Re: Getting into Meat Chickens....
[Re: GREENCOUNTYPETE]
#7216475
03/15/21 11:43 AM
03/15/21 11:43 AM
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Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 6,427 east central WI
k snow
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trapper
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 6,427
east central WI
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feeding them out is the easy part a friend and I were doing runs of 100
I built a plucker and a set of killing cones , if we did another run 4 killing cones rather than 2 woud speed it up
killing is easy we had the kids catch and kill , the scalder needs to be the most experienced person watching the temp and pulling wing feathers a good scaled not to hot or too short makes the rest of the process better , the plucker need to be able to turn on a valve and a switch then 2 evisorating worked out about right.
lots of ice made up for the chill tank. then bag and weigh once we had them all in the chill tank and cooled
it takes a bunch of labor The wife and I did 24 birds in 1 day, about 13 hours. No fancy plucker, and very little experience on her part. We killed, plucked and rough gutted batches of 6 then put them into ice baths. Then I cleaned them real good and the wife picked pin feathers that were left. Back into the ice baths. Last step was bagging, that was the easiest part. When we do it again, We will split it into a few sessions. Another set of hands would have been a real help, or a plucker.
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Re: Getting into Meat Chickens....
[Re: yote_trapper20]
#7216516
03/15/21 12:31 PM
03/15/21 12:31 PM
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 347 Amherst, NE
Roy Greenfield
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trapper
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 347
Amherst, NE
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Have friends that have raised chickens for decades. A few years ago I mentioned the entrails for fish bait. They contacted a couple of bait shops and now use small milk carton size containers to fill with the byproduct. The cartons bring almost as much as the chicken. Roy
Vietnam 1970 & 1971, Delta 3/506 101st ABN 11B, Light Weapons Infantry
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Re: Getting into Meat Chickens....
[Re: yote_trapper20]
#7216563
03/15/21 01:22 PM
03/15/21 01:22 PM
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Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 3,635 Pottawatamie co. IA
LLtrapper
"The Coon Combine"
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"The Coon Combine"
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 3,635
Pottawatamie co. IA
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How bad did that stink up the shed? Broilers can be stinky and messy animals which is why I was contemplating the tractor route. Not bad at all. Wood chips changed every other day and a fan to exhaust the dust and ammonia gas. I left the doors open in the day time and let my rat terriers run outside. As you can see they are very healthy. As far as the smell it was a lot better than when I am processing fur bearers. LLL
Isaiah 51:6 But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.
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Re: Getting into Meat Chickens....
[Re: M.Magis]
#7216587
03/15/21 02:33 PM
03/15/21 02:33 PM
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 321 Eastern Nebraska
yote_trapper20
OP
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OP
trapper
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 321
Eastern Nebraska
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Building a plucker is more than worth the minimal cost. It's especially cheap if you have an electric motor laying around you can use. I took one off of an old bench grinder. Could even borrow one from a table or band saw. Me and a buddy did a batch of 23 in less than 2 hours. That was from start time, until the last one was vacuum packed. As far as profit, unless you are willing or able to go out and find people willing to pay over $10 per chicken, it's just something fun to do. If I was tell someone the meat is considerably better than store bought, I would be lying. It's chicken. There are certainly people out there willing to pay for those willing to find them. It's just not something I like to mess with.
Have a link to that home built plucker? I just happen to have a motor laying around I picked up for $2.50 just knowing someday I would need it. Never mind. Looks like a simple search showed many options.
Last edited by yote_trapper20; 03/15/21 02:46 PM.
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Re: Getting into Meat Chickens....
[Re: yote_trapper20]
#7216597
03/15/21 02:42 PM
03/15/21 02:42 PM
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Joined: May 2012
Posts: 5,900 michigan,USA
seniortrap
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trapper
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 5,900
michigan,USA
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I can get birds dressed out for from $1.85-$2.00 each by the Amish here locally. No mess for me. And their really clean.
Then I bring them home and Vacuum pack them and freeze them.
Last edited by seniortrap; 03/15/21 02:43 PM.
Vietnam--1967 46th. Const./Combat Engineers
"Chaotic action is preferable to orderly inaction." "After the first shot, all plans go out the window!"
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Re: Getting into Meat Chickens....
[Re: Rockfarmer]
#7216608
03/15/21 02:57 PM
03/15/21 02:57 PM
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Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 6,427 east central WI
k snow
trapper
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trapper
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 6,427
east central WI
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our meat birds are showing up next week. 25 cornish cross. Will be our first time. Glad to see this thread. I will keep you updated with pictures and how it goes. Hopefully we don't kill them all in the first day or two. lol I worried too about my first group. Just keep them warm and have water all the time. I doubled my feeding space per bird pretty quick, I had never had meat birds and they do nothing but eat ALL day.
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Re: Getting into Meat Chickens....
[Re: yote_trapper20]
#7216620
03/15/21 03:17 PM
03/15/21 03:17 PM
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,701 S.E. Ohio
M.Magis
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trapper
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 2,701
S.E. Ohio
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Have a link to that home built plucker? I just happen to have a motor laying around I picked up for $2.50 just knowing someday I would need it.
Never mind. Looks like a simple search showed many options.
Yeah, there are lots of plans online. I just made one based loosely off of the Wiz Bang plucker. I bought a roll of 1/4" rubber fuel line for fingers, and a pulley. Everything else I had around the farm. It's not super pretty, but it knocked the feathers off in a few seconds.
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Re: Getting into Meat Chickens....
[Re: k snow]
#7216634
03/15/21 03:34 PM
03/15/21 03:34 PM
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Joined: Mar 2018
Posts: 471 SW MISSOURI
Rockfarmer
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trapper
Joined: Mar 2018
Posts: 471
SW MISSOURI
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our meat birds are showing up next week. 25 cornish cross. Will be our first time. Glad to see this thread. I will keep you updated with pictures and how it goes. Hopefully we don't kill them all in the first day or two. lol I worried too about my first group. Just keep them warm and have water all the time. I doubled my feeding space per bird pretty quick, I had never had meat birds and they do nothing but eat ALL day. Thanks for the advice!
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Re: Getting into Meat Chickens....
[Re: k snow]
#7216694
03/15/21 04:38 PM
03/15/21 04:38 PM
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Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 18,706 Green County Wisconsin
GREENCOUNTYPETE
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trapper
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 18,706
Green County Wisconsin
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Just looked up wiz bang on youtube, that's amazing. I would have no issue selling that idea to the wife. Looks like I have a summer project to add to the list. I built one , there are also more other options these days , I had a several hundred in my wiz bang 10 years ago my run of chickens I almost broke even on the cost of the plucker as I recall but then I had it for future runs. since the home bird thing exploded there are commercial pluckers available fairly reasonable https://www.homedepot.com/pep/Sport...JZrlYfqZusaAuf2EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
America only has one issue, we have a Responsibility crisis and everything else stems from it.
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