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.