How long does it take YOU to process a chicken?

[DianeS]

I notice as I get more practice at processing chickens, I am getting noticably faster. The last 4 birds I did took maybe 2 hours all together. (Note: I hand-pluck.) So I'm wondering how fast all of you are at processing!

What number of birds did you do in your last processing group, and how long did it take you?

Do let us know if the bird was something other than a chicken, and if you use anything more efficient than your hands.

 

[Omniskies]

I have mastered the art of processing chickens. It is so perfected that my breath-takingly fast speeds cannot be rivaled.

A mere 1-2 hours per bird.

Skinned.

Not plucked.

And this is why I'm renting a chicken plucker this year

I can dress out a rabbit from start to finish in 5-10 minutes. I can dress out quail in 2-4 minutes. But roosters? Roosters and I don't get along.

 

[jaj121159]

I did six roosters in December and they all took about an hour skinned. Omniskies why so long? I can say I'm a life-long hunter, so skinning and gutting is pretty easy for me. I had hoped to do six more tomorrow, but they were saved by a broken down vehicle that needs attention. I'm not sure how you are doing it, but cut off the head, tail, feet and wings at the first joint. Pull the skin down from the neck and it should pull off like a pair of tight jeans. Once skinned open the gut cavity behind the breast reach in and pull the guts out. I would recommend wearing a pair of rubber gloves for this as the blood is tough to get off your hands.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

I hand pluck and unless I'm feeling lazy can dress a chicken out in about 10 minutes. If it's really cold I'm a little faster

and if I get to talking while I'm doing it, I'm a lot slower.
That's killing, scalding, plucking and gutting. Takes a few more minutes in the kitchen doing the final washing and cleaning/cutting up.

 

[DianeS]

Quote:
THIS is what I'd like to get to! I hear it's possible but I'm not anywhere close to it. I have a drill plucker now, so maybe I'll get to use it next time and be faster.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I just did my first two on Thursday. The first one took roughly 3 hours, but we were dilly dallying and setting stuff up and waiting for the water to boil. Once everything was ready the second one took about half an hour total. Not too bad!

 

[Zanna]

Hubby and I did 10, 5 month old roos on New Years Day. Took us about two hours from start to finish. Catching them out of our mixed flock in the coop with the fishing net probably took longer than anything else (quite comical....note to self, next time put in cage night before after removing from roost). I would catch, hubby would chop the heads off (axe), throw into a garbage can to bleed out, then into the homemade blancher (large, built for melting wax to dip bee hives), then, into the homemade plucker (similar to the whiz bang plucker as seen on you tube), super fast and out comes the naked chicken (absolutely awesome!), then, onto the table to rinse, gut, remove lungs, rinse, then put into buckets with ice water, clean up (this process was all done outside), then, rinsed once again in kitchen sink, vacuume packed in individual bags, and into the freezer. The kitchen part added about another hour so I guess 3 hours to completion................

 

[Talihofarms]

Hand pluck large cornish x or turkey 10-15 min. Depends on temp. outside,
Pheasant field dressed and skinned 2 min.

20 cornish x with Featherman about an hour when help is available for final cleaning/wraping.

 

[Omniskies]

I've been blaming the time on the fact the I've only really dressed out older roosters. At which point the rooster has decided to sew his skin into his flesh so it never leaves him. Once the skin comes off I can do the rest pretty quickly. I also tan any feather pelts, and they are a bit of a pain to flatten out and salt.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
That's fairly good time and you will get faster. I can't compare because at least 2 are working on them. 3 of us did 4 or 5 in an hour last time -- well, two young people and a slow old lady.