2010 Chicken Butchering

We’re moving up in the world, what can I say? After years of butchering by hand, enter the production line. We rented butchering equipment through our friends  the W’s last Saturday. Here is the set up line.

Before anything was started a prayer was given to our Lord for supplying these birds, their health, the hands who have so kindly offered their help and His goodness to us.

 

Our birds last week were a trial run for this weekends butchering of gobs of chickens, I can’t remember the count, but between the W’s and Mr. C there are a LOT of birds going through.

 

The two young men furthest away were

*The Killing Team*.

 

Our 37 measly birds. We lost so many this year due to on the job accidents and the fact these birds were 9 & 11 weeks old. We butchered a few over the last week because they looked like they were going down. Typically the birds are butchered at 7 weeks.

 

These are the killing cones. They hold the bird comfortably while the jugular is cut. I used to cringe at this way because the poor birds were left alive, but they actually die calmly looking around while their heart drains the bird. No more broken legs or wings from a headless chicken flopping around on the ground. My opinion is the meat overall is better quality.

 

 

Mr W manned the scalder. It had to be timed just right as to make the feathers come out easily AND not scald the skin so it would fall off. He did great!

 

The Chicken Plucker. This thing was so slick! It was comical just watching it, very entertaining.

 

 

Next on the line was Daniel . He was Mr. Headtakeroffer, Wingchopperoffer and Legseparator

 

I had to add this pic. I must of said somethin funny.

You go Daniel.

Umm..I want ya’ll to notice here how BIG this chicken is. Picture it in a 9x13, it’s as good as a small turkey. (Note to self- pay a little more attention to the timing next time)

 

The women in the back were the Quality Control team… ;) This was the K & C Family’s first time watching a butcher and it took a little desensitizing on her part at first. Later that evening we went to their house and butchered their 12 birds with them.

Fresh from Buxton Farm in Virginia, Mr. C joined us to share his wisdom on how this whole thing worked. He has his own flock of birds he will be butchering this weekend. He spent a month at Buxton Farm, a collaborative grower with Polyface farms, butchering hundreds of birds during May. He even shook Joel Salatins hand! We all thought that was pertty neat ;) He patiently gave Jacob some good tips on gutting. Mr. C is the oldest son of 10, Jacob the oldest son on 7.

I liked that.

L.W. enjoying his job! The W’s boys are pro’s at this. Their Daddy used to be a butcher so they have had the best training! I really should have taken pictures of our surroundings. It was a dreary day, but you could see across hundreds of acres of farmland from the W’s home, Mt Baker in the background..it is just gorgeous.

Jacob focusing.

”Don’t hit the gallbladder, don’t hit the gallbladder”

“Uh…Daddy?”

Mr. McD is a chef who teaches at our local community college. He helped out with quality control and cutting up the fryers. He taught us where the “oyster” is, the tenderloin and how to make these mini drum leg things along with other neat stuff. Who woulda thunk?

  Here is the cute bucket filler. To the right is the chill tank filled with ice water. After the chickens were QC’d they were brought down to 40 degrees quickly, then cut up, bagged and placed into a freezer on a trailer.

 

Here is another QC officer

 

 

 

Emma, hoping for a chicken of her very own.

 

After all was done, we boiled the backs, picked the meat and kept the broth. Giblets were packaged for Grandpa and Paul. Breasts were de-boned and frozen individually on cookie sheets then packaged. Drums and thighs were put in packages of 10 for our family’s dinners and gallon bags of wings for movie nights.

As you can see we really had the best crew(a chef, a butcher, a Buxton apprentice, multi-generational). What I loved was the air of this morning. Such a respect for God’s creatures, our focus being on raising healthy food for our families while honoring the Lord in how the animals are cared for and treated, following His design. The boys were not silly, there was no grossing each other out, it was just a job that needed to be done, 11 weeks of hard work coming to fruition.

Thank you Lord for our good friends and great times shared as we all acknowledge these things come from your merciful hand.