Introducing...

[Inor]

The Whack-O-Matic Mark I!

18511

Our meat chickens will be ready to harvest in about 2-3 weeks, so I thought I should start getting ready.

Mrs Inor ordered a stainless steel table for doing the cutting, cleaning and packaging and it came today as well.

Lastly, I finally got around to putting the plucker together. Mrs Inor would not let me test it on the dog even though I promised not to bleed him out first. But trying it with just an empty dry run, it seems, at least on paper, like it should work.

18512

[hawgrider]

Duel culling cones nice!

Never used a plucker we always did it by hand after a couple quick dunks in boiling water. Curious to see that plucker in action.

[Piratesailor]

I need to follow this thread. How does the wack o magic work? I can image but don’t want to guess.

[T-Man 1066]

Hand plucking sucks. Tell all your friends...

[Inor]

I need to follow this thread. How does the wack o magic work? I can image but don’t want to guess.

In theory... You put the chicken upside down in it with the head sticking out the funnel then slice open the neck and catch the blood in a bucket for the fruit trees.

Our initial plan is to do them a week from Monday, so I'll let you know how theory matches up with reality after that...

[StratBastard]

In theory... You put the chicken upside down in it with the head sticking out the funnel then slice open the neck and catch the blood in a bucket for the fruit trees.

Our initial plan is to do them a week from Monday, so I'll let you know how theory matches up with reality after that...

I like the Whack-O-Matic Mark II a little better, has the picatinny rail.

[hawgrider]

In theory... You put the chicken upside down in it with the head sticking out the funnel then slice open the neck and catch the blood in a bucket for the fruit trees.

Our initial plan is to do them a week from Monday, so I'll let you know how theory matches up with reality after that...

You cut into the one side of the neck there is a vein there if you are going to bleed them out. If thats the case only cut trough the vein and not cut the neck all the way off. The idea is to keep the heart beating long enough to pump the blood out.

That can take a little more time so we just cut the heads off. Some blood comes out but probably not all. It didnt seem to make a huge difference to us when we butchered but everyone has there own preferences.

[SOCOM42]

You cut into the one side of the neck there is a vein there if you are going to bleed them out. If thats the case only cut trough the vein and not cut the neck all the way off. The idea is to keep the heart beating long enough to pump the blood out.

That can take a little more time so we just cut the heads off. Some blood comes out but probably not all. It didnt seem to make a huge difference to us when we butchered but everyone has there own preferences.

Sounds like you are doing HALAL sanctioned killing.

My grandmother did the funnel thing with them, and she just cut the heads off with a branch lopper.

She did that in the old country with them also, they did all they needed for the restaurant here.

When I was growing up the big market (Brockelmans) had chickens hanging from hooks,

they were killed out back in a barn and processed in there, those chickens were Kosher.

Butter was in, I would guess 25 pound copper tubs, they would cut out a piece and weigh it, wrap it in butchers paper..

There was no processed and packaged chicken parts or packaged butter, that stuff came about 10 years later in the 50s.

[Inor]

I like the Whack-O-Matic Mark II a little better, has the picatinny rail.

The Mark II is already in the planning stages! I was thinking something with a belt drive, powered by an old weedeater engine. Of course, being a computer nerd, I will have to employ a Raspberry Pi somewhere in the mix. But I like the idea of a picatinny rail as well!!! Stay tuned for further details!

[Slippy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmlnltVzksg

[Box of frogs]

Your Delta Chi name is ………. Flounder.
Belch……

[Inor]

A neighbor brought some chickens over this morning and we ended up processing a total of 32 of their birds and ours. Between all of us, none had experience processing chickens, but Mrs Inor and I have done a lot of game birds over the years. It turned out to be much faster than I thought it would be. The first 3 birds took about an hour while we figured out a process. After that, the next 29 took about two hours.

Having the 2 cones to whack them speed the process up considerably. While one bird was bleeding out, we could be loading the next and opening up it's neck. The turkey fryer worked perfectly for scalding them. The plucker...

The Yardbird plucker worked well for one bird at a time. It is sold as being able to do 2 at a time, but with 2 it could barely get spinning. It did a very nice job of getting the feathers out. But I did have to take the top off and clean it out every 3-4 birds or the feathers would just jam up the motor. That was not a big deal, taking only about 2 minutes to clean, as long as I remembered to do it. It was WAY easier to use the plucker than doing them by hand! It was an absolute "must have" and a huge time saver for doing more than a few birds at a time.

One thing I will mention if you have never cleaned several birds at a time, you cannot have too many hoses or too much water! We had 3 hoses going, one for the plucker, another for cleaning the plucker and the whack-o-matic and one at the cutting table. It meant, by the time we were done, the entire cleaning area was one big mud pit, but always having a hose handy also saved a ton of time!

Beyond that, we motored right through them and were done by about 10 AM. The birds are now in the refrigerator over night to cool, then tomorrow we will shrink wrap them and toss them in the freezer. Mrs Inor is also going to fry up the giblets for the dogs tomorrow. So they will all be very happy. They were surprisingly good about staying away from the blood buckets and the gut buckets too.

The only thing I am going to do different when I order the next batch for this fall is to pay the extra 20 cents per bird to get all hens. The roosters were a pain in the ass to catch and once they were cleaned, they did not have as much meat as the hens.

I am calling this effort a raging 100% SUCCESS!!!!!

[StratBastard]

A neighbor brought some chickens over this morning and we ended up processing a total of 32 of their birds and ours. Between all of us, none had experience processing chickens, but Mrs Inor and I have done a lot of game birds over the years. It turned out to be much faster than I thought it would be. The first 3 birds took about an hour while we figured out a process. After that, the next 29 took about two hours.

