bee_pipes
09-26-2008, 09:08 AM
We’ve been slaughtering chickens this week, and have made good improvements on the process to make it run more smoothly. I’d like to hear how you folks go about it, just to see if I can pick up anything new that might make it faster or smoother.
We get the selected chickens into their cages around lunch time the day before, where they get water only and are elevated off the floor to keep them from eating litter or their own droppings. By morning the crop and a good bit of the digestive system is empty.
Before starting in the morning we make up twine leg cuffs for each chicken. It has proved to be easier and faster to make a set for each chicken to be slaughtered than take off an old pair and use them again. The cuffs are simple – a knotted loop on each end with the twine pulled through to act as slip knots on each end. We have two hooks on the tree we use, so we kill and bleed two at a time. Each chicken is pulled from the cage, fitted with leg cuffs and hung over the bucket – well into the bucket, actually, to keep down splashing and flailing.
Actual killing is done by slitting the neck on both sides, leaving the throat and windpipe intact. We used to just chop the heads off, but slitting the arteries has worked better. The chicken is already in/over the bucket and doesn’t have to be moved from the chopping block. Leaving the spine intact lets the heart pump blood and speeds up the bleeding process.
One problem we have had with this batch is broken wings, from flailing done during the dying quivers. Do any of you use killing cones? I am thinking about making a pair of these to try.
One at a time, as each chicken is bled out, the head is removed and it goes into the scalding pot. My scalding needs a little work – I seem to be keeping them in too long – or else we are a little too aggressive in plucking. We have torn the skin two or three times with this batch. I usually swirl it in the pot and count off ten seconds, then try pulling a flight feather from the win tip. If it’s too hard to pull, I repeat until it comes out reasonably easy. The scalding pot is the pot from our water bath canner. It works well, though we found it doesn't stay hot enough for 4 birds. We started using an old coleman stove to keep it hot. It would be impractical to bring it to scalding with that stove - we heat the water in the kitchen, but the coleman stove seems to keep up with heat loss from the pot being outside on a chilly morning.
When plucking, I go for the larger feathers first – flight and tail feathers. It seems like extremities cool off faster and the big feathers are tougher anyway. This breed seems to have a lot of immature feathers too. Might be because they are ready to butcher so quickly – six weeks. We have found that latex gloves work well for the entire process. When we first started doing our own chickens I noticed my hands got stained with a chicken smell from the feathers and oils. The smell would persist for a day or two and was impossible to wash off. Normally it’s not a problem unless you eat a sandwich or some other hand food, bringing your hands up to your nose. Someone gave us a box of latex gloves and we tried them – they work well. The buckets, 5 gallon plastic, are not the best for plucking. I can see a larger tub would make it easier to get more of the feathers into a container. The bucket is kind of small when plucking with both hands.
After plucking, the carcass is placed on the work table where dressing is done. The table is just an old grill a past owner made into a table. It’s pretty light weight, but has wheels and gets used for dozens of things. The table top is covered with new garbage bags for each day’s work. I use a paring knife for all the dressing – seems to be more agile/nimble than a larger knife. We use a total of three knives – one is an old fillet knife, used for slitting the neck and removing the head; the second is the paring knife for dressing, and the third is a butcher’s knife my wife used for breaking up the chickens into parts. All three are sharpened in the morning before work begins. I have been working at getting better with the liver. When we started it seemed like I had trouble getting the liver apart from the gall bladder without leaking bile all over the work area. We had two or three leakers the first day. Don’t know what bile would do to the meat, so each leak required tossing the liver and rinsing the work area and carcass. After the last 12 chickens there were no bile leaks, but a sizeable hunk of liver was getting tossed too.
Can anybody recommend a good knife sharpener? I think ours is getting worn out – has been misused in the past too. I know there are real knife enthusiasts (nuts) out here that may have recommendations, but I just want to sharpen a blade to a good edge and hone it – not make a career or art form out of it.
Any recommendations on good blades? The fillet knife is a cheap one, and will need to be replaced soon. The carbon steel blades take a good edge, but the metal is porous and I’d be concerned about getting them clean. Something with more of a stainless type finish?
About a year ago we had a thread showing our setups for slaughtering areas and I got a lot of great ideas from it. Right now we’re averaging about 20 minutes per chicken, from standing in a cage to headed inside for bagging. Just thought I’d go fishing again and see what other great ideas are out there.
