By request ... How I process my turkeys - WARNING FOWL pictures!

[Farmfresh]

I am going to try and start this thread even though I do not have all of the pictures ready as of yet. I was asked by a few of you to post some pictures of my recent turkey processing. A picture IS worth a million words when you are trying to learn a skill so here it goes.

-------------------- WAIT! ------------------------------------------------------

I was thinking the other day and realized that this is a very graphic tutorial that has pictures of dead animals in it. It may be too disturbing for this forum. I have decided to therefore remove the offensive content and graphic pictures before it possibly offends someone.

I am keeping the information AND the pictures. I am just posting it to my personal homesteading website. If you are interested in this subject please come to http://www.uBuilderPlans.com and check out my How to Lessons section! The information will be posted there for your easy access.

Thanks and sorry if I offended anyone.

 

[Farmfresh]

So the first steps are to get ready.

 

[Beekissed]

Farm, excellent pictorial!!! Love your setup! Nice clean birds....makes me hungry to even look at them.

Will you get in trouble with the city if someone sees you butchering?

 

[Farmfresh]

Good question!

 

[justusnak]

Great pics! You needed to get hubby out there to get the pics while you were busy doing the deed! I can almost smell the roasted turkey....yummmm.

 

[TanksHill]

You are my hero!!!! Thank you so much. It is so great to see the process step by step. No matter how many You Tube videos I watch seeing it like this helps so much. I like the set up with the tubs, trash can etc. I found a stainless sink on CL a couple weeks ago. I told dh it was for washing my veggies before they came in the house. But I now know what it will really be used for.

Just a couple of questions.
How do you know your hot bath is 160deg. Do you take the temp or just guess-timate?

And the icing down. Will ice chest with water work? And if so for how long?

Oh, I need to get some poultry sheers, any suggestions on those.

Now basically for chickens its the same set up and actions just smaller bird?

g

PS, Thank yo again for stopping so many times to take these pictures. I hate to be such a pain!!

 

[pioneergirl]

Great pics and excellent use of the double wash tub!! I also think its cool that you're in the city, yet still able to do this...awesome!

 

[Farmfresh]

Great pics! You needed to get hubby out there to get the pics while you were busy doing the deed!

It was 95 degrees outside.

 

[ksalvagno]

This may be stupid but I never understood what dressed weight meant. Also, what do you do with the blood?

Do you know what the weight of the turkey was when it was alive? I have been toying with the idea of doing a few turkeys but it would have to be the broad breasted that are gone before winter. I also would only want to grow them so they end up being around 20 pounds when going into the oven.

 

[Farmfresh]

No such thing as a stupid question!