I'm not that good of a shot so that way wouldn't work for me, and the heavy fence wire might catch the wrong hen, not the one we want to catch, so the net works fine. ;o))

I did have a bit of trouble with one hen that I kind of made a pet out of, so DH did that one by himself. Our old RIR rooster we decided to let live until he dies on his own. That one we really made a pet out of. He isn't so tame we can pick him up, but still he's our pet and he will die of natural causes and be buried instead of our eating him.

Catscan I know what you mean. It is hard and most of ours are pets and have names. The 3 roosters were from a hatch last summer and we already have 6 roosters. Don't need them all. My husband told the kids not to make pets out of them because the roosters would become dinner. Well, they named them anyway :( They understood though that we couldn't keep them all but they say they will not by any means eat one of them.
We had a rooster for our 2 year old hens and then we have 3 bantam roosters and we ended up with 6 standards from the hatch. One of those went to a neighbor, 3 are in the freezer and 2 were so spoiled there is no way my kids would part with them.
I'm not strong enough to do it myself and I don't watch, but once it is done its not so bad. We haven't whacked any hens, just spare roosters. Too many of those are hard on the hens.

We do about 50-60 birds last fall. We also use the stump, nails and axe method ...DH tied the feet together and hung the rope over the fence to bleed them out. A large tub with a squirt of detergent (bio of course) to dunk in until the feathers came out easily... then on our open porch table, we plucked each one, eviserated and rinsed with hose and put it into a tub of ice water. We then went on to the next one and repeated the process. Then it is COFFEE time. And we repeat the process. As it is only the two of us we only do 6-8 a day...Mostly roasters. The feathers can be washed and dried in pillow cases hung on the line for pillows etc. The unused eviserates are taken to the far end of our land and left for the critters that need it. I scrub the feet to use for chicken stock and freeze them individually and then in a big container in the freezer. Pretty much keep everything confined to a small area because it is messy. We hope some day to have a SS butchering table and a "summer Kitchen" building to use for the butchering etc. So far it is just a dream. and this year we have 150 to butcher plus the turkeys and ducks and the few geese that are requested. LOL we do not have butchering clothes but we do have butcher's aprons that I tie-dyed in reds, blacks, purples and browns...can't see the bloodiness then! It can be fun if you want it to be. My girlfriend's children named every animal on their farm...of course you never were served a "chicken" dinner...you always were eating a "Charlie dinner"LOL

We always did the hatchet / axe deal. Never got our fingers too close to the action. It is amazing how far a chicken can run with no head, kinda gruesome. Anyhow - we always caught them with a tool my Dad had which was a wooden handle with a 3-4 foot steel rod coming out of it, with a bend at the end to hook the leg of the target bird. If I'm not mistaken, that was a tool that was made specifically for that job. He used to run a large hatchery for broilers, and I think it was something from there.

Yes Yes! This is the practical knowledge I need.
I'm going to have to figure a good way to be rid of the
guts. I really don't want the coyotes drawn in for a freebie.
Or the fox or racoon. All of which are not too far off, now.

Those are some very mature kids, Jcomy. That's a good
attitude to have about food from the farm.

I have to decide between 'killing pants' or a tie-dyed
apron. LOL

Joani, these are just old pants that don't really fit me anymore, but I didn't want to throw them out. So, I decided to use them for this purpose instead of making scarecrows out of them. That way, I wouldn't get any stains on a pair of good pants that maybe wouldn't come out and ruin them.

We culled four roos a few weeks ago. We plucked and the feathers came out easy enough. We just singed any pinfeathers left. Two of the roos were silkies and they made a fantastic chicken noodle soup!

Really, Patchouli. That sounds yummy. How old were
your roo's?
And, for anyone, do you process your birds
at a specific age? Or, if they are strictly meat birds, what
is the ideal (average) weight when you do process them?

We process ours when we feel they have reached their maximum weight or when we mix our young ones with the others. That's when we cull the young roosters. We keep a couple of them for breeding, and cull the others including the older roosters that we are not going to keep. (We have a pet rooster that will live out his life naturally.)

We also process our old hens when they are about 2+ years old because after that, they don't lay very well. I know there are older chickens that lay every day, but when you have more than two or three, you don't know which ones are doing the laying and which ones are not. So, they all go.

Well, three of the roos; two silkies and one polish were about seven months old. The other roo was my Golden Phoenix and he was about eight and a half months old. I ordered him as a roo intentionally, but despite my best efforts he turned mean, so, well you know. I participated in the post titled "my rooster tried to eat me", I was not the original poster but had similiar problems. I asked questions about the culling, and finally got the job done just about two weeks ago. It was especially hard to let the older roo go 'cause he was soooo pretty, but that day while we were culling the polish, the Phoenix attacked me and sealed his fate. The only problem we encountered was not having knives that were large enough. I need to get better "culling knives", other than that, the process was ok. My children said my chicken noodle soup is the best they have ever had! WooHoo, score one for mom! Of course it's not just the freshness of the chickens mind you, but the recipe too ; )

This is a very interesting thread since this is one of the goals we have in mind. How do the other chickens react to having flock members be 'processed' ? Do they get upset or just forget about it? How much do you let them see?

MollyD

I don't cull in front of the others, that seems kinda harsh. I culled my roos across the yard and behind a barn. The other chickens were kind of quiet for few days afterward, but that could easily be attributed to the fact that not only did a new pecking order need to be established, but four roos are now not crowing all day long. I must admit that the henhouse seems much calmer now, and I'm not looking over my back waiting to be flogged!

Thanks Patchouli78. We'll have to work something out so they can't see what's happening.

MollyD

We did ours across the yard, but didn't notice any undue activity in the henhouse when we did. Of course, ours aren't pets, with the exception of Rocky, so we wouldn't notice.

Patchouli,I understand about the looking over the shoulder.
I rescued a white leghorn from a job site of my son's. I
promised them I wouldn't eat her, and I didn't. I am grateful
for all the eggs she provided, and the 6 new chicks I now have,
but I just could not tolerate her attitude.

Thanks all for your input/experience. The big day will be
easier because of this new info. What do you use the 2 year old
hens to make, granny? Are only the young ones good for
frying and baking? I have an inkling, but not real sure. Can
older hens be good for ch & dumplings?

Yep, the older ones are for chicken and dumplings, chicken soup, debone them and use the meat for chicken salad, chicken pot pie, chicken chow mein, and any other thing that uses cooked chicken. I stew mine and then debone it and put the meat up in 1cup measures in the freezer. Whenever I need pre-cooked chicken I have it on hand. Sometimes I freeze the broth with the meat and other times do it separate.

You could bake an old one, but it would take at least 4 hours to cook till tender.

Or-Chicken tacos! I have been a busy cook most of my life,
but you know? I have never made chicken salad or a pot pie
from scratch. I am looking forward to it.

I am also looking forward to marinated, bacon wrapped
quail. yum.

Would that be like "quail on a stick"?

Haha, Granny, yes, that sounds great! On a steee-eek.
I have been reading a lot of quail recipes, and there
are some really good sounding ones out there. I love to
try new things, and we have an annual fund raising game
dinner in our community, which DH and I attend every year
in October. It's a big money maker for the kids, and hundreds
come.