Butchering 700 LBS of Turkey & Chicken (in a day)

Is he a monster?

You're such a monster.

Such a monster.

I can hold it out though.

We're not feeding ours enough.

Look how big they are. This is huge. Look at this thing.

It's like a big butterball.

And it's The thing is, they're not eating that much.

30 pounds a day.

We made 30 pounds at the end. This is 98 chickens too, man. Just grit all the time, all they can eat, new country starter. And I bet we're gonna have an average of 5.2.

Yeah, that's—

what do you think? That's big. In the freezer. How you feeling this morning, Mr. Brown?

Good.

It's huge. Oh, and guess what, guys? We're gonna do turkeys also. Oh boy, we had a nice little surprise this morning. We didn't think the turkeys were going to be able to wait in time, but we just weighed them this morning and yeah, I don't know how we're gonna get them in there without them jumping out. Who, the turkeys? You think they will jump out? What about our cages? Remember our cages? We could lay over it.

Cages.

Remember those cages we used to put the Cornish cross in while they waited the butcher? Yeah, let's do that. This was smart. They put the fence down. Oh, Grandma's here. Cool.

Can you imagine having to cross this 100 times?

No. So that was smart. They put the— they just opened up the fence down here and nobody can get out, and they're cornered in there and they're having a pretty easy time. This is nice. You ready?

Let's get them back over there.

Okay, he didn't help me yesterday.

He didn't?

No, I asked him to help me.

Arun had to do this all by himself, huh?

And then Joseph helped me to bring two, and Gideon Azrai helped me to bring this, this one. Well, it's too like holding the poor guys like the little kids helped you. Yeah.

Okay. Well, we're ready, aren't we? Yes, we got the chickens here, we got the restraining cones, we got water in there to catch the blood so it doesn't, um, coagulate. We can spread it on the pasture. We got the scalder, we got the plucker. Oh, we got Grandma! It's over, it's— we're ready. That's all we need. Grandma's here on the early shift, aren't you? Yeah, she likes the early shift, the 7:30 shift. Okay, Jason. And Lorraine from Southern Land YouTube channel. You guys ready? We're ready. Okay. Yes, you win apron of the year. You win the crazy chicken lady award today. So how long you been butchering?

Uh, 4 years now.

Okay. Feel like a pro?

Yeah.

Any nerves? Are you nervous?

No, it's becoming normal. Yeah, it became normal.

Yeah. Okay.

Even that's tough.

All right, Josiah. Joining the fun. They're waiting on us over there. Now you stir it in the scalder. Good boy.

Clear.

Yeah, much better.

This one over here. All right, now you hold it in, okay?

Nice.

How's it going, Josiah? Good. You're on this today. Oh good, you're doing the polyface trick too. Make sure you get all feathers off of it and everything. How's the, uh, how's the crazy chicken lady doing?

Good.

Papa, I better get off this.

Here, Gideon wants me to help him. Yep, pull off the— let's pull it up a little bit. Pull off the skin.

Put this in that bucket, Papa. Put this in the bucket. Papa, I'm doing it.

Yeah, you are.

This is my first time pulling off the skin.

You see the bend here? Cut into that right there and then bend that up.

Right, like right there?

Uh, right there. Okay, just do it gentle. Don't hit any bones.

I'm keeping my hand not close to that knife.

Cut like that.

Papa, I'm gonna do free eat. Papa, this chicken is almost done. Papa, where I hit that poop on it, I washed it off. Papa, that was weird. That's a weird gut.

And then cut across.

Papa Pig guts are huge. Papa, if there's a snake, take off the legs.

You stuck with it, buddy. Good job! You did? Proud of you.

Did everything.

Okay, well, wait a minute. Let me come take a picture of you with your chicken. Okay, hold it down. There we go.

All right, Gideon's second bird. You're determined, buddy. And he's doing that one all by himself. How old are you, Gideon? 5, he says. Oh, we got a good bit more. We're going on 2 hours and we're what, 3/4 of the way done? Well guys, the cows still got to get milk. Doesn't matter if it's butchering day. Sorry, it's been real.

Come back.

I'll come back as soon as I can. There it is, Grandma. 2 gallons. Grandma helping today.

Special day today.

How so?

7-2-2.

It's your anniversary.

48 years ago.

I know. Congratulations.

How did I get this old? How did I forget?

So what are you gonna do for your anniversary? Bruce is coming down, grill burgers. Kill chickens. Kill chickens.

Kill turkeys.

We're having some Indian food.

Indian.

Here's what we're gonna do. Next winter we're gonna take you to Hawaii.

