On-farm Poultry Processing

[Rick Stanley]

I never thought to ask this here, till now. Kind of an odd question, but ya never know. I'm looking for someone that has raised Cornish X Rock broilers this year on Green Mountain Feeds organic broiler feed. It's a shot.
Thanks!!

 

[Highbeam]

I'll give you a bump. I learned to process my own birds on site last year. I did 26 cornish cross and it wasn't particularly hard. Hand plucked of course, no special tools required.

 

[Stephen in SoKY]

A 6 inch PVC cap, a handful of rubber tarp straps and an 8 inch carriage bolt makes a dandy plucker for under $15. Chuck it in a power drill, C-clamp the drill to the end of a table and the feathers will fly! I have the plans for Herrick Kimbles plucker but for less than 50 birds at a time, my PVC plucker does a dandy job.

 

[begreen]

If there are several folks in your area with chickens, you might want to talk with them about getting a cooperatively owned poultry plucker. Locals did it here and are happy with the decision.

 

[btuser]

That might work out till Monsantos comes out with a genetically patented chicken with no feathers. They'll drive those chicken pluckers out of business!

I'm looking for someone to raise/process some birds for me in a time share arrangement. Can't see myself doing the chicken thing but I'm willing to pay for some quality roasters not dipped in NH4+.

 

[Highbeam]

Btuser, it's really easy. These birds are already pretty engineered to grow freakishly fast, 8 weeks from egg to slaughter, and have huge breasts since we americans like our white meat. The birds that places like KFC order from are even younger, like 5 weeks, since you really don't want a 5 piece meal from a full sized bird.

It is hard to beat 99 cent a pound chicken from the supermarkets but if it is important to you to know where your meat comes from and what it was fed or dipped in then you can do it yourself for a little more money.