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Slaughter Day: 2012 (Round 1)

6/25/2012

5 Comments

 
Yesterday was Round 1 of Slaughter Day: 2012.  With the help of 5 amazing friends (thanks guys!!), we processed all 70 of our Cornish Cross meat birds (and 12 of our friends' birds too).  It was a hot, sunny, sweaty, long day, both physically and emotionally exhausting!  But we now have a giant chest freezer full of shrink-wrapped chickens that will feed us all year (and that are available for sale at $3.50/lb... hint hint).

Here's our set-up for processing:
Picture
The birds are all in their hoop house below (with 1 turkey hanging out outside their pen there, taunting them with her freedom).  We grab one and put it upside down in one of the cones hanging from the wooden frame on the left in the picture.  We cut off their head and leave them hanging to bleed out, then we dunk them in the scalding pot and swish them around to loosen their feathers.  The water in the pot should be between 140-150 degrees, so we have our pot on a propane turkey fryer to heat it up.  The water gets gross fast, and it takes a while to heat up, which really slows the process down - next time we'd like to have 2 fryers going so we never have to sit and wait and watch a pot boil!

After they've been dunked and swished around, we put 2-3 at a time in the Whiz-Bang plucker that Dave built.  The plucker spins the birds around, and the combination of water pressure (from the hose you're spraying in there) and the rubber fingers lining the barrel take about 95% of the feathers off in about 5-10 seconds (as opposed to hand-plucking, which would take like 10 minutes per bird).  Then from the plucker they go up to the butchering table (nope, didn't take a picture of that), where they get cut up and gutted and cleaned.  From there they get placed in a shrink-wrap bag and heat-sealed for the freezer.
Picture
I still have to trim the bags, weigh them, and put pretty labels on with our farm logo, but the VAST majority of the work is done!  Woohoo!

Now, I have to say - I freaking HATE slaughter day.  Hate hate hate.  I hate killing creatures, I hate the blood and guts and feathers and smell.  I hate it all!  Except the part that results in super good, healthy, humane, delicious meat... but the rest of it - HATE!  At the end of the day, I told Dave that I don't want to do meat birds again next year.  We'll see if that sticks or if I have a change of heart after I eat some barbecued chicken.  Mmmm... barbecued chicken...
5 Comments
Amy
6/25/2012 05:18:17 am

I am so impressed, Jen. I expect this sort of thing from Dave, but it takes a lot for a critter lover like yourself to take responsibility for your carnivorous lifestyle. I have tried (via hunting) and when it comes right down to it, I just don't think I have what it takes. Once the critter is dead (providing that I did not know it during it's lifetime) I have no problem with the skinning/gutting part of the processing, but just cannot bring myself to kill. Having said all that, I have become ruthless with grubs, rose chafer beetles, and beautiful sphinx months (which lay eggs which turn into voracious tomato hornworms). I can kill most of them now w/o feeling bad, but I do still have a hard time killing mice (even tho they ruin my stuff; they're still very cute), and woodchucks (it's them or my horse...easy choice, but still very cute). SO, all that to say, you are my hero, Jen! Nicely done. And I'll buy some chickens from you. :-)

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Jen link
7/2/2012 09:10:49 am

I think it's kind of like turning a switch off in my brain - I just think of them as food that I'm preparing rather than animals that I'm killing. It's definitely not easy, and I definitely HATE it, but at the same time, it feels much... better? normal? good? to do it this way than to buy chicken at the store that I know wasn't treated as well.

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Amy
7/3/2012 03:14:33 am

I'll have to try that. I used to love bird hunting with my brother (I carried the dead birds, but didn't kill them) and have recently been craving partridge pot pie... I think it may be time for me to try my hand at it on my own. But shooting a wild bird is still different than killing one that I raised... My hat is still off to you. :-)

Kate
6/25/2012 07:20:15 am

I think also having a tub to rinse the chickens off in before the hot water drunk would have helped keep that water a little cleaner for longer. Stupid dirty chickens.

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Jen link
7/2/2012 09:12:15 am

Good plan! Slaughter Day 2012 (Round 2) will consist of 30 Cornish Cross, 9 Broad Breasted White turkeys, and about 10 heritage breed chickens - still a full day, but that's about half of what we did during Round 1!

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