That's right.

Hey, sounds good.

Because it'll be our 20th and your 50th. Almost 50th.

Your 50. Well, it'll be in between. It'll be in between our 20.

We're gonna take you to Hawaii.

We'll take you to Hawaii for 2 weeks.

Thank you.

2 weeks.

3 weeks. 3 weeks at least. Okay, might as well, right? I know, you're already there. Yeah, we're flying over there. And look at this, we're harvesting all kinds of stuff today. Chickens. Rebecca just harvested a bushel— half a bushel of beans and a whole bunch of potatoes. Jonah harvested us some— well, those potatoes been curing.

Grandma's gonna make us french fries for lunch, and I'm gonna make some dilly beans.

Should we make some green beans for lunch too?

Oh yeah, we could.

Does that go with burgers?

Yeah, that's fine. I was gonna, um, I'm gonna do some dilly beans too. The only thing that's not homegrown that goes in this is the red pepper flakes.

So you have dill, you have wild grape leaves, Garlic. Nice beans.

And then I do need to add the red chili pepper.

Nice. All right, Rebecca, I'm gonna go see how they're doing.

Okay.

Hopefully we're gonna get these turkeys done before lunch at 12. Oh, everybody's doing good. So Jason, we're shooting for lunch in an hour and 45 minutes. Okay. You think we can get the other 20 turkeys in there? Yeah, at the rate we're going.

Yeah, I think we could do it.

All right, let's think about where we could put these guys so I could take this wagon and get the turkeys over here. We could like put, put that up.

I should make like sort of a barrier.

Yeah, let's make like a triangle barrier. You see what I'm doing? We'll put a pallet right there and the door right there, and that will hold in— we can put in the remainder of the— like this, guys. And now it's a, uh, now it's a holding area.

Shout out Jason. Good.

All right, who, who's gonna go with me to catch turkeys? Jonah, Josiah, you guys gonna go with me to catch turkeys? Josiah will go with me. All right, we've got the trailer empty. The only problem is I think turkeys might actually jump out of that. But we have these cages that we could lay over it. You found them already?

Yeah.

Things are going really good for us today. It's 10 o'clock and we've almost butchered 100 chickens. We've done all the chores. What do you think, Josiah?

Makes it.

We'll just lay those caves. It makes it. All right, we'll just lay this over them. You know what, let's do— let's get the ducks out on our way out there. The ducks and the geese are just one week old, but they're so big. And we have a shocker knot net, and it's, it's warm, it's dry. What do you think, Josiah? Let's get them out. Yeah, look how big. We'll just go ahead and get them out to the greens. I know you're scared right now, but you're going to a better place. Josiah was asking me if the turkey process is like a chicken. Absolutely. I think it's a little easier because it's easier to get your hand in there. This net needs to be moved though. That was their last day in that net. They were going to move over, so let's give them some fresh grass, Josiah. We might not even have to move them as much because they don't tear up the grass as bad, and there's only 24 birds versus 100. So let's set this up, get the net around it, and let's try out the meat shawl with the ducks and the geese. I personally think this is going to be a beautiful system for ducks and geese because they can eat so much in grass. So much of their diet can be in grass. Happiest day of their life right here. First time on grass. Dip their beak and then put them under the shade. We want them to seek shelter in here. Is there grit? There you go. Good job, guys. Pretty happy? Look, it's already eating the grass. This is gonna be beautiful. One reason I can put these guys out at a week old is this shocker knot. It's got a 1-inch mesh here at the bottom so they can't escape it. Rosie, you have some company. Another, another duty.

It's only ducks with the ducks.

Yeah, they're gonna love this. They're so big at 1 week old. They're bigger than the Cornish Cross at 1 week, so I guess that's why I'm not hesitating to do this. Okay, that's it. Josiah seems to think we can herd them in. I think it's probably worth a try. We didn't bring any pig boards. We think we can herd them in there. Gideon, you're going to need to get out of the way. I don't think it's gonna happen, do you? All right, let's put it back up, pick them up, put them in there one at a time. This is surreal. I didn't expect to do this today, but we got them in. A little bit of chasing. Definitely need the cages. I was maybe going to try it without the cages. They would jump right back. They would jump right out. All right, let's just hope those cages stay put.

Besides, got the goose.

We'll put him in one of these pots. He just Let's hope the goose and the rooster behave. The rooster's thinking about attacking, but I don't think he's gonna.

Good.

All right, now this posse has a guard goose. Doesn't really need it because they're so close to the house, but it's a good place for it until we have another job. Here, are y'all ready for the turkeys? No more chickens alive?

