Very unhappy with processor

[Welshmom]

I picked my 50 broilers (a years' supply for us) and 4 turkeys yesterday at the processor. Just for background, I have farmed in this and one other location, so this is the third processor I have had experience with. Yes, I have done my own in the past, but I chose to go the processor route due to a nicer finished product that is frozen solid, etc.

Anyway, I was not totally prepared for what i got back! The birds were nicely packaged and frozen solid, but at least a dozen were missing at least one wing! And many more had wing tips that are very red/bloody. Even my biggest turkey is missing a wing!! isnt that gonna look great on the Thanksgiving table!

When I asked about this the guy just shrugged, and said he had no idea why they should be like that, intimating that it was something I caused!!! Are you kidding me, we babied these birds and handled them very gently. I didn't even have one bird with leg problems or anything. I have never had any kind of problem like this at any other processor before. It's obvious to me they were handling the birds roughly and/or left them in the plucker too long or something.

I'm very p.o.'d. I'm just very glad this is for my own use, and not something I'm planning to sell to customres or anything. Poultry processors are hard to find, guess I'll have to go back to doing it myself. This is a USDA inspected facility in southern WI, for those of you who live in the area. The non-inspected plants did a much better job, in my experience. Just wanted to let others know about my experience to warn you if you are planning on going there with your birds, and wonder if others have had similar experiences?

[SKelley]

Bummer ... Live and learn I guess. I just finished making a homemade chicken plucker and it was used for the first time last night. The plucker worked great but my thermometer was not calibrated properly and the scald was way too cold. Regardless, most of the feathers still came off leaving only the back and a couple of wing ones. Still no broken wings or torn skin. And this is all done by an amatuer not a professional processor.

[Danaus29]

Somebody must have placed an order for chicken wings. But seriously I would be po'd and never go back after I let them know why.

[Terry W]

File a complaint!!! Are you SURE they gave you YOUR birds back? We have a local large animal processor ehre that has been called on the carpet several times for such shenanigans--like substituting goat for venison, or a dairy beef cross for a pure beef.

[Welshmom]

We wondered of the guy was selling chicken wings out the back door, too. And I have heard of other butchers selling giving you back meat that was not yours (I believe that has happened to me as well). I do believe these are my birds, they are all nicely uniform and meaty, as mine were all jumbo cornish x. I did see some crested polish chickens going in the door in front of mine and I thought I'd better not be getting any polish back in my batch!

I did complain to the guy. He just shrugged. Said he didn't know why they were like that. Uh-huh.

Really, the main thing I don't like about butchering my own chickens isn't the work itself, it's the freezing part. With household freezers, a large batch of chickens just doesn't freeze solid very fast, and my efforts came out kind of flat, even though I had chilled them in ice water first. The resulting meat was perfectly edible, but it sure didn't look that great. Oh, well.

[Terry W]

I mean a complaint with the USDA---Internal complaints usually go nowhere but the circular file...
As for the 'shape' of home processed, frozen birds-- can you get a second freezer, to use as a freezer 'locker' until the birds are frozen? i see this in my mind as I ponder..
huge empty freezer, install some 'clothes rods' of some sort, then hang the birds to freeze them-- this would permit cold air to get all around them. When they have stiffened up, package them, and place in your shelved freezer. Never 'stack' one bird onto another until they are already solid...
This processing freezer would not need to be operational except on processing day...

[OJ Rallye]

Is Cascade, WI too far for you?

They've been doing our birds that we don't do and we had them do a pig. They put extra effort to please us.

[Welshmom]

Looks like Cascade would be 1.5 to 2 hours away.
I will be talking to a meat inspector today, I'll see what he says.
Thanks.

[nomad7inwi]

A friend of mine took her birds to the same place. She too is very unhappy with her experience.

[mygoat]

If the wing tips were bloody/bruised, it's because the animal was able to flap it's wings hard enough to bruise/break it's wings as it died. I know this because ours did the same before we started using a killing cone. We used to tie them so they hung down the size of a 55 gallon barrel, but the convulsions would be enough to cause some birds to break their wings- and they were all bruised. I would believe that the ones that broke their wings were the ones that were missing a wing.

Either way it's unacceptable and I would inquire as to the method used for killing, because seems to me they should have killing cones. Or, they just rushed the order and did some in the cones that they had and some not in cones.

[ACountryMomma]

we took the first deer Husband got at our current home to a local processor. We expected it to take a while being a busy time of year they told us 4 weeks. A month and a half later, after a few unreturned calls, I showed up at the processor and low and behold ours was ready. We were very disappointed in how little meat came back from such a large doe and wondered if, after so long with no reply to our inquerries, this was even the meat from the deer we'd brought in. Not to mention how expensive it was.

I studied up how to skin & butcher deer the next summer and we've never taken another in for processing. I do all the animals right here & then I don't have to wait & worry. We had our largest butchering of chickens & ducks this fall - 23 all together - and a neighbor came to help. We all had an enjoyable day and, once again, we knew how the animals were handled & there was no question that they were ours.

Maybe round up a few friends/relatives & raise an extra turkey or goose for them in exchange for helping out during a home butchering day?

Peace of mind and no $$ in the pocket of a questionable business.