Processing Meat Birds for the First Time – What We Learned

ByAllison

As a new homesteader, I was extremely nervous when the time came to process our first batch of meat birds. Despite attending an in-person demo by Joel Salatin about 2 years prior, I still wasn’t quite sure what to expect. If you’re getting started with meat birds or are still on the fence, here are a few things that I learned the first time we processed meat birds.

Start Small:

We did this one right! My husband and I processed a batch of 6 meat birds and it took us about 5 hours. Set-up and clean-up take some time, so not all of the 5 hours was hands on. We also each wanted to have a hands on opportunity for each step which slowed us down quite a bit for the first 2 birds. I would absolutely recommend starting with a small batch of meat birds the first time processing.

Have a Smart Setup:

We didn’t have a way to keep the meat birds close to where we were processing without causing them a lot of distress, so it took us some time retrieving each one. Aside from that, I do think we had a relatively good setup.

We had the dispatching cone on a fence, and a scalding pot about 5 feet off from that. Another 5 feet from that, running at a right angle to the table with our scalding pot, we had our processing table. directly parallel to the scalding station was a large wagon for plucking. Below is a diagram of what our setup looked like.

I would also recommend having some sort of shaded area. It’s a lot of work to process meat birds, and a little shade keeps the temperature tolerable!

Have the Right Equipment to Process Your Meat Birds:

Have a Sharp Knife:

I can’t reiterate this enough. We went to a sporting goods store the day before we processed our first batch of chickens, and it still wasn’t sufficient. We sharpened it repeatedly, but our butchering wasn’t as humane as we wanted it to be, and we ended up using razor knife. We’ve since purchased a butchering knife to avoid this mistake in the future.

Scalding Equipment:

Scalding is essential for plucking. You need to make sure you have all of the right equipment for this step. If you don’t, you will have a very difficult time plucking your birds.

  1. Have a 7-8 gallon pot for scalding – We used the largest pot we had, but it wasn’t quite large enough to fit the entire bird in at once. Scalding is essential to opening up the follicle to make plucking easier, and we had to keep moving the birds around in weird positions to get them submerged. 
  2. Keep a thermometer in your scalding pot – When processing your meat birds, the scald water needs to be around 145 degrees. Too hot and you’ll start cooking the bird, too cold and the follicle won’t open to release the feathers. We learned this the hard way. Our water was way too hot at one point, and we virtually boiled one of the chickens for about 15 seconds before we realized this.
  3. Squirt dish soap into your scald water – This is a weird tip that we learned from Joel Salatin. The soap helps to open the follicle when you’re scalding to help loosen the feathers. We used about 1 tablespoon in our pot which held 3 gallons of water.

Rent or Purchase a Chicken Plucker

We plucked these birds by hand. It’s pretty simple, but somewhat time consuming. It actually didn’t take as long as I thought it would, but we averaged about 15-20 minutes per bird. If we didn’t scald them well enough, it took a lot longer. Having seen a plucker in operation, we wouldn’t plan to do it without one next time.

Plan to Process Meat Birds Around the Climate

This was a big fail on our part. We dispatched and processed these meat birds in the middle of July. It really couldn’t have been any hotter here in Central Texas. I believe the high that day was around 107 F, and it was absolutely miserable. We set up an easy up to have some shade, and chilled the birds on ice as quickly as we could, but it’s a lot of work and we got pretty dehydrated. Moving forward, we will brood out chicks to be ready in the spring or fall for processing when the weather is much cooler.

The Difference is Real

I’ll admit that I was a it of a sceptic when it came to the flavor difference between store bought chicken and homegrown. I really didn’t think it was going to be much different. I’ve heard arguments on both sides of the fence, and was having a difficult time believing that it would taste that much different. I’m happy to admit that I was completely wrong! The birds we processed for meat were so delicious! They tasted more chickeny than the chicken I buy at the store if that makes sense.

Overall, I’m very pleased with the outcome. As I mentioned above, I was nervous about the entire process, but I’m glad we processed these meat birds ourselves. Not only do we have the experience under our belts, we also have delicious chicken in the freezer!

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Allison is a wife, mother, homeschooler, and homesteader among other things. She and her husband Steve are currently renovating an old ranch farmhouse in the heart of Texas. She is passionate about clean living and eating. When she's not working on her house, she spends her time with her 2 kids Cody and Emma or in the kitchen creating healthful, delicious food for her family to enjoy.

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