Cornish X - Part 2

As I warned in my last post, Cornish X - Part 1, you may want to skip this one if you find butchering offensive.  I cropped photos to make them less graphic, in my opinion.  If you choose to read on and find that you disagree, my apologies.

In total, we butchered 6 Cornish X and one layer for a friend.  Our Freedom/Reds are several weeks out yet. 

We started around 9am and finished by 12pm.  I didn't think this was too bad for first-timers.

Who hasn't heard the old stories our parents and grandparents tell about "running around like a chicken with it's head cut off"?  I certainly wanted no part of that, so Pig Pen fashioned a stand and secured "kill cones" to it.

As you can see, it is a very simple design.  For the kill cones, he rolled thin galvanized steel and taped them shut with barricade tape.  They did need to be shortened more than what is shown there.

The bird goes head first into the cone.  A light stretch of the neck to extend it completely down thru the bottom hole, a quick slit of the throat, and within a few short minutes, it is done.  The cone holds the body of the bird so that any reflex is kept to a minimum.  It worked very well for all intents and purposes.

We placed a bucket under the cones.  I had read beforehand that a chicken only has 2-3 Tablespoons of blood.  I would say this was about right.  The actual deed itself wasn't as bad as I had expected in that regard. 

Each bird that came to the cone was told that I was sorry and that they had been good birds.  Pig Pen asked if I was going to talk to each bird and of course, I did. 

We set up our other work area in the barn and out of the breeze.  The double propane burner worked great. 

This is what Pig Pen has been working on lately...Our Chicken Plucker!

He found the rubber fingers online at a very reasonable price.  He ordered 200, leaving us some to spare.  Drilling all the holes was a pain, he said.

The starting purchase price of a cheaply made poultry plucker online is around $500.  The good ones can go into the thousands.  Sending our birds out for processing was not something we wanted to do.  For one, the nearest poultry processing plant is 3 hours away.  Besides the economical savings of doing it ourselves, the idea of an animal going into a plucker live -that hadn't been killed- as Patty's daughter at Let's Get Real brought to my attention and so eloquently wrote, is simply not acceptable.

After the birds had hung long enough to drain the blood, they were dunked in a large pan of hot water and sent to the Chicken Plucker. 

Just like the honey extractor he remade earlier this year, it was quickly apparent that we are going to need a more powerful motor.  The larger birds put a strain on it, however the medium to smaller of the birds were no problem.

Here you will see how quickly and how well the machine worked:

The plucker did a great job!  An occasional hose down of the feathers or a stuck limb was it!  No broken bones!  There were minimal pin feathers left and we did not need to singe at all.

After the birds were cleaned out, we moved into the house for final clean and packaging.

From six birds, a few days past 8 weeks of age, we packaged just under 40 pounds of meat.  They weighed in individually at:

• 8.5
• 8
• 7
• 7.5
• 5.25
• 3.5

The last two listed were hens and the others were roosters.  One breast from the largest rooster weighed 1.75 lbs alone! 

As to the appearance of the finished birds: the skins had a healthy color unlike anything I have seen from the grocery store.  More notable was the lack of fat on these birds.  I'm sure many of you have purchased chicken from the store and as you were cleaning/preparing it, you came across a yellowish, bubbly, glob of a fat pocket?  There was none.  Only healthy skin and meat.  I was very pleased and a bit surprised actually.

What we learned from our first experience:

• The temperature of the water at 145-155 was about right.  I had originally put it up to 165, which was too high.
• 10-15 seconds in the water was sufficient when using a plucker.  A couple of the birds were done at too high a temp or dunked a bit too long resulting in torn skin.
• Remove the heads before they go into the plucker.  It didn't take but one for us to learn.
• Get a larger motor if the birds reach 7+ lbs.  I don't think the others will be a problem.  We will probably get to them before this weight.
• Install a utility sink in the barn.  Already in the works!  Thanks Pops!!

So there you have it, as promised.  I don't think I forgot any major point other than to thank my Mom for helping out!  She had said to warn her so she wouldn't come over that day.  Too many memories from doing alot of plucking as a kid was her defense.  But like a trooper, she marched on!  She said next time, she's wearing a mask.  I'll give her that one!  The smell is distinct...wet feathers are worse than a wet dog.  It sticks with you for a little while.