Uh, no more chickens alive. All right.

What's the update, Jason?

We are— how many chickens we have left? 2, 3, 3 total. 3 chickens. We're about to resharpen some knives and then get on the turkeys.

Okay, okay. The chickens is full. Yeah, cool.

You think 20 will fit?

Absolutely. Yeah, let's see. I mean, if it won't, we'll get another one going.

So water and ice.

I forgot about these, uh, these barrels. Is this still cold?

Hardly.

That's pretty cool. All right, let's get some more water in there. Look at this thing, turned out nice.

You have to hold on—

you pluck already?

You have to hold on to its feet and sort of like move it around in the plucker and it'll do it.

Okay, take one person or two to catch this bird?

I think two.

Okay, one person on the other side.

A little bit more stronger than a chicken.

Yeah, they're livelier, they're more active.

Go ahead, always hold it about 2 feet.

Yeah, you don't want to get scratched in the eye. Beautiful turkey. How is it different, Lorraine?

It's so big.

Everything's just bigger and thicker.

A little easier just to get a hold of, huh? Yeah. Or is it more difficult?

No, it's great.

You can certainly get your hand in there a little easier. Yeah. How is it, Aaron?

I feel like I'm in Texas.

Oh yeah, why?

Because everything is bigger there.

That's our halfway mark, guys. 11:45. I moved lunch back to 12:30. It's a little tougher to pluck these guys. Yeah, it is. Our plucker can't quite handle it even though it's rated up to 25 pounds.

Yep. You just insist, don't you?

It gets stuck.

You know what, I bet we got feathers down in there.

There we go.

This is our last turkey and we've done what, 19 turkeys? This will be the 19th. I've done turkeys once before. I'm going to show you guys how to do this if you want that. I can't show it on YouTube, but I, I've got a link for you down in the description. Look at all the rocks they have in this thing. We've opened it up. This is the muscle that eats— that chews up their food.

It's got—

what, it's a quarter of rocks? 30% rocks? Yeah, that's it, guys.

That's it.

That's our turkeys. That's our chickens.

What a day.

We're gonna take a break for lunch and then we gotta bag them. Look at this, G-ma. G-ma and Rebecca pulling this off. Big Daddy cooking the burgers.

Looks good.

Look at those fries.

I cooked the burgers. I started, my dad finished.

All right, and we got coleslaw. This is all from the land.

It's all from our property.

All from the land. All right, we just filled up lunch. Everybody full? Yes, everybody full? Ready to do this drying? Nearly 100 chickens, 20 turkeys.

We need 180.

Intermission. We got us a helper. That looks like a big one.

It is.

What is it?

613. 6 pounds.

Almost 7 pounds. What was the biggest one?

Um, 7 pounds 4 ounces.

Look at these: 6 pounds, 5 pounds 5, 6 pounds, 5 pounds 4, 5, 2. Good job, Mr. Brown. Thanks.

I think this one's the biggest one.

Lorraine's quality control. She's just getting things that we might have missed. Jason is dunking them in our 180-degree water. You about to do one?

Yep.

Gonna pierce it at the breast. He zip-tied the bag and then he's gonna put on his glove.

Heat glove.

Safety, safety first. Hold it in there about 30 seconds. It bubbles. When it stops bubbling, pulls it out. Shrink-wrapped. Bam! They get a sticker, they get weighed, they put in the wheelbarrow. We're gonna get our birds chilled here in the cool room before we start putting them in the freezer. Well, we put some in the freezer, I just don't want to do them all.

500 pounds of meat, that's a lot for our freezer.

So let's put in the cool room. And then 30 tomorrow, 30 the next day. Turkey time! These look nice. It looks like we did it right. We harvest them today.

What's that one?

That is 11 pounds 2 ounces. Is your biggest one so far? 12 pounds 7— that's perfect for us. Yes, I'm happy. I'm very happy with that. Are you happy with that?

Yeah.

How's that?

This is a wheelbarrow full of turkeys.

This is This is all of them. How is it?

Yeah, cold. It's feeling cold. Yeah. Okay, well, it was a long hard day, man. I think we finished, what, at 4:30? But we did get Birds weighed average more than 5 pounds, and there was almost 100, and that was just the chickens. And then we did the turkeys. They averaged 10 pounds. I think we would have bought the— or got the— I think we would have gotten the turkeys a week earlier, um, to maybe average 12-ish pounds. But we're very happy with it. This is a good way to celebrate, getting the ice. We are hot, we are tired. It's gonna give us a new energy. Ready?

Yeah.

Oh yeah.