Doing THIS Gave Us the Best Meat Chickens Ever | Butchering Chickens

it is chicken butchering day we have a number of Cornish cross birds that we've been growing out and today is the day to put them in the freezer so we're running around getting everything ready so this is the same place we always butcher this is our big open shed and it just is nice and we have two tables one for evisceration one for plucking although we won't have to pluck much this year because we are trying out our brand new chicken plucker which could be revolutionary I'm pretty excited got these rubber fingers we'll see how this works and our butchering box just keep it all in here it keeps it super organized shrink-wrap bags lots of freshly sharpened knives and the thermometer for the water to make sure our temps are just right and poultry shears so Kristen is headed out to get ice and then we're just finishing this set up here getting everything clean and hosed down we'll use these trash cans with the bags to put the cold ice water and then we will dunk the birds in you just want to get all the heat out of the carcass before you put it in the bags and the pigs are out we've had the pigs in the barn while we were building their new pin and we just got the pin done today and of course they're escaping because that is what pigs like to do check out this pig water that Cristian invented it's pretty sweet guys I have no idea how we're gonna get those guys then I think it's a lost cause so I know this could be a controversial topic and I debated posting this video because whenever I talk about butchering animals inevitably we get pushback which I get it not everyone wants to eat meat but I do think it's important that if we choose to eat meat as humans that we are conscious of the sacrifice and the work it takes to produce it I'll tell you right now I do not love butchering day I like animals I spend a lot of time around these animals butchering Day is not my favorite it always makes me a little bit sad but on the flip side of that I also find a lot of gratitude to these animals and that we have the ability to give our family and other families who we provide meat to better options so that's why we do what we do it's okay if you don't agree with it but we're doing this consciously and I think it's important that you understand that now the pigs are on the opposite side no cookies I'm going to go back in your PIN they're the rogue pigs six pigs were not keeping them all for ourselves we're raising one for us and five for friends that didn't have room for meat that's something I'm really glad we're able to do is help others secure good quality farm raised food er so that's the plan and you guys are gonna destroy this mud I guarantee it this was our big bucket for scalding that'll get about 145 degrees we need to find some sort of stick to stir the chickens around in ooh dad they're coming for you dude [Music] I'm really excited this year because we were able to raise our meat chickens or at least the majority of them out in a chicken tractor which has been a thousand times better than trying to raise them in a chicken coop so the crew is waiting we have the chickens ready all of our tools ready and now we just have to wait for the water to get to a hundred and fifty degrees everything so once you grab holds a head then you can let go all the way lower jaw our knife right there on both sides you can wait pharmacist stop kickin it may take a couple more clinics go straight from here I like to use this just kind of help hold it down in here to make sure that gets hot sneaky hey don't touch make sure they get completely submerged it doesn't take 30 seconds if it's hot enough if it's not hot well wall out of resurfaces try a few feathers does the scan will start to come off you know it's good just peels off of her this chicken plucker is literally the best thing I've ever bought in my whole entire life I cannot tell you how much easier is than trying to plug it all with your fingers then we can bring them over here probably to the next table make sure we got all the feathers off just make sure they're they look good we're a lot better size this year than they were earlier there's a pink knife your favorite Julie gets the legs put feet that bucket and you're just just find that joint right there between the two balls makeup I'm Nick right there run your finger down find the esophagus after hey that's our food truck how come you get smaller because it's empty over here I know effect something blue in there no there is some blue stuff that's all the insides what is that right there is your heart okay so since we got everything done up here miss Donna how can I help you do this to us off redness no there's that stuff will show you this [Music] piece like although I can't leave the chicken Walker did that like it took like two seconds for it to do it no wait Oh heart will find it I top here host it's supposed to be up here somewhere well now everything is out so bring this guy back here that is very first reshuffling right here that's it here's the heart all right it's a muscle right it's like our heart it's in a sack I hurt you in a sack what are the messages what is this right here is this the lungs right here so that's where it goes to first from there follows the tube all the way down to their belly Danny I stop though you want to cut this kind of at an angle so that it doesn't poke a hole in your bag that what you wanted to you want to cut off the bone just the pound can be sure to eat we pull this get back right here poke a little hole right there why don't we do a search [Music] [Applause] our friend Julie is in defeat poem for stock we'll put the feathers in the compost pile so really nothing will go in the trash [Music] oh really yeah that is a lot of fat yeah that is quite a bit what CD go yes she was playing over there so she's got info it's good so we're about done we're just waiting for the birds to chill in ice and then we'll put them in our freezer bags interesting little note we had about two-thirds of our birds out in the chicken tractor and then we have a third of them in the chicken coop like we used to do it because we didn't have enough room in the tractor and the birds out in the tractor grew a hundred times better way bigger way more meat on them they were the exact same age as the ones in the coop they were fed the exact same food but the ones raised outside on the green grass did way better so lesson learned we'll definitely be building more tractors because we have 50 more birds coming in July so no more coop raising for us it is chicken tractors all the way final step and then we are done for the day so we have these amazing shrink-wrap through bags which are the best thing ever second only to the chicken plucker and here's how they work so you put the chilled cooled chickens into the bags where's the pliers as much air out as you can then we take these little metal rings or you can use zip ties and just put it on loose still loose air get out of here Duncan this water is about 180 degrees Fahrenheit and that'll shrink those bags down squeeze the air out does this ring still loose [Music] so we have everybody bagged up and now we're gonna take them to the freezer then a long afternoon but it feels really good to have homegrown chicken so this will serve us well for many months to come a lot of sufferers and broth and all kinds of good stuff will come out of this so excited to have it complete for the day remember I showed you that video last week of the milking parlor being quote unquote done check it out now it is a disaster Christian is putting in a hot water heater with I don't even know what's happening here it's just some stuff and wires he could give you a better explanation he's building this box it will keep things insulated I think then we've got pipe and foamy things and more pipe so there you go you stack are you sleeping I think you're okay tired a little pigs

Channel: Jill Winger - Old Fashioned on Purpose

Views: 207,326

Rating: 4.9328003 out of 5

Keywords: butchering chickens, pastured poultry, how to raise chickens, the prairie homestead, prairie homestead, meat chickens, raising meat chickens, processing chickens, how to, how to butcher meat chickens, raising chickens, modern homesteading

Id: _FHoMociC-g

Length: 13min 33sec (813 seconds)

Published: Wed May 27 2020