[allisonbronwyn]

Hello, so, we are gearing up to butcher a batch of broilers in 2 weeks. We've butchered and processed on a small scale no problem, but this year we are beginning to sell frozen for retail and I'm trying to wrap my mind around the process.

Our plan is to use the heat shrinking bags. My question is how would I freeze to limit the amount of ice on the chicken itself? Do you bag before chilling, or do you bag after chilling and then freeze again? Would the amount of water on the chicken affect it?

Any advice greatly appreciated. We prefer to do everything we can on farm and I don't want to outsource to a butcher.

 

[secondhandacres]

Is it legal in your state to sell chicken like that? Around here you half to have meat processed by a USDA butcher in order to sell to others. Guess you didn’t say what nation you live it either... just assumed you live in the US

 

[allisonbronwyn]

Is it legal in your state to sell chicken like that? Around here you half to have meat processed by a USDA butcher in order to sell to others. Guess you didn’t say what nation you live it either... just assumed you live in the US

Yeap here in PA as long as you butcher under 1000birds a year you can butcher and sell on farm no problem.

 

[[email protected]]

the trick is to chill the chickens quickly and keep them chilled. make a "christmas tree" for draining the water out of them. then get them into the shrink wrap bags .
freezing large amounts of any meat takes a really good freezer.
I make and sell electric chicken pluckers. I have one ready to go at the moment.

 

[Whoo]

I saw this online and thought it looked like a slick way to let them dry out a bit and hold them still to put the bag on.