Pictures of our day of butchering. The neighbors had theirs in with ours to be raised here at our place and had to come later in the day. His daughter wanted to learn how to butcher birds as well. Sorry this thing doubled some of the pics but when I take out the double it takes out both of them.
Thank you, it so much more enjoyable to see a slice of reality and people working together to improve their lives, than all the destructive things on the mass media.
Nice and very organized. Thank you for sharing. PS- love your wagon. someday I will have one like that. I never thought to cart chickens in it.
We raise 25 or so CornishX a year for our consumption. Raise them in a couple of 5x10' mobile pens that get moved daily on fresh grass. On processing day, I move them in a dog crate mounted on a pallet with the tractor forks. I screw a homemade killing cone (made of aluminum coil stock), put the bird in it, and slit their jugular so they bleed out good. Then scald And into the homemade Whiz Bang plucker.....takes less than a minute to de-feather almost completely, versus me hand plucking for 20 minutes and still not doing so great. Now from cage to freezer ready is about 20 minutes total.
Yeah, we only do 25 or so birds/yr, but I decided it was worth building one even for that amount....turns a 2 day job into a 1 day job......and get better results.
Did you buy this book Anyone Can Build AWhizbang Chicken Plucker for directions on how to build yours?
Yes, and bought some of the parts from him as well. I already had a motor laying around, and of course the barrel/wood parts, but I bought the round aluminum plate with pre-drilled holes, axle, bearings, etc from him. I also modified his plan so the bottom of my barrel remains (he cuts the whole bottom out in his plan), and made a chute for the feathers to exit.....seems cutting the bottom out would fling water/feathers everywhere underneath as it hits the big reducer gear. I also drilled a set of holes under his base plate with the fingers pointing down, and mounted the plate enough above the bottom of the barrel so those fingers 'sweep' the wet feathers around and they fall into the exit chute. Bottom plate, normal view with fingers pointing up....x marks spots for new 3/4" holes. Unibit to drill holes Mounting row of downward fingers: