DIY Chicken Butchering KIT makes hard work EASY

What?

Don't do that, Laurel. Don't do that. Wow!

What is that plant for food?

A very big day today. We gotta move the sea monsters one last time. Tomorrow we harvest them. You ready?

Yeah!

I'm ready to butcher.

We've got to get the barn cleaned out where we're gonna do this, set it all up. I gotta make some legs for the sinks that we have. We have a big day. You think we can get it all done, Jonah? Huge day. First, the sea monster moves out of it for the last time. Mr. Brown, did anyone die? What do you think, Laurel? Did anybody die? And then there were 11. We got 11 guineas. Nobody else has died in a couple of days, so they're going to be strong. Hold on. Our sea monsters, only one death today, so we're doing good. That's much more normal. At this point, you probably just want to play with them, don't you? Good, you can look right there. Don't get in though, okay? Sort of a shame we've come to the end of our very long electric poultry net. We need to move them and they only got a day left. This is like a 5, 6, 7 day system, but you know, it's better because they're wearing out this grass. I think I'd rather pull birds off of something like this, wouldn't you? So they'll be coming off a nice fresh grass.

Cool.

What we're gonna do is move it one over, okay? And we're just gonna do one net, we don't need two nets. It's only one more day. Are you working on getting the feed over here?

Yeah.

Okay, why don't you just bring a couple of troughs and a bucket of food? But we'll need to put the meat shaw right here.

Papa, don't touch the fence, okay? Okay.

That looks like a great What a last place to spend your last day. Fresh green grass, clean well water, nice shade. You think they're happy, Jonah? Very happy.

Nice grain.

Why aren't they happy, Josiah? Yeah, but they don't know it. What happened to your slide, Josiah?

We got too heavy.

Okay, take it down to the curb for the trash. Now it is time to— I think this is going to be the perfect location for our chicken butchering. And almost everybody has an old shed or an old barn or something they could do this in, so maybe it'll be a model. We got our plucker, we got some junk we need to move out of the way, so maybe that would be our goal before breakfast, to get our platform cleared, get all this stuff out of here. All right guys, cue up the time lapse. We're making good progress. It's 9:15. It is nice and cool. I mean, we're gonna hit the— we're gonna have the morning sun. Right there for a little bit, and we're not gonna have much protection from that with that shade tree. We will be protected under the barn, so I think this is going to be perfect. The dishwasher's to move out of the way, and that wood trash— that's it. Okay, there you go, it's clean just like that. Lily, you're sweeping it up. Mr. Brown, you taming the mountain lion?

Yeah. He's letting me ride him. I'll bite you.

We are done. 5 minutes to spare. Let's go have breakfast and resume. After breakfast, I want to measure this counter. So we've got to make legs for our sinks, our stainless steel sinks. And I want to make them the right height, so let's measure this. What is the proper counter height, Rebecca? Do you know offhand? 36? This is like 36 and a half. Who's that? Who's that good-looking person?

That's nobody. This is the tree.

Papa, I want to make a keyhole doll on it.

Keyhole garden bed? That's adorable. Go ahead.

How I make it?

Your vocabulary is amazing.

How I make it, Papa?

The keyhole garden bed is already in your A sidewalk? I would do it like this. Do one path and then do a circle at the end and then do a big circle around it. There's your keyhole garden bed. Uh, we're looking over across the street right now. It's looking pretty sunny over there, Becky. I know. Maple's in the shade. Maple's in the shade. We, um, we were looking around in the afternoon.

We were looking at it at the wrong time of day.

Now you have about 6 feet of shade because of the barn, right? And I didn't want to go too far out from the barn anyway. Well, let's do it. Let's map it out.

Papa, let me help you out.

Is this the opening to the barn?

Yeah.

I always imagine the sink here, but it doesn't have to be. We can always erase this. The first thing that happens is the killing.

So maybe kill cones here.

All right, try it. Ooh, I like where you're going with this. You could do the scolder.

Yep.

Here.

Yeah.

Here look, Puggle Papa. Here look, Puggle Papa.

Then you have to—

You could just have the chills.

So we have a dip and that's where you'd want the chills to— Yeah, and so then it'd come from here to here to there. Yeah, and that would be in the shower.

Well, no, we dip it there, wouldn't we?

I'm making little teeth.

Oh, you're—

After scars.

We have little teeth, Mama.

Now, you see any problems with that? Let's go over there and look.

A little cheek here.

Come on, Laura, we're gonna go check it out.

Come on, Laura.

Come on, girl.

She usually needs a little coaxing to get out of the house. I swear, this is the chillest dog I've ever seen. At first we're like, is something wrong with her? She's like, she's like too good. Oh, you're fine in Mom's arm.

You could switch it because the water source is on that side. Ah, do killing cones, dip, or wait, killing cones, Straw dip plucker.

So killing cones over here, that's a good point because the water source is right here, the evisceration table right here. Rebecca, look, we have this thing on the farm. Yeah, I don't even remember where we got it. You remember? This might work for a chill tank. Oh look, it doesn't even have a cap.

No, we'd have to find something.

I don't know where we'd be able to cap that. You could probably order caps for these, but not by tomorrow.

No.

We've looked at that big— what do you call that thing? That big bin. We don't know if that's food-grade plastic, for one. And two, we don't have a cap for it. And three, it's got iron on it or something. I don't know if that's going to be easy to scrub off. Four, we'd have to cut it. Rebecca's inside calling the local farm store to see if they have a food-grade barrel or something like that. Our other choice until we can get something long-term, like there are stainless steel tubs, there are food-grade coolers. The bus. What if we turn this bus around and— oh, it's locked. Well, there's a stainless— there's a stainless steel tub in there. That would only be temporary. Let's finish cleaning this area up. Okay, what's the word?

I found some blue barrels.

Where?

This season's, Adam.

What?

Yeah, now they have accessible, Leah, too, where you can get in, or you're gonna have to— um, you know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, I know. I don't know, I guess. Yeah, I told him what I wanted to do with it and he didn't act like—

and you're going to town?

Problem. Yeah, I have to go, I have to go, I have to go to the grocery store.

Look at this one going high. This is gonna be a good hangout right here. Let's move this when my truck's available. Mower's out of the truck.

What is it?

Look at this. Yeah. We got our shipment just in time thanks to Amazon Prime. I just had to do that. Was that a dad joke? Was that a dad joke or what?

A dad joke. You're afraid of going away. You're afraid of going away.

All right, you ready? Whoa! Oh, that's all right. You got it stabilized, Josiah? Shall we do an unboxing?

Yeah. Okay, can I cut them open with your knife?

Sure, go for it. Come on, Josiah, get with it.

I don't want to hit Papa.

You do? Yeah. Oh no, we have to put it together. All right, get it out. Maybe there is two of them. Quick! You know what that is, boys?

A cage.

Yeah, transport cage for the chicken. Hey, are you a chicken? You figured out the spring door yet? Yeah, it's gonna be a chicken. I just had it. Just do it a little bit everywhere before you group this Ready?

I can't get it myself. Ready, Papa?

Okay, hold on, let's help Josiah. Can you carry that down to the chickens? Might as well be down there. What do we have here? Oh, it's stainless steel. Something—

is that a scolder?

That's a turkey fryer that Mama's gonna use to heat up water to bag, to bag the chickens when we're done. You'll see. Yeah, leave that for— whoa, put it back in there nice. Oh, that's the gloves. These are, uh, heatproof gloves for dipping the bird. Ah, we got an extension cable with a 3-way. I don't know where Mom's cook stove is. Jonah, is there something else in here? It should have came with a stove, I would think. All right, we'll have to talk to him. Almanzo meets the mountain lion. She playing with you in that?

And then roll with me.

You two are good buddies. Pulling some last minute wood out of here. Old compost tumbler gonna go around the corner. Look, we got this barn looking good, guys. How to move a compost tumbler. That's not too bad. Bring the cord here, just— okay, so that'll be plugged in right there. The evisceration is over here. So that means, okay, the killing cones are here. Then the, it needs to be right here about in the middle. So plug it in. Make sure it works. Make sure we have power. We should, it's powering the bus. Yeah, look. Look, just, it's lit up. The barn's lit up. We're doing good. Look, she's playing with her dog toy. That's good. You're supposed to chew that, okay? Not shoes. All right? Okay? Hey, open it. Hopefully it's assembled. Letter E, letter Z. Friend of mine had this, brought this to our butchering, and I'm like, that's what we need. One of the more affordable models too. I would say get yourself a plucker, you know, if you're just doing 15 or so, do them by hand. Get some friends, have a party, have some fun, get some good conversations in. I would say if you're doing more than— I mean, it depends on how ambitious you are, but— and how many friends you have. If you're doing more than 50 a year, I would start thinking about a plucker. Yeah, we're going to be doing over 200 birds between the 3 runs of Sea Monsters and our old ladies. There were no assembly instructions, that's good. But it did come with these wheels, so I imagine we could put those on. So that's some of that. I guess we'll see what that's for. Jonah, can you hold it up like that?

Yeah.

Okay, hold it. Hold on, I'm gonna screw— hey, you better get out from under there.

That will bust. That will, uh, bust.

We gotta figure out how to hook up the water. That looks like something.

Yeah, I got the parts.

See what pieces we have. See, let me see those. There's no— hey, you're dropping something, and they're tiny. We didn't have any instructions on how to hook up the water. Oh, you know what it is? We replaced this with that plastic, I think. Why isn't it mentioned in this book? Hey, don't step on that! I don't want to lose that stuff. I have a sneaky suspicion this replaces that, and then you put— oh, Beauty's here! And then you put these around it. Still haven't found what I use these nipples for. Hey, don't step on that. So we'll have to look around. Maybe they're replacements for something. They also have these caps for them. I don't know. Anyway, let's go see what Beauty's doing.

So that you can help me water the garden.

Wow.

Whoa.

Holy cow, look at these.

That's what you got, huh?

Yeah.

Ooh, they do. You can access the top. Yeah. You're serious.

First let's haul it into the box.

You just gotta get the hang of it. Yeah. Fill that with, uh, ice and water. Hey, you already came through.

Laurel loves you.

Let's get these things going. I hope you will be here.

I got you something too.

Somebody missed her favorite family member.

I got her something too.

Thank you, Jonah. What'd you get her?

They have it. Shh, hold on.

Like she can hear you.

Just that one.

Like she can understand you. Oh look, is that a walking harness?

It has like a thing, a clip on the back of it.

Yeah.

So it's a little, it should be better. Someone's excited.

A little more comfortable than the car.

Hey girl! Yeah!

You're so sweet.

You got some stuff. Now you got the pot, but I didn't see a burner anywhere. Did you think it was a kit?

Yeah.

Oh, you thought you were getting the whole kit. You got two of those. Did you not mean to get two gloves?

No, I only meant to get one. I wonder if I got two of these and one of the cages.

I have to go look.

No, that's for the cats. I see the cats have joined you over here.

Oh yeah, we'll have to do one Jerry cage and one legit chicken cage, and then we'll have to do our old camp stove burner.

Let's go look and see what happened to those.

Okay, it's crazy trying to take this sticker off. How do you get it around the rubber fingers? We're also looking for those. See if you can find out where these No nipples. Yeah, there's one. It looks just like it except it has a blue cover. Oh, it's a grease joint. That's, that's where you put in— okay, that's replacement. That's where you just grease it. Well, that's good to see. I think it needs greasing right out of the factory or what?

Well, let me see the directions.

Good luck. I didn't see anything about that, but This is gonna take a while. We've had supper. Scott's here. He comes with killing cones. Oh, okay, got the sink. And we have— this is also key— this is a scalder. Keeps the water automatically heated at whatever degree you want. So you ready? You got the rubber apron on? I like it. Scott, peel off all these little things. Yeah, this, this— I guess it protected the material. Peel it off. Gets around these fingers too. You guys are doing it. You guys are getting it. I'll be right back and get some more supplies. Okay, we're gonna be the two carpenters together, Rebecca. We're gonna build our frame for our stainless steel steel table because look, we can do stuff like this. It's got this lip. It's gonna be amazing. We're gonna do stuff like that. So we're gonna frame out the counterpart and then put on the legs. Good cut, darling. Good measure and cut just right there at the lip. And because it's a little taller than a 2x4, we're going to do an extra one there. And then you're going to screw into that these two. I gotta go get the drill.

Did you see this dog?

I see them.

They're best friends, I think.

We introduced them at the perfect age, I tell ya.

Okay, I need a— I need these star bits.

Wait, let's get it lined up good.

It's lined up, isn't it? It's a little crooked.

The board's a little crooked. Oh, okay. Drew wasn't there to help you pick one out?

This— well, no, there wasn't any choice.

Measure from here to here for our cross piece. One more than a quarter. Judy came up with an idea to just put a shim here. I like it. Oh, we got to do a brace here too.

It's okay, I'll give you the same mark.

Well, do you remember what it was?

Yes, 23 and a little bit over.

Now we need to go 36 and a half from the bottom of this. That bottom leg's easy, just 36 and a half, and then you have to add whatever it is from here. That's a 4-inch gap there, so we're gonna go 40 and a half. I think that might have gotten it. See how we have our leg going up behind that sink there and beside it down here? Whoa, we did it!

It's bomb-proof!

How is it? We, we were wondering because we didn't put a brace across the back here. Because we like to get our buckets in. Whoa, this is really very solid.

Okay, look at Lily's like jumping on it.

Let's do the next one.

Let's all get on it.

Scott, you want you and I carry this up?

Ready?

The kids pretty much got that stuff torn off. What is that? It's a pain. Right there, just go towards the door. Jonah's putting the sink in. Come on, bud. Coming along nice. Well, let it run for a minute before you drink out of it. All right, drink out of it. Test it. Good. I can already tell we're gonna need a splitter. You want to drink, Mr. Brown? Then that Did you get enough? Jonah brought us this. I guess this depressurizes, takes some pressure off the thing, but it twists. So hold on, let's make sure nothing's in there. We got washers. Hold on. All right, I'll let you do it. They're so eager. It's working. Good idea, Jonah.

Thanks.

Now it might— we might not get enough pressure, but we'll see. I'm thinking of the order here. We're going to test that as soon as we get a bucket. To put under here. I'm thinking killing. Got some overhang there. There's no way— everything else we could put inside if it rains, but ideally it's not raining. We have our killing, our scalding, and our plucking. Put our bucket under there for a second. Yeah, turn it on, Lily.

Let's see if the stop works.

Try it, Josiah. That's not very powerful. Was it on all the way, Jonah?

No.

Okay, let's try it now. Oh yeah, I like that. It's working, guys. You guys got the last piece? Laurel's hard at work, about as hard at work as those kids. Uh, where do you think it should go? That's, that's for your drying rack. You're gonna put drying racks here for your chickens? Yeah, we eviscerate And then we put them in a tub. The tub can be behind us, and then your table. What do you think?

Sounds great.

Like right here?

Yeah.

And then bring your table in here. Look, Rebecca, that's sturdy. Try it. It's here by the fresh air. Okay, over here, Rebecca. I put on this adapter to get us through. Hold on. This, this though, it's like, look, this is a male. It needs to be a female because the females hook into the hose. We were just testing to see if that even was the right size. Rebecca seems to remember our friend had this. We just hosed this. We just took a nozzle and sprayed in this. We have a nozzle that reaches here. Do you know where that nozzle is? Yes, I put it in the box in the Hollywood stall. It's been a really big day. It's almost dark. I could set up everything else, just like getting the knives out and stuff like that, the towels. Let's try this now. Whoa, yeah, you're much better with that, right?

Super sensitive, right?

Yeah, I'm holding the camera, you can't hurt me. Go! You have to hit it.

Wait, ready, ready?

Okay, all's good. Water's coming out here. Okay, water's tracking away and not towards— let's hope it didn't go down that way. What do you think, Mom? We did it! Everybody put their hands up! The perfect chicken butchering station. Tomorrow, here we come. It's gonna make butchering day much It's gonna make butchering day much smoother, enjoyable. We got the right tools, we got everything set up. While we've been working on getting this chicken processing stuff together, my dad, a working man, is— he was one of those guys, we never got to watch Saturday morning cartoons because why? Because we were working. That's when cartoons only came on on Saturday. But it's one of the best things that ever happened to me because that's where I learned my work ethic. He's here bush hogging and loving it. And we needed that for the cows. He even recruited a friend. Let's check it out.