How I learned to fill the freezer and how you can too!

The year was 2020 and...nah I don't wanna a start it that way...let's see. A time, not that very long ago, we set out to move from the HOA neighborhood we had lived in for 5 years, out to a few acres in December 2019. I'd been dreaming of moving back out to some land (I'd grown up in the country with livestock) for years but it just hadn't happened. I was even beginning to believe it just may never. But when our house flooded in Imelda we got the opportunity!

The house we moved to was a fixer upper mobile home on 7 fenced acres with a barn and coop. I had laying chickens within 2 weeks of the move! Fast forward a few months later and and I'd ordered my first batch of cornishX broiler chicks. I'd wanted to learn how to raise our own foods and after reading Joel Salatins “Pastured Poultry Profits” I felt broilers was a good way to do that but just in case I ordered all roosters so I wouldn't chicken out of the processing and decide they could be layers ;P After reading the book I had a layout in mind for the chicken tractor fashioned similar to Joe's and set out to make it myself. Halfway thru that process I believe is when my husband took over and completed my first little chicken tractor ;P Good thing too! He's much better at the building projects than I am. He did the best he could with what I'd started and it got the job done. 

I found a video of Joel Salatin doing a chicken processing demo and watched that several times so I could get a good idea of what I needed and how to process.

Now in the video it talked about the plucker & scalder setup. It's a nice setup! But I'd never processed a chicken in my life and that kind of investment was waaay outta reach. I went to looking for a plucker to rent...came up dry! So I did more research, took the plunge and ordered a yardbird and an electric scalder. Huge risk for me! It was an over $600 investment for my 25 birds! What happened if it didn't work out? What if I couldn't process them after all?? Do the math $600 divided by 25 birds...$24 a bird! And that didn't included the cost of the chick, bedding, food, supplies for the chicken tractor...etc! But I decided I could be the person who rented out the plucker & scalder for others so I took the plunge!

When it came time to process the birds I was so nervous! I had another like minded friend who wanted to learn too so she came over and, putting on the homemade feedbag aprons I'd sewn up just for the occasion, we prayed and then set to work.

I will tell you that first chicken was the hardest one to process. I tell everyone that now!

That was a long hard day and couldn't have been more proud of the cooler full of chicken I had at the end.

We let the birds rest in the cooler with ice overnight and the next day I packaged them in vacuum sealer bags (I do not recommend!).

Fast forward to today and I've been teaching classes since 2020! I love sharing that homesteading skill! 

There are several ways to learn how to process chickens (or again really anything!)...

• 1) Read about it. There are several books out there that go into detail on the chicken processing process with pictures. I'll post a link at the bottom of a couple books I have on raising chickens and processing. 
• 2) Watch Youtube videos. You've heard it before..you can learn how to do anything on Youtube!
• 3) Take a hands-on workshop! Yes! I'll tell you I still didn't know everything just from watching the videos or reading on it. I was still learning the small yet important details that you don't easily learn from book or video. Hands on workshops allow you several things, hands on experience, an opportunity to ask all the questions in the process, and you get to learn with other like minded people! How awesome is that?!    -Check out Sweet Tea Homestead on FB for next Chicken Processing Workshop dates!

Now! Choose how you want to learn, and go to it! Fill that freezer! Get excited about learning a very valuable homesteading skill and raising your own foods!

Leave a comment! Say hi and let me know which way you've learned or are going to learn! I can't wait to read your comments! :)  

Links to –

• • Yardbird chicken plucker- https://amzn.to/45MRvPJ

• • Books:
-Pastured Poultry Profits by Joel Salatin- https://amzn.to/4mW8vKe

     -Butchering Poultry, Rabbit, Lamb, Goat, and Pork: The Comprehensive Photographic Guide to Humane Slaughtering and Butchering by Adam Danforth - https://amzn.to/41SGsTX

*Disclosure notice. I may make a small commission when you click & shop thru the links posted in this article. Thank you!

Have a blessed day!