The video documents a full day of turkey butchering on a family farm, beginning with the preparation of equipment such as the scalder, plucker, and electric energizer, and the coordination of farm tasks like milking cows and moving calves. Early in the day two turkeys are found dead, prompting discussion of possible internal health issues and the impact of losing livestock on a butchering day. The crew—family members and helpers including Jason Moon, Ben Holt, Rebecca, and Jonah—receive safety briefings on handling very large turkeys (14‑18 lb each), using cones for sedation, proper knife technique, and eye protection, while expressing concern about whether the birds will fit into processing bags. The butchering process is demonstrated step‑by‑step, with roles assigned for killing, eviscerating, and dressing. After the birds are processed, the team prepares a meal (Indian chicken, rice, burgers) and reflects on the day’s work, including cleaning tasks, equipment organization, and future farm plans. The discussion expands to upcoming livestock expansion, notably acquiring more sheep to diversify the herd, and mentions pasture and forest integration. Throughout, the tone remains conversational, instructional, and occasionally humorous, highlighting both the practical challenges and the communal spirit of farm life.
Chapters
I've got to turn on that scalder while I'm thinking about it. If I unplug that fence, we haven't milked the calf— cows yet. The calves will get to the mamas. We need to switch that out so that we get our scalder going.
It's a 220.
We have to do the 220 on it.
That's one. It's gonna be tricky moving that over here though. It's full of water and it's not really in the flow. You want to kill, then scald— not kill, scald, then move on.
It's a little bit of a—
hear that?
It's right there. You can move the Energizer, which makes the most sense, but then you got to move the electric line and the grounding rod. Honestly, it's going to be less trouble to move this. Well, I'm not going to move it with that water in there.
Milk pail.
There's going to be a lot to move the Energizer Really, since we only have 9 turkeys and the turkey gun's right there, I think it'll be okay.
Please work. Okay, good.
Takes me a few minutes to wake up. Any of y'all like that? But anyway, good morning, happy day. Today, as you can probably see and tell, from what's already gone down is it's turkey butchering day. It's going to be an exciting day. The Holt family is joining us. Is Grandma joining us? She's up and at 'em early.
I'm letting this fill up.
Without a scolder, without a plucker, this day would be much more difficult. 102 on the scolder, definitely gonna get there on time. Now we can turn off the fence and go milk the cows. Can you spot them for me, bro? Yes, you can do it. I know, but you can do it. Oh no, checking on the turkeys real quick and look like a couple are dead. How? Oh my gosh, the fence is unobstructed. Let's make sure it's on. Yeah. Hear that? The fence is hitting.
There's the blind one right there.
It's not the blind one. You made it, you tough dog. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 2 dead.
Okay, given their blue faces, looks like maybe they didn't get attacked. They got, uh, this one had a heart attack, and this one What in the— is that like a— is that an injury? I think so. Maybe it too. Look at its face. Look how blue its face is. It's particularly around its eyes.
Okay, I don't think a predator got these things, which is a good sign for us, but something else got them. Something internal. Whoops, I thought they would have finished their food yesterday. Remove that. This is the absolute worst time to lose the livestock, the day of the butchering. That means we fed them high-quality New Country Organic, moved them around pasture, we fed them that entire time and don't get to eat it. On the positive side of things, we still have a Thanksgiving turkey, a couple turkeys for our staff, a turkey for our helpers today, and so then a couple extra for us. Wow, this is our feed pan. That's it. That needs to be washed. It's the muddiest I've seen it. They've only been in here one day. That's how much rain we've had. I about lost my ground with Honey, but I'm glad I kept it. Get someone in a bad habit if they can pass you, but you certainly don't want to get hurt. You certainly let them pass you if you think you're gonna get hurt. Now, how are we gonna milk you guys? There's a couple spots at the top that's not so muddy. Problem is we need to milk up here, but look, the calves are right there. Check our Scolder, 149. We're ready to go an hour before. Yeah, all we've got left is to get ice and cages for the trailer and the trailer hooked up. Can you guys go get the cows completely over and the sheep too? Just wrap that situation up. All right, get the fence back on them. Thank you. I'm gonna do lunch prep. Hey, how's the little man doing? Having a popsicle?
