Chicken butchering day

Killing chickens isn't a lot of fun, but it is necessary if you want to eat delicious home-raised chicken. Friday was butchering day, and Brian's buddy Pete and his son Austin came up to help us kill and process 100 broilers. Having done chickens the "old fashioned" way as a kid and once or twice since then, I can heartily recommend investing in some technology to make the day much more pleasant. Here's a guided tour of our backyard chicken processing setup.

First, Austin and Brian caught the chickens and put 24 at a time into a cart attached to the four-wheeler. Austin kept them in the pen while Brian took care of loading them in the kill cones and bleeding them. Although a chopping block and chickens running around after their heads are cut off make for entertaining (if a bit grisly) tales, it is messy and not that appealing. This kill cone rig is great. Brian makes two small cuts to nick the veins on either side of the neck and allow the blood to drain completely. The cones hold the chickens still so that any flopping is contained and there is no bruising of the carcass. Blood is collected into the vat below the cones and later added to the compost pile.

Four at a time, birds are placed in shackles for dipping in the propane-powered scald tank. They are swished around for about a minute at just the right temperature. Getting a proper scald is extremely important to ensure good plucking.

Brian times the scald and tests the wing feathers to be sure the birds have spent enough time in the hot water. Once they are properly scalded, all four birds go into the plucker. This is the most amazing machine! I have plucked my share of chickens by hand, and I still don't understand how this works, but it does. Oh does it! The tub rotates and the combination of rubber fingers and running water strips all the feathers and even the little hairs off of the chickens. In about a minute these chickens go from fully feathered to completely clean.

I tell you, it's amazing! From the plucker, the chickens go to the evisceration table. Here Pete removed the head, feet, and intestines and separated out the gizard, liver, and heart. I finished cleaning out any remaining tissue, gave them a final rinse and quality check and then dropped them into an ice bath for rapid cooling. We then packed them on ice. Quite a tiring day, but a satisfying one. Thanks to Pete and Austin for all of their help!