Having the 2 cones to whack them speed the process up considerably. While one bird was bleeding out, we could be loading the next and opening up it's neck. The turkey fryer worked perfectly for scalding them. The plucker...

The Yardbird plucker worked well for one bird at a time. It is sold as being able to do 2 at a time, but with 2 it could barely get spinning. It did a very nice job of getting the feathers out. But I did have to take the top off and clean it out every 3-4 birds or the feathers would just jam up the motor. That was not a big deal, taking only about 2 minutes to clean, as long as I remembered to do it. It was WAY easier to use the plucker than doing them by hand! It was an absolute "must have" and a huge time saver for doing more than a few birds at a time.

One thing I will mention if you have never cleaned several birds at a time, you cannot have too many hoses or too much water! We had 3 hoses going, one for the plucker, another for cleaning the plucker and the whack-o-matic and one at the cutting table. It meant, by the time we were done, the entire cleaning area was one big mud pit, but always having a hose handy also saved a ton of time!

Beyond that, we motored right through them and were done by about 10 AM. The birds are now in the refrigerator over night to cool, then tomorrow we will shrink wrap them and toss them in the freezer. Mrs Inor is also going to fry up the giblets for the dogs tomorrow. So they will all be very happy. They were surprisingly good about staying away from the blood buckets and the gut buckets too.

The only thing I am going to do different when I order the next batch for this fall is to pay the extra 20 cents per bird to get all hens. The roosters were a pain in the ass to catch and once they were cleaned, they did not have as much meat as the hens.

I am calling this effort a raging 100% SUCCESS!!!!!

Doggie heaven coming tomorrow!

[Mad Trapper]

A neighbor brought some chickens over this morning and we ended up processing a total of 32 of their birds and ours. Between all of us, none had experience processing chickens, but Mrs Inor and I have done a lot of game birds over the years. It turned out to be much faster than I thought it would be. The first 3 birds took about an hour while we figured out a process. After that, the next 29 took about two hours.

Having the 2 cones to whack them speed the process up considerably. While one bird was bleeding out, we could be loading the next and opening up it's neck. The turkey fryer worked perfectly for scalding them. The plucker...

The Yardbird plucker worked well for one bird at a time. It is sold as being able to do 2 at a time, but with 2 it could barely get spinning. It did a very nice job of getting the feathers out. But I did have to take the top off and clean it out every 3-4 birds or the feathers would just jam up the motor. That was not a big deal, taking only about 2 minutes to clean, as long as I remembered to do it. It was WAY easier to use the plucker than doing them by hand! It was an absolute "must have" and a huge time saver for doing more than a few birds at a time.

One thing I will mention if you have never cleaned several birds at a time, you cannot have too many hoses or too much water! We had 3 hoses going, one for the plucker, another for cleaning the plucker and the whack-o-matic and one at the cutting table. It meant, by the time we were done, the entire cleaning area was one big mud pit, but always having a hose handy also saved a ton of time!

Beyond that, we motored right through them and were done by about 10 AM. The birds are now in the refrigerator over night to cool, then tomorrow we will shrink wrap them and toss them in the freezer. Mrs Inor is also going to fry up the giblets for the dogs tomorrow. So they will all be very happy. They were surprisingly good about staying away from the blood buckets and the gut buckets too.

The only thing I am going to do different when I order the next batch for this fall is to pay the extra 20 cents per bird to get all hens. The roosters were a pain in the ass to catch and once they were cleaned, they did not have as much meat as the hens.

I am calling this effort a raging 100% SUCCESS!!!!!

When I was growing up parents raised chickens, for eggs. Was real young then but don't remember butchering any?

Done lots of birds from hunting: partridges, turkeys, ducks, geese......but only 1 to a few at a time.

Obviously all ready dead. Plucking does sort of suck. One time I started on a turkey, and had some sort of mites crawling up my forearms.....into the boiling water.

Inor, seems like You did your homework and had the proper tools at hand, and now have the system/method down. Good planning and work! :beerchug:

But where are the pictures....?

[Inor]

When I was growing up parents raised chickens, for eggs. Was real young then but don't remember butchering any?

Done lots of birds from hunting: partridges, turkeys, ducks, geese......but only 1 to a few at a time.

Obviously all ready dead. Plucking does sort of suck. One time I started on a turkey, and had some sort of mites crawling up my forearms.....into the boiling water.

Inor, seems like You did your homework and had the proper tools at hand, and now have the system/method down. Good planning and work! :beerchug:

But where are the pictures....?

I was busy getting the job done! I didn't have time to take pictures! :bigthumbup:

(I'll snap a couple tomorrow when we have the pile ready to go into the freezer.)

[Dwight55]

Had a small log . . . 2 12 or 16 penny nails about an inch apart . . . hatchet stuck in the end

Handfull of shucked corn . . . "Here chick, chick, chick . . . "

While they're busy with the corn . . . slip around behind em . . . grab one . . .

Hold both legs with the head hanging down . . . mosey over to earlier mentioned log

Stretch neck . . . head between the nails . . . hatchet . . . "whack" . . . toss the chicken to my left out into the clover weed patch.

Up to the house . . . Mom had the water boiling . . . grab the big bucket with two handles . . .

Chicken is done flopping by now . . . grab it . . . dunk it . . . pick it . . . burn the hairs off it . . .

Present it to Mom

We had chicken in about an hour or so.

May God bless,
Dwight

[Sparkyprep]

I just placed my order with Murray McMurray.

[Jester-ND]

wonder if people would realize how much simpler the process would be if they didn't give a damn about plucking them.... we can rip through a pheasant in under a minute... without any tools.. even quicker with garden snips.. snip wings.. remove.. snip legs.. remove, tear a hole in breast skin with fingers... rip open.. grab between breast and neck with both hands.. pull breast away entirely... pull off thighs.... repeat...