On harvest day, we focus on getting the live birds cleaned and into the ice water bath as efficiently as possible. We usually spend the next day on final cleaning, cutting the birds into pieces, and packaging the meat for storage.
The plucker does a great job removing the feathers from the birds. In seconds, the birds are defeathered. Sometimes, though, there a few little feathers left here or there. Mostly, they are near the joints, where the plucker fingers are less likely to touch them. The tail feather area, near the oil gland is another area that often needs extra attention.
We use fish cleaning knives on our chickens because there was a sale on fishing gear around the time we started thinking about processing our first batch of birds. That was at least 10 years ago and the $5 knives we bought are still in good shape. When they are too worn to sharpen any more, we will wait for the next fishing sale.
To cut through ribs and necks, we use metal-cutting shears. The blades on these shears look at chicken bones and smirk. We have never had to sharpen them. Another advantage is that the long handles give enough mechanical advantage that Melissa is able to get the job done without sore hands.
We were delayed in harvesting these birds so they are bigger than we would have preferred. Our goal was to raise them to 7-8 pounds live weight in order to have 5-6 pound dressed weights. These birds are12 weeks old and were 8.5-10.5 pounds live weight and dressed out at 7-9 pounds.
In addition to the meat birds, we also harvested two of the accidental roosters. Because these roosters are from layer breeds the size difference is extreme. The layer rooster had a total weight that was less than the weight of the two breasts of a meat bird.
A couple birds were kept whole for roasting, but most were parted into drumsticks, thighs, wings, chests (two breasts on the bone), backs, necks, and feet. The backs, necks, and feet will go to the stock pot. The layer roosters will also go into the stock pot or be stewed whole.
