The Great Chicken Harvest

theurbanfarmmom
May 21, 2017
4 min read

Well today is the day. I have loved and cared for these 57 feathered friends for 8 weeks and today they will be harvested to feed my family. Now before you whine and cry how could I? I will explain to you...I have loved and spoiled these birds for 8 weeks and although its hard to say goodbye to Elvis, Maria, Eleanor, Rebecca, Mark...(well I'm not going to list them all, you get the point) it's also rewarding knowing that I am able to raise, slaughter, and prepare these little feather balls to feed my family. They never once suffered. They lived a wonderful spoiled life complete with their last meal of cupcakes and ice cream (shh don't tell my husband he said not to feed them but my babies were hungry and Lord knows nobody in my family goes hungry!) Have you ever youtube'd a commercial chicken farm? If not go ahead, i'll wait......................pretty disgusting right? Well guess what? Unless you are 100% vegan you can bet your balls your eating a former resident from there! Do I still eat at restaurants? Of course. But when I am at home feeding my family I know our meal was raised with love and as sappy as they may sound happy animals just taste better!

Ok remember those ewww moments I promised in the beginning?? Well here is comes.

Harvest day at our farm is always a family affair. We have raised our children right along side us in everything we do...from the good to the gory. Harvesting a chicken is ALOT of work, let me rephrase that, harvesting a whole flock of chickens is insane! You need an assembly line or in our case a disassembly line (see there's that sick sense of humor)

First step in to prepare all your "stations"

Yup this is it..our custom chicken coup de grace.

This station is our drainer station. This is after the bird has been put down they are placed head down so the blood can drain this is also where my dogs hang out the entire time. Coincidence?

After the blood in drained they are dunked into a nice bath of scalding water around 150degress for 10-15 seconds to loosen the feathers before being plucked.

Now this bad boy is a MUST!!!! You throw the bird in for a mere 5 seconds and they come out naked as jaybird.

Once they are plucked and eviscerated (fancy word for gutted) they are tossed into our cleaning station where each bird is thoroughly washed in Norco's finest water!

After they are cleaned we place each one into a poultry heat shrink bag , secure with a zip tie, place a 1/4" slit in the bag and dip into hot water to shrink. Once everything has been bagged and labeled comes the most important part.........PLACE THE BIRD INTO AN ICE CHEST OR REFRIGERATOR FOR 48 HOURS BEFORE COOKING OR FREEZING. If you skip this step you will need to crockpot every bird or you will be eating a boot. Yuck!

Ok so it was all pretty "clean"until this point.

WARNING THE FOLLOWING PHOTOS ARE GRAPHIC!!!

Like I said this is a family affair and this little princess is not afraid to cut right in.

First, I like to remove the lower leg and foot. You feel around for the gap in the joint and your knife should just slide right through.

I like to go head first, so grab the skin right in front of the breast and make a small slit through the skin and fat layer. Your going to see the craw (where they store their food, which will be empty unless they somehow got the hands on some cupcakes) you need to remove this without puncturing as it just makes a huge mess once opened.

Once removed place your knife as close to the breast as possible and severe the neck from the body.

After that's done on to the shitty part, literally! Your going to make a small cut all the way around the anus being careful as to not puncture the intestines. After the anus is freed go ahead and give it a little tug if its fully removed the instestines should begin to fall out. AGAIN BE VERY CAREFUL AS TO NOT TEAR THEM IT WILL TAINT YOUR MEAT!! At this you will also want to careful remove the oil gland which is located at the base of the chickens tail (some people leave them on, I think it's gross)

Once you are sure its free go ahead and dig right in ;) Place your hand inside the body crevice keep your hand against the top of the carcass once at the neck curl your fingers and remove all the entrails. Try to do this in one movement as to lessen the chance of rupturing the gallbladder(which will also taint your meat).