We started raising chickens for meat about 10 yrs ago. We would drive 45 mins one way in a makeshift chicken hauler, drop them off and then pick them up the next day. Not bad for a dollar a bird.
After covid, lots of people's eyes were opened, that butcher became overbooked and quadrupled the price per bird. So last year we invested in our own plucker and butchered 100 birds! This year we did a smaller batch as we didn't need as much, but I have to say these are the biggest, most delicious birds we have ever raised!
Our process for butchering is simple and this year we were very much a well oiled machine!! We all gave thanks to each and every bird for everything they provide for our family.
Me and the kids gather the birds and put them into a kill cone. My father in law does the neck cutting and bleeding out. It's important to make sure you let the birds fully pump out the blood and from our experience if you cut the head off and not just slit the throat it doesn't seem to pump the blood out completely. My father in law uses a razor sharp morakniv to do the job and every so often hits his blade on a sharpener cause those feathers will dull a blade fast.
After the birds have spent 5 or so mins bleeding out now is the time to scald. Your not trying to boil the birds. You are just trying to heat the skin enough to make the feathers easier to remove. Something we also learned is if you rinse the birds off before scalding it messes with the skin and the feather either don't come out or the skin tears in the plucker. We just go straight to scalding because that works better for us. We try to keep the temperature around 148 degrees F. We hold birds by feet and dunk them in the water counting for 20 seconds, testing a wing feather and if it comes out easily its ready to toss in the plucker. Some people will remove the feet prior to dunking but it's makes it easier for us to hold onto the bird.
Turn the water on. Turn the plucker on, and then place bird in. You will in fact get splashed with the water from the bird doing summersaults, a clear covid mask would be great for this job haha. We didn't have a set time for how long we let the chickens flip, but I'd says maybe 8-10 seconds. We just paid close attention to how defeathered they were. Occasionally the bird would get stuck we found that was mostly with the roosters since their legs are generally longer. Thats ok turn off the machine, grab the bird and start again.
Once the bird is plucked, it's time for the fun part.
Part 2 to Follow.....
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