Watch tractors either.
Oh, he must watch tractors.
Mean old mama. Jonah's gonna help me part through all chickens just so you get the spices out. We're gonna do Indian chicken for our guests.
What'd I say?
Help has arrived and we are ready to go get these turkeys. We got our gates, that should work. Both of those will sit over, that'll keep the turkeys in. You ready? I'm ready. Tell everybody your name.
This is Jason Moon, ready for some turkey action.
Is this your first time butchering turkeys?
No, first time with Justin though. It's gonna be even better.
Okay, what about you, Ben? Mr. Ben. Yep, Ben Holt. First time with turkeys. Oh really? Yeah, I've done tons of chickens but never done— Okay, do either of you have a Thanksgiving bird yet? Okay, well today's your day. Actually, this one's gonna have a story.
Yeah.
Oh, it is Jesse's favorite. Okay, if you grab a turkey, make sure you grab them by the neck. We're gonna herd them up into this corner, into this fence. Grab their bodies so they can't, uh— Keep your arms clear of their feet. Because they will scratch you. Just how you spot us here. That's okay.
There you go.
Look, these are big turkeys, and still we're gonna get 14, 16, 18 pounds per bird, and there's 7 of them, so we're looking at well over 100 pounds right there. Look at that one. Is it even gonna fit in the bag? Everybody, you got to be super careful. Don't get those feet anywhere near your eyes. They will take your eyes down. Okay, Jason, you're going to want to make sure when you get in this cone, we wrap this around their legs good. And when you're killing, that you're mindful where your eyes are. You don't want your eye to be right here while you're killing and that get loose. They will take your eye out. You will be as blind as that turkey. There is a blind turkey in there.
I saw him.
We do a little bit before 8 weeks, like maybe a couple days, so we generally don't lose too many. But we've never gone this long. I don't even know how long.
Like, they're going to be huge, Rebecca. I'm afraid they're not going to fit in the bag.
They'll fit in the bag. Okay.
All right, let's see.
Get them upside down. They, they get sedated. And as soon as we get them in that cone and get squeezed, they're going to be even more sedated.
I don't even know how you'll do this.
So he's on his back. Okay, show him how you're bending that leg up so he can find between the joints.
Oh, okay.
Without hitting the bone.
Without hitting—
you don't want your knife working too much.
And then when he's doing it, he is doing his tip so that he's not hitting bone, or that if he does hit bone, it only goes to tip. Okay, it's had some injury.
I think it was from the car. Oh wow.
All right, so that's dog or pig food. Oh look, dog's here. Let's go. She's pretty nervous around all these people. Yeah, she'll take it.
No, he won't eat it.
He won't. It's a, it's a celebratory day for everybody on the farm, not just the humans. How was it, Jason?
First time? Not too shabby.
Well, it's not your first time for a turkey. No, it's been a long time though.
First time as an adult, actually. I think the last time I was back in.
Yeah, it's blind in one eye.
When you're over there and you're— it's like, it's kind of like an inanimate object. Human flesh comes like— this is live and then it's dead. So if you guys do it together, you kind of find your groove of who does what. 100%. I can do that.
Jason's great at parting.
I'll do this part. You'll eviscerate or dress and you'll kill.
Yeah, see, I could do that. It reminds me of Grey's Anatomy.
Just as I said, there's a net under Sally. Oh no, it is the entire thing, but it looks like a 50-footer, so maybe it's okay. Okay, yeah, not bad. Our pregnant mama. Do you need any feeder pigs soon, Ben? I did some feeder pigs. Am I gonna need some? Yeah, it might be time.
