For those who transport birds to a processor -- how do you transport?

[CovenantCreek]

I've been wanting to raise some meat birds, but the closest USDA processor I could find is a few hours away. I'm curious how people travel with their live birds one way and packaged birds the other. Don't they have be kept cold right after being processed?

 

[greyfields]

I haul them in the back of my pickup which had a canopy. I load them into crates at the processor.

I then haul them back in coolers. the processor gives me all the ice I can load. It can sometimes get tricky if you need two coolers, since I can only fit one in the cab with me.

In our state, they must stay under 38F for the trip home to the fridge. We're not allowed to freeze them unless the processor does it for us. It can get veyr complicated and I'd love a refer truck.

 

[Marlinchaser]

I take mine in a transport crate, or a dog crate for the turkeys, then go back and pick up processed birds the 2 days later, if I had any distance to travel I guess I would bring along a cooler, if you get your birds back the same day take along a cooler and some ice.

 

[Steve]

The people who processsed mine (12) last year are about 5 miles away. The night before, we put them in cages and brought them over.....left them in the cages for the processors.

Two days later we picked them up (and the cages) brought them home in just a cooler, then wrapped them in freezer paper, and slid em in the freezer.

 

[miss_jayne]

we load ours into a trailer with a canopy. then we actually help the processor load them into the cones. we did 100 in less than an hour.

then we wait for them to chill. they bag and weigh them. then we load those into big trash bags and put them in the back of the pick up to stay cold.

(this is in winter.) in the summer/fall, i processed at home.

 

[FarmerChick]

I have to pull my horse trailer.

Put chickens in crates, load in trailer, haul to processer. I hauled alot at one time, truck bed too small.

I haven't done this in a while cause I just process on farm now.

But then like 3 days later they were frozen and I could pick up. back with coolers in the horse trailer. I brought some juice bottles or 2 litre soda bottles filled with ice.

 

[beak]

We used a station wagon. 89 Taurus, I just put a piece of cardboard between the seat and the cargo area and a tarp on the floor. They wrapped and froze the birds. I'm going to process myself next time. Little squeamish after seeing pictures on processing. Hoping I'll be ok with it. What do you do with all the guts and stuff?

 

[carousel]

I transported mine in dog crates in my mini van, dropped them off at our appt time!
came back 90 min later and picked them up, into the cooler then HOME.
but I don't do huge numbers, I think the most I could manage is 10 or 11 maybe 12? for the space I have to raise them like I WANT to raise them.

 

[willheveland]

I have a utility trailer I use alsne processor I use freezes them solid then when I pick them up they are already bagged.I then put them in 55 gal plastic barrels for the ride home. Will

 

[Mad Tapper]

The outfit that processed for us last fall is only 5 miles from home. They had rectangular plastic poultry cages/crates and let me borrow what I needed. On their last morning, I just put 4 or 5 to a crate and put them on a trailer for the ride over. Some of them actually seemed to enjoy the adventure. I returned 3 hours later and they were labeling the last couple. They were in chest coolers for the short ride home and then into the freezer. We're lucky to have such a fine operation so close to us.