Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

I found some young boys that were hiding when we sent the others off to camp so now I have 5 big cockerels to process and its darn cold out. Any winter slaughter tips? I was thinking of just skinning them, but any other tips would be helpful until I build my slaughter room. (its on the list of things to do) I have some rabbits to do as well.

I have done them in my kitchen before--killed and bled them in the sink and dressed on a butcher block or piece of cheap furniture wood--the MDF particle board stuff with plastic coating. The mess was fairly minimal, just an odd stray spatter or two from me getting impatient and putting the bird down before the throes were quite done. You have to hold the neck well if you want the mess in the sink and not on the wall :/ . I would never pluck indoors, skinning is a lot less messy. Feathers dull knives pretty quickly, so I use a utility knife, just snap the end off when it starts to dull.

since i shoot mine, i would just shoot them outside, put them into a bucket to "relax" and once done then into the house to finish up on the counter in the big double sink. it makes a bit of a clean up afterwards with the feathers in the house, but it's not that bad.

If i did anything like you gals suggest inside the house, my coop would become my permanent domicile...lol...i think the thing to do is set up outside on a nice day in winter, get the scald pot going and just get on with it...I would keep the numbers low so that you spend the least amount of time plucking ...I might get away with evisceration indoors but I'm not chancing that anytime soon...I think if i was growing meat birds on a regular basis, I would build a kill room on the side of my new coop...good luck... :running-chicken:

I agree with Tom, also somehow the smell that is just bearable outside is seriously offensive inside the house.
I have tried to convince DH to skin the beasts, but he insists it's just as fast to pluck them.
Double set of vinyl gloves (surgical) keeps hands surprisingly warm.

I HATE the smell of wet feathers. Warm guts seriously smell better to me than warm wet feathers.

Wet feather smell somehow gets into your nose and stays.

:big chicken:

WLLady wrote:QR_BBPOST since i shoot mine, i would just shoot them outside, put them into a bucket to "relax" and once done then into the house to finish up on the counter in the big double sink. it makes a bit of a clean up afterwards with the feathers in the house, but it's not that bad.

@TomK we are growing out only to a point where breasting makes a lot of sense. Legs aren't there and plucking is just a wast of time. I would never run a scolder in the house!
But even that is best done outside on a sunny day on the south side of the barn where no wind catches you