Oh.
Oh wait, Jonah's thinking he's gonna raise them. You can tell she's pregnant. Yeah, her underline's swelling up. Okay, so let's, let's put her guts in one of these buckets. He's gonna, he's gonna make their day.
Bonus, guys.
Chicken turned out nice. Rice. Ryder, you hungry, my man? I'm hungry. I'm ready to eat. Okay, good. What do you think, Jason? It's good. Delicious. This is your prize bird.
It's gonna work. It is gonna work.
No, it's not gonna stand up there good. You're gonna have to get it to hold. It's working.
It's gonna work. What are you talking about?
It's gonna work. Okay, good deal. Just got it bagged up. All right, I don't think you count to 3 on these. I think it takes longer. Just wait till those bubbles disappear.
Stop.
Goodness.
Okay, you had to keep going. See?
No, I'm not.
See how much air?
I know, but I don't want to cook the turkey.
Oh, it won't cook it. There we go. It's good enough.
This afternoon I've been in the hyperbaric chamber. You got to see what Rebecca has done though. She has done a super cleaning job here. She swept out from underneath the trailer. Look, she, she organized the gas cans. She organized the shelf. She washed the mower. What got in you, babe? Well, I was embarrassed. Really?
People were here.
Bless you. It's so much to keep up with everything, isn't it? Oh look, I like to hang this up.
Yeah, so I have another hook.
That should probably go down to the garden area. Now that I'm looking at it, you see that shelf with all the chainsaws and stuff? You know, do we put one at every pole? Something like this? Because you can't ride through the poles.
The string trimmers.
A little bit of leftovers for dinner. She's making some fresh rice. I'm gonna mix it up with a little bit of burger. Chicken tends to be a little lean if all you're eating is meat. End up adding a lot of butter. It's hard to beat ground beef and 25% fat ground beef. I'm not griddling because we got some things to figure out before we get crank that griddle back up.
The fence is hitting at 4.5 and I put Honey's calf up.
Yes, that means we're milking 400 gallons tomorrow. Yeah, we are. You ready to be in milk again tomorrow? Yeah. Dos vacas, two cows. Grandma and Big Daddy here, right? See that truck? We rented another truck. They're going to get more sheep. We're going sheep crazy this time. A farm down in Florida. Grandma and Grandma are happy to run that trip for us, being originally from Florida. You excited about these new sheep, huh?
Uh, yeah.
I don't really like sheep that much, but yeah.
Oh yeah, and he doesn't even like eating lamb that much. Why are we getting so many sheep? Well, we need more sheep. We need to eat more sheep. We want to not be a disaster if we lose a sheep or two. We want to just strengthen a herd. Oh, and we are expanding. We're going to continually expand our forest into pastures. And so there's that, just ever growing. And this is from a different herd. We've got some from Greg Judy— well, all of ours so far from Greg Judy. It'd be nice to have a, I don't know, different bloodline, different mix.
Kids' plate, her plate.
On a walk after dinner and just happened to go by the garden.
Look at that acorn squash coming on back. This garden just absolutely crushed it. It's working nice to grow up this cage. I like it. We're looking at next day's paddock move, and you've got some bees, man.
Can't wait for winter for all these yellow jackets. We've had— we have so many yellow jacket nests, like it's scary to go in the woods. I'm afraid what happened to turkey stuff.
Oh my, look, Beck, they picked it up without me. And I asked— that was a good and exciting day. Thank you guys so much for joining us and sharing in the joy of the harvest. May you have many wonderful harvests this year. Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. I do hope you'll join us tomorrow. We're harvesting the milk from Honey for the very first time. Also, as As always, on a butchering day, we can't show it all on YouTube. We're putting the uncensored version up on Abundance Plus. You can catch it there at abundanceplus.com, along with any, uh, several instructionals on how to butcher and raise turkeys. So anyway, thank you guys for joining us. Good night, see you again tomorrow.
