Chicken Processing (new for me)

DISCLAIMER ... This post is a fairly graphic post comment wise, not too many pics though. Regardless, consider yourself forewarned if you decide to continue reading......

A couple of weeks ago I received an invitation to help process chickens.

Turns out the land where the chickens are raised & the home where they are processed are only a couple of miles from my City House! The guy (we'll call him KC) that sent the invitation is a firefighter who actually lives even more 'in town' that we do. But, he has a firefighter buddy that lives on the property where the chickens are raised. The buddy (we'll call him Jack) has 3 jobs so he just mainly provides the residence for the birds. The chickens are raised in a paddock/coop, that is moved daily so they have fresh grass/bugs as well as fresh water & supplemental feed available.

When KC got them as chicks it turns out that he had gotten a few too many roosters & needed to thin them out a bit. I think they were 16 weeks old & looked to me, in my uneducated mind, to be "good sized" birds.

Eeek, what have I gotten myself into? I have trouble handling a store bought raw chicken w/o feeling squeamish. What was I gonna do with live, running around, then caught & put in a cage, then killed, then defeathered & then properly gutted chickens???!!!

Well, I took the day off work & drove over to meet KC by 8:00a. Another couple & their Mom showed up, as well as another lady (EM) that I had met at a gardening class earlier in the summer, with her 11 yo grandson. There were 12 birds to be processed & the couple had brought 6 additional ones they wanted to process. We gathered the birds & put them in a big dog cage that was in the back of KC's truck & drove them to the processing facility which was right across the road at Jack's parent's house.

KC had set everything up for processing. There were the cones on a rack to put the birds in upside down w/their heads through the bottom of the cone, w/buckets underneath to catch the blood, after they had been killed. Then there was the hot water to 'dunk' them up & down in until their feathers released easily. Then the 'plucker', which is a 1/2 barrell w/ rubber nibs in the side & on the bottom are more nibs on a stainless electric 'turntable'. Then a stainless table to 'de-gut' (not sure of the proper term here).

We started w/one of the larger birds. KC showed us what to do at each step. Take bird from cage, put in upside down, properly slit their throat, hold their legs until they die, hold them by their legs & dunk them in & out of the hot water until feathers released easily (maybe 8-10 times), turn plucker on & put bird in until all feathers are plucked, rinse, take to table, cut off head & feet, run fingers around to loosen skin at neck to make insides easier to pull out, cut out/off glands at butt, cut hole above butt, widen skin with hands to loosen everything & pull all innards out, keep liver (handle carefully cutting away the bile duct), gizzard & heart. We tossed the intestines for KC to use in his compost pile. Then reach inside bird to remove lungs, rinse bird & put in in ice water bath until ready to wrap/bag. Here is the only pic that would cooperate. This is the cone killing station.

I took several pics with my new stupid phone. Even though they all look fine once I transferred & adjusted on my PC, when I add them to the blog they are all upside down, except for this one. Oh well.

All morning long I helped w/various things like putting ice in the coolers, then filling them w/water. Running the water hose for rinsing & the plucker. I then stepped in and carried a few birds to the cones. Next, I stepped up & killed a few chickens by slitting their throats & holding their legs until dead.  Then I moved on to the dunking booth, what a great workout! We got to where we were doing 2 at a time & those things were heavy, at least 15 lbs. Dunking all the way in/under water, then out, then back in ... at least 10 -15 dunks each time .. until the feathers were easy to pull out. I then ran the plucker & watched very closely as all in attendance learned how to de-gut them.

I just couldn't bring myself to do the de-gutting part. I listened & learned but didn't want to touch them. All I could think about was what those store bought birds feel like, all slippery & slimey. Blulch - that's my gagging, almost throwing up sound. Yet, strangely enough, watching very closely while the others did it, didn't gross me out.

The grandson of EM was very interested & had helped in all the steps that I had. He then wanted to de-gut. His grandmother gave the approval for him to handle the knives & with close instruction from KC ... he DID IT!!  Remember, this is a city kid that had never killed anything in his life. He was also proud of himself, as we were of him.

Everyone had to leave but there were still 2 chickens left to process. So, I asked KC if I could help with the last 2. I went home & got my knives that I am used to. With only KC & myself left, I processed 1 of the birds from start to finish. When I got to the de-gutting part, the part that I was dreading most, I found that the bird wasn't slimy AT ALL & very easy to handle. I even got the bile duct cut away without ruining the other inner parts. The only scare I got was when I was holding the bird to cut the hole by the butt hole, the thing made a duck call kind of noise & sounded like it was still alive! Although I knew that couldn't be the case, it was just weird to hear. Turns out I had left too much of the neck attached & it was just releasing air while I was holding tight while cutting the back end.

I helped KC clean up & then helped him wrap up each of the birds. They weighed from 3.5 - 4.5 pounds after processing. KC then gave me one for my 'labor'. The bird is in my freezer & I will soon make chicken & rice plus chicken stock. Maybe even can some chicken soup from bone broth. Those posts will be coming soon.

Anyway, it was a very productive day & I'm glad I got to know KC. It turns out his wife makes bread from scratch & is willing to show me how she does it. They own a Country Grain Mill & are willing to let me 'try before I buy'. He recently sent me another email that he was having trouble w/about 5 or 6 other roosters & wondered if we want to come help. Heck yes! Greg doesn't believe I had my hand up a chicken's butt & I don't have pictures to prove it. So, when KC is ready, we will hopefully be in town to help.

Note: As a bonus, it turns out that EM is a Thrive consultant & is willing to come to my house for a Thrive party, which I hope to host in December. If  anyone wants to come, send me an email. I've been wanting to try some of the freeze dried meats & other hard to preserve items they offer for long term food storage. Yet another post in the future.