Prepping For Processing - What We Do Here on Our Family Farm
On today's YouTube Episode, I am going to go over what we do here on our family farm to get ready to process our broiler chickens. I just wanted to give you an insight on what we do to prep or prepare to get ready for processing day her on our homestead.
First thing we do is get all of our processing equipment out, & almost everything we own & use for processing broilers is made by Featherman. now featherman has NOT paid me or endorsed me in any way, I just think there equipment is top notch & is perfect for the small scale family farms out there, & so I do like to mention them in my videos.
After we get all the chicken processing equipment out, I go ahead clean & sanitize all processing equipment, even though it has been in storage, I just want to be sure everything is clean & sanitized.
After cleaning the plucker, the scalder, & the processing cones, & start to fill the scalder up with water & get it turned on, bc it will take a few hours to get to the correct temperature.
next step is to clean all stainless steel counters & sinks in the processing area & then spray & wipe them down with bleach & rinse them all off with water. And I will repeat with our chill tank & coolers. It is probably overkill, but we rather be safe than sorry.
Now all this being said, i want to STRESS that you do not have to have all this chicken processing equipment to process your own backyard chickens that you raise & grow. just remember what I always say & preach, Do the best you can, with what you have. you can use a turkey fryer & a large pot as a scalder, you can hand pluck or even skin, & have skinless chicken, or even make your own homemade chicken plucker. You can make you processing cones from traffic cones, or milk jugs or even clorox bottles. Just get creative & get pumped about growing your own food!
Thanks for watching this YouTube Episode & i hope you have the BEST day ever!!
Jason Smith
The Dancing Farmer
Cog Hill Farm