The sky is falling! (actually, I suck at video)

Stam headed over this morning to participate in the 1st ever McCleary Chicken Massacre. He added his 9 birds to the 20 I chose to butcher. I got the equipment set up last night.


First they headed to the kill cones.

Warning, blood.





















If you ever need to kill a lot of things at once, get one of these.

I got the scalding tank up and running, in the freaking rain storm. The soap is in there to help wet the feathers.


Next we loaded them up on the dunker. I thought it was a bit hokey when I set it up last night, but it really worked well today.


Next stop was the plucker.



It was very efficient.

29 chickens worth of feathers.

Post plucker


...after gut and trim


I feel a little sad now that my meat chickens are no longer in their chicken tractor,

...but I did save 3 to grow to a freakishly large size. 2 hens and a rooster.

It was great having Stam's help today. He is one of those guys who looks for something to do at all times, and he can work and talk at the same time. Nice to have your company today, and thanks for the pheasant chicks. They are all doing great.

And in case you didn't figure it out, for whatever reason, my video failed to upload, and it is stuck in my phone. I can't even email it. The plucker action was pretty darned cool. 30 seconds, and it was done. Three birds plucked.

Fried chicken for dinner tomorrow!

Fryin' up any gizzards?

Looks like McNuggets just ain cuttin it. Nice setup.

You are a machine, Andy!

next time sell tickets

I have a bag of gizzards. Just waiting for an opportunity to fry them up.

Damm fine job

Nothing like some fresh birds!!

Wish I could make that fry..

Keith

If the attorney from Ifish see's this she's gunna come unglued...

Nice setup ! Nice looking pile of eats .. . . . Just one question, what is midget canoe paddle for ? Did the naughty librarian make an apperance ?

Chicken Lover.

I'd like to see how that chicken plucker works too. Looks like a mighty efficient operation. I raised birds back when I was in high school. It's been so long I don't even remember how to butcher them any more. It was way cruder; that much I remember.

Sg

Me too. I totally want to knock off the plucker and build my own. I hate plucking by hand but can't bear the expense of buying a plucker.

what did you do with the blood?

Great carnivore post Andy! Going to help a local farmer slaughter a bunch of quackers tomorrow. I hear tell that he's got a similar setup to the one you used. Any helpful hints? Dish soap in the cauldron? Grunden's bibs & Xtra Tuffs?

Tony Roma's..a huge baker, fresh ear's of corn and don't forget the

Yup.

Boiling 5 gallons of stock right now from 40 chicken necks, 40 feet, and 4 backs.

I'll probably end up building my own plucker at some point. Need a tub, a plucker plate, a 1750 rpm motor, and a 10:1 90 degree reducing gear box.

I just wore shorts, a sweatshirt, and boots. Ducks have tougher feathers from what I understand. Dishsoap help to wet the feathers, just a little bit..

Blood was poured out into a blood puddle. Didn't have a use for it. Do you know of anything that can be done with it?

Made 4 gallons of stock yesterday. The last jar came out of the pressure canner about 9:30pm.

There are several CO-OP's around that will rent you all of the equipment. On the East side there is at least one Cargo Trailer that has been converted to a mobile chicken processing machine.

WSDA would be a good start for finding information.

You can also contact your local conservation district as some have their own gear they rent out.
http://www.scc.wa.gov/index.php/contact/Conservation-Districts/

Yup, we rented the gear from the local conservation district, but I will probably end up building my own plucker in the next year or so.

A few interesting shots of eth damage left behind by the chicken tractor.Below is a shot of where the tractor was over the last week. Pretty amazing to see the swath of destruction,


but the spots from 2 weeks ago are already turning dark green so the field recovers pretty rapidly.

One more place to rent some chicken killin gear (for those up north). 27.50 per day

http://www.agbizcenter.org/node/38

Andy,
Did you have any dislocated wing joints?
There is discussion at the Yahoo group "Whizbang Pluckers" that its either caused at the kill from flapping or during plucking because of the "feather gap".

I notice that my way of killing (hanging upside down by wire and slicing neck) doesn't constrain enough, and that's when my dislocations happen. About 35% of the time this year.

My home made plucker does have uneven gap, and sometimes a wing/head/leg gets caught, and depending on scald time/temp skin can rip, but I don't think its causing dislocations.

Great work, man!

re: blood. There is discussion among the farmers I'm working with over here that both the blood and feathers could/should be turned into meal. We think it could be dried on big metal sheets, if the sun ever comes out again. And the feathers could be baked then ground too.

Got any good recipes for the organs? I've stewed gizzards and made pate, but I'm looking for what to do with POUNDS of offal.

Freeze it? Can it?

Doug,

We had one broken leg, that was all. 1 chicken wasn't good, nor was 2 or 4. It turned out that 3 birds worked great in the plucker.

We had an issue with the first few scalds, ripped skin, but we lessened the scald time and got that under control.