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o120/bee_pipes/chicken_cleaning_station_1.jpg
Regards,
Pat
We get the selected chickens into their cages around lunch time the day before, where they get water only and are elevated off the floor to keep them from eating litter or their own droppings. By morning the crop and a good bit of the digestive system is empty.
Before starting in the morning we make up twine leg cuffs for each chicken. It has proved to be easier and faster to make a set for each chicken to be slaughtered than take off an old pair and use them again. The cuffs are simple – a knotted loop on each end with the twine pulled through to act as slip knots on each end. We have two hooks on the tree we use, so we kill and bleed two at a time. Each chicken is pulled from the cage, fitted with leg cuffs and hung over the bucket – well into the bucket, actually, to keep down splashing and flailing.
Actual killing is done by slitting the neck on both sides, leaving the throat and windpipe intact. We used to just chop the heads off, but slitting the arteries has worked better. The chicken is already in/over the bucket and doesn’t have to be moved from the chopping block. Leaving the spine intact lets the heart pump blood and speeds up the bleeding process.
One problem we have had with this batch is broken wings, from flailing done during the dying quivers. Do any of you use killing cones? I am thinking about making a pair of these to try.
One at a time, as each chicken is bled out, the head is removed and it goes into the scalding pot. My scalding needs a little work – I seem to be keeping them in too long – or else we are a little too aggressive in plucking. We have torn the skin two or three times with this batch. I usually swirl it in the pot and count off ten seconds, then try pulling a flight feather from the win tip. If it’s too hard to pull, I repeat until it comes out reasonably easy. The scalding pot is the pot from our water bath canner. It works well, though we found it doesn't stay hot enough for 4 birds. We started using an old coleman stove to keep it hot. It would be impractical to bring it to scalding with that stove - we heat the water in the kitchen, but the coleman stove seems to keep up with heat loss from the pot being outside on a chilly morning.
When plucking, I go for the larger feathers first – flight and tail feathers. It seems like extremities cool off faster and the big feathers are tougher anyway. This breed seems to have a lot of immature feathers too. Might be because they are ready to butcher so quickly – six weeks. We have found that latex gloves work well for the entire process. When we first started doing our own chickens I noticed my hands got stained with a chicken smell from the feathers and oils. The smell would persist for a day or two and was impossible to wash off. Normally it’s not a problem unless you eat a sandwich or some other hand food, bringing your hands up to your nose. Someone gave us a box of latex gloves and we tried them – they work well. The buckets, 5 gallon plastic, are not the best for plucking. I can see a larger tub would make it easier to get more of the feathers into a container. The bucket is kind of small when plucking with both hands.
After plucking, the carcass is placed on the work table where dressing is done. The table is just an old grill a past owner made into a table. It’s pretty light weight, but has wheels and gets used for dozens of things. The table top is covered with new garbage bags for each day’s work. I use a paring knife for all the dressing – seems to be more agile/nimble than a larger knife. We use a total of three knives – one is an old fillet knife, used for slitting the neck and removing the head; the second is the paring knife for dressing, and the third is a butcher’s knife my wife used for breaking up the chickens into parts. All three are sharpened in the morning before work begins. I have been working at getting better with the liver. When we started it seemed like I had trouble getting the liver apart from the gall bladder without leaking bile all over the work area. We had two or three leakers the first day. Don’t know what bile would do to the meat, so each leak required tossing the liver and rinsing the work area and carcass. After the last 12 chickens there were no bile leaks, but a sizeable hunk of liver was getting tossed too.
Can anybody recommend a good knife sharpener? I think ours is getting worn out – has been misused in the past too. I know there are real knife enthusiasts (nuts) out here that may have recommendations, but I just want to sharpen a blade to a good edge and hone it – not make a career or art form out of it.
Any recommendations on good blades? The fillet knife is a cheap one, and will need to be replaced soon. The carbon steel blades take a good edge, but the metal is porous and I’d be concerned about getting them clean. Something with more of a stainless type finish?
About a year ago we had a thread showing our setups for slaughtering areas and I got a lot of great ideas from it. Right now we’re averaging about 20 minutes per chicken, from standing in a cage to headed inside for bagging. Just thought I’d go fishing again and see what other great ideas are out there.
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o120/bee_pipes/chicken_cleaning_station_1.jpg
Regards,
Pat