In case you were wondering, here's a little bit about our process:
We work on a two-day type scheduling, where you bring us your birds on day one and they are ready for pick-up on day two. We have extra cages/pens if you would prefer to take your carrying devices home with you on drop-off day. This is a multi-person process. This process applies to chickens and turkeys. (for info on duck/goose pr
ocessing, please send us a message or give us a call.) We feel the most humane way to butcher is to slit the throat and allow the blood to drain as it is the quickest, most painless way. From there we dunk the birds into water at a minimum temperature of 150 degrees. From the water they are sent straight to the plucking machine. Skin tearing does sometimes occur during this step, but we do our best to prevent this from happening in order to produce the best quality plucking job we can. After the plucker, the birds hit the table where they are meticulously picked and hand-plucked by seasoned hands and eyes. From here, they move down the table to be gutted and have any giblets saved. We remove the head, neck and feet to be discarded. Chickens, we remove the tails but will leave them intact on turkeys. Our knives are sharpened and sterilized before each order to minimize the chance of any sort of contamination. From here, the birds enter the quality control section of our process, where another meticulous set of hands and eyes goes over each inch of the carcass to insure all pin feathers, hairs, impacted feathers, dirty pores etc. have been removed and the inside of the cavity has been cleaned of impurities and remnants of the internal organs. The final stage of our process is an overnight ice-bath, covered and protected from outside elements. We are still in the process of acquiring the licensing to cut and wrap if requested, but are not yet certified to do so. We send your birds home with you in a clean, plastic bag ready for you to wrap and store them however you choose to do so. However, we do have shrink-wrap bags available for purchase if you would like to take them and do it yourself. Be sure to bring your cooler and ice for the ride home!
