Chicken Butchering Day, Quick Table Build, Reseeding, Peas, Weather - Saturday (Graphic Images)

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It was way too late yesterday morning when I got the scalding pot on and the water heating for the day. I really should have been up by 6 am but the extra couple hours of sleep were really needed.

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To let the birds out I needed to corral the birds for butchering which took a bit but I managed to stuff them all in the hut then let everyone else out for the day.

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I ran fencing around the hut to keep the 10 birds easier to catch. We had 2 that were lame from getting beat up that were set aside as well.

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Since it takes so long for the scalding pot to get to 160F I did a quick table build for the butcher area. This leftover part of our house from when we had our big slider installed has been in the wood lean-to and it ended up being perfect for a table. I hacked the rough end off flush with the 2x4 then cut a board to fit the open ended 2x4s.

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I cut a couple of stickers from deliveries for the legs and had it installed within half an hour. It came in rather handy over the day.

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Finally a bit before 11am the water was at temp and I gathered the first half of the birds and slid them all into the restraining cones.

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My gutter works out pretty well and is able to catch the bulk of the blood. Once the birds stopped moving and bleeding they were put to the scalding pot one by one.

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First is to dunk the legs to get the skin to peel easily then the birds is dunked in the water until the feathers pull out easily by hand. @stryeyz calls it their pedicure.

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The bird is then plucked on the free standing plucker which also removes the majority of the skin form the legs.

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Since we planned to skin the birds we did not need to singe them to get rid of the hairs. The 6 plucked birds were put into the cart and wheeled up to the house where they got hauled in the house to be gutted.

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The birds are gutted, legs removed, then put in the water basins outside.

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The roosters had HUGE testicles. Explains their aggressiveness towards each other.

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After an hour it was time for the last 6 birds to loose their heads.

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I am now positive that I am going to be getting a pair of diamond shears that are used in glass blowing for cutting heads off. They are like scissors but have a large diamond shape that will trap the neck better than plant shears.

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The second bird from the right looked the best of the batch so once the last scalding was done I unhooked the burner and hooked up the weed burner to singe the bird we were going to roast for dinner. Some people can't eat chicken the day it is killed but not us, that's part of the joys of butcher day is a fresh bird to roast.

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The second batch of birds went in for @stryeyz to gut.

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I took the opportunity to go out and reseed the bush bean row that needed it. 5 of the 10 rows had to be and I really hope they will still produce this year since I am getting seeds in so late.

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The last of the birds gutted and in the water basin I had stepped out to get this pic and found that the hose had just burst on the ground. I ran down to the basement and turned the line off.

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@stryeyz wanted hearts and livers for lunch and she cut a breast off for me and cooked it on the stove top. I used it to make myself a spinach, tomato, bacon, chicken sandwich for lunch.

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Once I finished eating I went to the garden shed and pulled out one of the hose mending couplers and got the hose fixed so we could keep it on as the tubs need to have the water cycled to keep them cool.

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About 4pm we got started skinning and piecing the chickens. Our new meat grinder was going to get a good little workout which required deboning all the meat and cutting it to large chunks.

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The first 6 birds all got put to the large red bowl ready to be put through the grinder.

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The first part I did with the large cutter which worked quite well on the chicken and didn't get too clogged by the white membrane. I found that the medium cutter got instantly clogged by the membrane and was a serious pain.

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The chicken all gets the larger grind first.

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We had Mysthbusters on all day long and the last episode was one that had the popcorn from Real Genius which made us want to watch the movie. It is one of my all time favorite movies.

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Our chicken that went into the oven to roast while we continued to process the chickens.

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The ground chicken got weighed out to pound bags then set int the cooler overnight.

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To go with dinner I went out and picked over a pound of peas from the two rows in the garden.

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We ended up getting about 2 pounds of ground meat per bird. We didn't pull the necks or get really picky with the meat on the backs since they are all going to a friend who needs them for bone broth for her child.

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After a shower, watching UFC 276, and putting the birds to bed I made it out to soak.

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As I soaked I saw a flash of light and had to test to make sure it wasn't from a funky blink. A little while later I saw another flash to the south and pulled up the weather app to see the doppler. I jumped out of the spa and ran around the farm making sure everything was under cover that needed to be. Of course this morning I woke up and the gauge had barely any rain in it.

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I am wore out and super tired today. I have to empty the viscera buckets, cleanup the butcher area more, need to add water to the spa, get fire going this afternoon for grilling this evening.


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18 comments
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I've never seen chicken processed that way.. we always just plucked them and left the skin on.. never have I seen anyone grind up their chicken.. in fact I don't think I've ever seen ground chicken.. I'm gonna need to check the grocery store

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When our freezers are already quite full this is the most space saving method of processing. There is plenty of ground turkey in the stores but not much chicken. I am looking forward to making beef, bison, and chicken burger patties. Once we butcher a couple of our turkeys we will do ground of them as well.

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I am wondering why you butchered the chickens if there was no room in the freezer anymore.

I know it is a silly comparison, but when I already have too many tomatoes in my house (I grow them in my very urban back yard) I leave them on the vine.

Is it to save on feed, or just because that is how a farm works?

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One of the big reasons is that the roosters were starting to beat each other up since we have so many. They can get a bit mean with each other and the hens so it helps the flock out in general. Saving on feed is a benefit for sure.

Our freezers are really full of a lot of frozen berries and fruit that I just need to get run through the freeze dryer and the many pounds of rhubarb need to get made into syrup and wine.

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Those are great reasons.

I didn't realize frozen fruit could be freeze dried as well, looking forward to reading that post.

And syrup and wine from rhubarb? Maybe I will plant some under my shady trees.

Thanks for the information!

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Glad the butchering went well and the grinder worked ok.

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Hi! Found you on listnerds.

I really liked your post, I had never seen chickens get butchered.

I was laughing at myself because I feel so proud when I buy a whole chicken and cut it up myself. It is cheaper than the already cut up one. I wonder how I would fare seeing the whole process in person with all the smells and such.

Does rooster meat taste much different than the female counterpart?

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Older roosters can get a bit gamey and the texture changes some with age but otherwise chicken is chicken.

Most people tend to have a problem with the killing and the gutting, everything else is pretty tame. The gutting is the smelliest part which doesn't really bother me but @stryeyz enjoys it so she does that part.

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I asked because my husband is always going on and on about how mutton tastes different than lamb, and something about stinky bacon that still "tastes good."

But chicken is chicken sounds about right.

I bet its even more delicious as fresh as you had it in your sandwich and roasted.

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This reminds me of my childhood where we had chickens.

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Probably many people here did not or would not enjoy what you posted here, but people need to understand, people need to know, people especially youngsters need to learn were your food comes from. Hard-working day and a hard worked post, I fully enjoyed it! Cheers!

Voted on ListNerds!

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My thoughts exactly. Many don't want to know where their food comes from but it is really a key part of humanity and there should not be such a disconnect.

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Oh wow, I've never seen how chickens are processed.

I do like the idea of using diamond sheers as opposed to garden ones though.

Great post all around. Well done!
!CTP

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