The rainy weather has been a continuing frustration to our progress, since we have limited indoor work space. We planned on someday buying a carport from Costco, because they have been offering one that has all the features we would want. We didn’t get it in the spring, when they had it in stock, because we didn’t think we would need it this year. Now, we decided that we need one and the most affordable and timely option was one from Walmart. Humorously, they added a “location surcharge” to the bill. Do they think no one suspects it is merely a euphemism for “shipping charge”?
Yesterday, the carport arrived and I set it up. Today, I brought the chicken harvesting gear out from storage. Over the years, we have made great improvements to our process. Now, when we have our act together, we can easily move a chicken from the cage to the freezer in under 10 minutes. If we are trying our best, we can do it in less than 5 minutes.
The process begins with collecting the birds from the coop or pen. We made some wire cages because the cost of commercially-made transport cages was high and the added cost of shipping them to Alaska put the price beyond good sense. A landing net allows us to catch the birds without creating undue commotion. The birds get to relax in the cages while they await their turn. Usually, they are calm by the time their number is called.
Usually, their first stop is at the restraining cone. It is a sheet metal cone hanging from a tree by the driveway. The bird is lowered head-first into the cone. They have their throats slit and the cone holds them while they bleed out. It is a FAR better system than the axe-and-stump method from my childhood. A beheaded chicken can run a surprising distance after it is released. I am still able to vividly recall a chicken that ran at least 100 feet from the barnyard and ended up under the back porch of the house. I had to crawl under to retrieve it and ended up a bloody mess. When they are in the cone, they usually just rattle around a bit. This is our first year raising meat birds and we were surprised to discover they didn’t fit in the cone. It slowed down our harvesting a great deal because it took both of us to hold a bird for dispatching.
After the bird has died, it is dunked in a hot water bath (commonly called called a “scalder”) to loosen the feathers. We use a turkey deep-fryer because there was one on sale at Home Depot when we were shopping for a solution. It works well enough for small batches of chickens, but it is a pain to start and stop the flame while monitoring the temperature between birds. We will be replacing our home hot water heater soon. It is on my to-do list to convert the old one to be a thermostatically-controlled electric scalder.
Once the feathers have been loosened sufficiently, the bird is dropped into the plucker. The rubber fingers protruding from the walls and floor makes it look a bit like a Sarlacc pit. The floor rotates which causes the chicken to tumble against the fingers. Friction between the fingers and feathers cleans the feathers from the bird. We use a garden hose to spray water on the bird while it is being plucked. The bird gets cleaned faster that way and the cold water removes most of the heat added by the scalder. The water and feathers drain out off the bottom of the plucker into a screened box which allows the water to drain away without getting feathers all over the driveway. The feathers get dumped on our compost pile.
The featherless bird is moved to a stainless steel table for evisceration. The table is tilted back so washing water runs toward the back splash, and tilted to the left so the water runs from the clean end of the table toward the dirty end. The evisceration is done on the left end of the table, washing and rinsing is done in the middle, and necks and feet are removed on the right end.
One of the best upgrades we made to our system was to add a foot pedal to control the rinse water. Now, we can hold and wash the bird with both hands while controlling the water with a foot. Also, since there is no water nozzle or valve that has to be touched during the work, there is little chance for cross-contamination of the birds.
The cleaned birds are put in a cooler filled with ice water. We put the carcasses in trash bags rather than directly in the water because our water is iron-rich and we don’t want any discoloration or change of taste. Also, the carcasses don’t soak up any water while they wait for their final processing.
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