2 How long ?'s

[fishhead]

How long can you let a chicken bleed before scalding?

How long can you let a scalded chicken set before plucking?

I don't think I have enough propane to do the rest of my chickens but I've got too much to return the tank.

I'm sure I have enough gas if I cut the heads off all at the same time and then scald them all without plucking until they are all done. There are only 9 left to butcher.

Thanks.

[fishhead]

Anyone?

[froebeli]

With only nine to process, I would kill and bleed out all nine at once and then scald and pluck one at a time. The feathers don't pull out as easily when the chicken cools after scalding. We processed 24 a few weeks ago and it took 4 rounds of scalding to get all of them done...adding hot water to the scalder each round.

Hope this helps

[fishhead]

Thank you. Killing all at once would shorten the time that I need to keep the burner going so that might work.

I could also reheat them if they cool off too much. The water would still probably be 135-140 degrees. I use a 30 gallon garbage can with 20+ gallons of water so it takes a while to heat but then takes a while to cool off.

[Sanza]

So then just butcher the remaining ones and bleed them out, then scald them one at a time and pluck them , then scald the next one because they are easier to pluck especially the big wing feathers.

[fishhead]

Thanks. That's what I ended up doing.

Next year I'm making changes. Do it BEFORE the daytime high is 40 degrees and windy, do it before the chickens are using most of the feed to keep warm, build a funnel or funnel bag. build a cheap plucker, and cobble together some kind of shroud to go around the garbage can scalder to conserve heat and save propane. I ended up burning almost $17 worth of propane to do 22 chickens.

[Marilyn]

We learn as we go, fishhead. We use the kettle from a discarded turkey fryer. Less water required, less propane required, but then again, we are a smaller operation. We have never processed more than 10 at a time.

[Sanza]

I think somewhere on here in the archives is the instructions for a homemade plucker that fits onto your power drill.

[fishhead]

Yep. That's the plucker I'm going to build. There are Youtubes of the $6 plucker.

I bought a little 10 gallon garbage can but it leaked water when I tried to fill it.