Butchered chickens last weekend w/ pics

[Deleted]

We finally got around to butchering up the rocks last weekend. Had lots of help show up

Here's the waxer going. 12 gallon of water mixed with 30 pound of wax, heated to 150 degrees. The chickens took a 10 second dunk, drained a bit, then into a vat of ice water to harden up.











Oh, forgot to mention, here was the chickens first stop




After the chickens came out of the ice tub, they peeled like bananas. No pin fewathers either. I tell ya, waxing is the way to go ;D







Some more random pics.

Me and hogkiller




The kids gathering up chickens from the pen as we needed them



Finished birds rinsed, then in a large cooler of ice water. It took about 3 hours to do 35 birds

[Jack of all Trapping]

Nice job!!! And again I learned something new(waxing) thank you!!!

[muskrat24]

Looks like quite a few nice dinners in your future. ;D

[Deleted]

Even my old man helped. Getting close to 80 years old didn't slow him down a bit. He probably peeled half the birds. He's 2nd from the right ;D

[Admin]

Cool stuff right there. ;D I never heard of using the wax on them but I can see how it would really help the process.

[trapperbud]

Nice set up . Haven't butchered any chickens in a while . Seeing those pic is giving me the itch to get back at it but it will have to wait till next spring . Thanks for sharing .

[patricimo54]

Looks like ya got it going on ;D You got plenty of help that is for sure.

[determinator]

Hey, you've got a T-shirt just like mine, where'd ya get it?

That's quite an operation there. That's one thing that I learned working in the boat yard... that when there's work to do, the more people that you have involved, the more faster, easier, and more fun, it gets done.

My old man is now 79 years old. He's slowing down, but still can get pretty brave. A few years ago, he stuck his hand into a five gallon pail full of crayfish, and grabbed a handful. Didn't really phase him when one grabbed his finger... didn't even flinch.

[trapperandhunter]

sounds like a good day to me ! bet the kids had fun wrangling up the birds

[maritimer]

;D Looks like a great day.

[tkfurs]

Really wish I could have got over this weekend. I'm thinking that after you build my deer blind this summer you can start on my chicken coop. I need to raise a couple of dozen for your crew to butcher next year. ;D

[mikeinpa]

never waxed either but I have heard of it.do you have any experience waxing ducks? I can run though chickens and turkeys pretty quick scalding them but ducks are a pain in the a** no matter how hot you get your water.i quit raising them because I hate plucking them so much(cant skin em cause the buyers don't want them that way)

[TRAPnHUNT]

CJ,
I'm tossing you a karma for getting the girls involved! Great process you got there brother!

[Ipostbulls**t]

Enjoyed the thread I sure miss raising birds, we keep trying to pass our chicken bill in the township it has been shot down twice in 2 months.

[Deleted]

Jun 8, 2013 21:16:56 GMT -5 mikeinpa said:

never waxed either but I have heard of it.do you have any experience waxing ducks?

Yup, that's how we used to do all our ducks and geese. Same pot I believe ;D

[mikeinpa]

ill give it a try,still got a few pekins running around.if it works well ill be back in business.the Chinese people cant get enough of em.

[barkspud]

Great post CJ ive never heard of waxing either.. i wouldn't be so shy to raise chickens now that iv seen this and how quick it goes. Our chicken coops been emoty for awhile may have to change that..

[Deleted]

Well, it's that time of year again. Will be butchering chickens tomorrow, using the same methods above. Will try to get some pics posted

[Tim bly]

I always used wax on wild ducks to works great them to

[Admin]

Sounds like fun

[trappingtime0]

we slaughtered 100 chickens yesterday. We dont use any wax with them. we just dip in 160 degree water and into the plucker. i saved the liver and hearts for bait this fall! 

[stickbowhntr]

this waxing idea I like

[northwoodstrapper]

Great pics looks like good clean family fun. When I was a kid dad used to make us kids dip the geese in paraffin wax to get the pin feathers out. It was quit time consuming for a young hunter, but was good times together.

[crossroads]

How much wax do you go through? Seems like that would get kind of expensive?

[crossroads]

Just watched someone doing ducks in YouTube, looks like it does a great job and it says the wax can be reused by remelting and removing the feathers.

[jimo]

We butchered some a while back. I built a chicken plucker to help out and it sure sped things up. Never tried the wax though.

[rye]

Neat stuff, never heard of waxing a chicken to pluck it.. sounds like it'd make it super easy/less messy.  Question on the wax though,, seems like it'd get expensive to do it this way for only a handful of chickens.. Wax isn't cheap... you have a secret supplier?