My traffic cone works well, but small birds will fall out. I think that if you do a large volume of birds, investing in some sheet metal and rivets would be a good idea, making your own cones.

The feathers went into the compost pile.

I pressure cooked the gizzards for 30 minutes, then fried them. They turned out fine, and not too chewy. Any trimmings like necks, backs, and other items removed in the final clean-up went into chicken stock. I tossed the other guts, including liver, pope's nose, intestines, etc. we had about a half of a 5 gallon bucket, so there wasn't too much waste.

Andy, has it going on. I think you should consider running cattle next.

andy make cat fish bait
It was congealed chicken blood with brown sugar and chicken feathers chopped up in it. It would come out of the plastic pail in small layers like beef liver. The neat thing was it stayed on your hook even after several casts.

One Way,

No cattle, pigs or goats. The wife has given me the pussy veto card on that. Cows, pigs or goats show up, and I'm cut off. While I have a good supply of poultry snuff films on hand, I need the real stuff from time to time. (You aren't by chance Jeff W. Slight resemblance, and it has been a few years. MF)

Larry, next time I'll save it for you. Our blood had a fair amount of water in it, as it was raining like a cow pissin' on a flat rock, so I'm not sure it would have worked out so well.

Andy, tell your wife she can't cut you off as she doesn't know where you're getting it. That should work.

Brilliant!

Steve, The guys house where you met me that one time in Enumclaw raises a few piglets every year.

Guns are bad.

Buddy of mine raises hogs but unfortunately it's a small gig and not enough to go around. I was fortunate to get some chops and sirlions.. Blew the doors off store bought meat.... Plus we did a pig roast last year with one of them, that was nothing short of unbeleiveable flavor! I keep begging him to do another one...

Keith

Stam,

In high school I raised a few hogs as well as my cattle and chickens. But I'm done with farming. I worked way too hard to lose money that way ever again. But I'm enjoying chicken farming thru Andy's project.

Sg

Let'r Buck....

Keith

Stam,

I never cared much about money my whole life until retirement was visible on the near horizon. Now I feel like I have to pay attention. I do relate to the notion of getting dirt under my fingernails and getting in touch with planet earth, but I don't think I'm going to do that by raising critters again, probably plant a garden though.

Keith,

"Let'r buck . . ." Yeah, I used to ride in Jr. rodeo as a kid too. I may have had an odd childhood. Lucky I didn't get killed.

Sg

Had a good duck slaughter yesterday. Helped out a young farmer with about a dozen. Similar setup to what Andy used. Unfortunately, the *whiz-bang* plucker tended to beat up the ducks before the feathers were removed. The farmer confirmed that chickens go through the plucker much easier. To avoid broken bones, we ended up hand plucking his market birds. Wasn't too bad, except that they were young birds with a fair bit of pin feathers. We decided to let the remaining flock put on some more pounds and outgrow their pin feathers for another week or so....

The dish soap hint was the ticket for scalding. He loaded a spray bottle with a mild dish soap solution. He had an outdoor sink with stainless counter tops, so we rinsed them off a bit in the sink, worked the soap spray into the feathers and scalded. The soap cut the oil in the feathers nicely and gave good results.

He's got some hogs and chickens too with hog slaughter this Fall. Labor may yield some good eats....

Cool. From what I've seen, most ducks are dry plucked with a drum plucker, not a tub plucker.

Stam, if you ever get the Buckley Beef Butcher Day together, count me in. I have a chain hoist and heavy duty gambrel.

Dude... communes are where it's at...

I could totally see KK as the Charles Manson type.....

Hogs can be contained with a good electric fence setup. They are smart so teach em young. . .. We used to put em in the garden in the fall to do the tillin and fertilizing. Just 2 low strands of a hi output electric and we were good to go.

Stam, count me in for the Bovine Massacre .. . .Have knives (and a healthy appetite), will travel.

Is it the angry, twisted intellect and posting on *massacre* threads that infers that conclusion?

hey Andy.
I whacked 25 this weekend: 8 cornish and 17 "red broilers".
The reds were 10.5 weeks and averaged 4.75 lbs.
The cornish were 11.5 weeks and averaged 5.5 lbs, but we had one 6.5 and one 8 lb.
In the past I've let the cornish go to 14 weeks, and have had 8 lb hens and 10 lb roosters, butchered.
I haven't done a taste test yet on the reds vs. cornish.

BBQ Time!

I rented the Featherman scalder and killcone set up.
Man! what a difference in efficiency. I'm sure it saved 2 man hours using this equipment instead of baling wire and turkey fryer.

Had no dislocations/broken bones, thanks I think to the kill cones.

Good to hear that Doug. We'll be doing another batch , maybe September, than again in March/April.

Nothing like a nice little thread about gardening for carnivores.

Garden is doing well. I need to post a few pictures soon.