Post by simplynaturalfarm on Aug 2, 2007 11:51:30 GMT -5
Well, we butchered my BIL's chickens last night - I've never butchered with them before and I thought I would go crazy because they were soooooo slow. With 8 of them they did 22 in 1 1/2 hours. I took over gutting as that was slowing them down because nobody liked it and we got 75 done the next 1 1/2 hours. We had one killing, one scalding the birds, one on the plucker, one gal picking pinfeathers, me gutting and another singing (or actually burning the skin LOL). While the other gal and I did anything they needed done, the fellows who did other things said "I'm the killer/pluckeretc (whatever they were doing): I don't pluck/kill/whatever", so when the fellow killing had done 8 birds, he sat down and watched us work, as did the dunker and man in charge of the plucker. I think it would have gone even faster had they gone outside of their job descriptions, but that's all right too - it was faster than if just two of us were doing it.
Unfortunately, the birds they got as day olds on April 23rd were only 3 1/2 lbs and we had a lot of 1 1/2lb birds - these are cornish cross. THey looked big, but when you butchered the carcasses looked like those silly rubber dummy chickens. I looked at my birds that were born June 1st and sure hope they dress out to more than that!!! I weighed a few live and they are 7-10lbs but some are smaller (not enough feeder space this year - my fault!!!), so we'll do the larger ones and see how that works.
BIL made the dandiest scalder out of an old water heater. He cut the top off, took the element off the side, made the bottom concave and welded the element in the bottom. Put a new cord on so it is electric, and had a thermometer to keep it at 145 and that scalder never held us back as even when we added new water from the hose to top it off, it was up to temp in a few minutes.
We ended up finding bags in Minnesota 1/2 hour away for only.08c a bag for 2ml although they are larger than we wanted and can fit two birds.
We are hauling some of our birds over there tonight and I hope we get going early enough to do the remaining birds in good time.
Anyway, the story of my evening
Heather
Unfortunately, the birds they got as day olds on April 23rd were only 3 1/2 lbs and we had a lot of 1 1/2lb birds - these are cornish cross. THey looked big, but when you butchered the carcasses looked like those silly rubber dummy chickens. I looked at my birds that were born June 1st and sure hope they dress out to more than that!!! I weighed a few live and they are 7-10lbs but some are smaller (not enough feeder space this year - my fault!!!), so we'll do the larger ones and see how that works.
BIL made the dandiest scalder out of an old water heater. He cut the top off, took the element off the side, made the bottom concave and welded the element in the bottom. Put a new cord on so it is electric, and had a thermometer to keep it at 145 and that scalder never held us back as even when we added new water from the hose to top it off, it was up to temp in a few minutes.
We ended up finding bags in Minnesota 1/2 hour away for only.08c a bag for 2ml although they are larger than we wanted and can fit two birds.
We are hauling some of our birds over there tonight and I hope we get going early enough to do the remaining birds in good time.
Anyway, the story of my evening
Heather