Those are the exact conclusions I came to Young skin=tears easily. and that's what I figured with the wings.Farmfresh said:miss_thenorth said:Ok, first I'm gonna say--don't judge me
let me explain. We have butchered deer, rabbit, quail, duck, lamb, moose turkey, bear. and many many extra roos and hens.
And we had absolutely every intention of doing those franken birds our selves. (every other year we had taken them in, but this year, we were gonna do them ourselves.) We did 5 of them. After those 5, my hubby looks at me and says. how much does it cost to send these buggers away? Every bird had ripped skin, pluckiing by hand was a chore (I could use another word but I won't), the plucker ripped their skin. the ligaments of their wing joints had separated for no acceptable reason we could think of.
Let me repeat that we have done many an extra roo, and many spent hens. But dh was saying, If I worked for as long as it took 'us' to do these birds, i would have made over $300. he was not having fun. he says he has no ploblem doing any other animal, but he was willing to pay to have these guys done. Each bird cost $2.90, so 20 more birds cost me about $60. And they are now in my freezer, with no rips in their skin, and their wings intact.
And i do not feel guilty.
No guilt needed!
I would like to try and give you a bit of explanation for some of the problems that you had however. I have been butchering my own "Frankenbirds" for quite a while now and I too have experienced some of the same problems that you did.
The biggest difference in butchering those Cornish Rocks and other birds is AGE. The cull hens and spare roosters are all quite a bit older when they are big enough to eat. When I butcher my Cornish at 45 days old they are basically still chicks.
The ligaments and tendons, in their wings especially, are much looser and more easily torn than those in a 4 month old bird. I have had birds break their wings while flopping after they are killed. My solution to this is to place them on their back in a 5 gallon bucket immediately after they are killed which contains the flopping enough to protect their wings. A killing cone would eliminate this problem as well.
Their skin is also much thinner, due to their age. This is why you were getting rips in the skin. I have not used a plucker, but I find the best thing is to keep the scald water at a uniform 160 degrees temperature. At this temp a quick dip and swish no more that 45 seconds and then I test by pulling a wing feather. If this comes out easily the scald is done.
Too hot of water (even 5 degrees) and the thin skin will actually start to COOK. Then it will really just tear away when you try to pull feathers.
I usually can rough pluck a bird (not counting pinfeathers) in about 30 - 40 seconds. It takes me much longer with a "normal" chicken, because regular chickens have more feathers to begin with. The Cornish Rocks are loose feathered and sparsely feathered by comparison.
I only mention these things to possibly help others. Around here like other places there is NO professional butchering option. We have a custom butcher shop, but they will not process any poultry at all.. only beef, pork, goats, sheep and deer in season.
The other thing to consider is the bottom line. My 29 Cornish Rocks cost me a total of $125.59 this time. This includes all of their feed, bedding and the original cost of each bird from Welps hatchery. I still have 8 birds to clean tomorrow, so I don't have final weights, but with current figures they are costing me about $1.19 per pound. If I added an additional $2.90 per bird to the cost it would raise my per pound to about $1.95 per pound.
Now THAT price is still quite worth it for the quality of meat that we end up with - especially considering that organic free range chicken is selling for around $4.00 a POUND!
It is just another factor to consider. BTW We have had birds commercially processed before when we had a place to take them.
I bet they will taste delish! 
The one we are eating is basically a freezer reject. She was attacked by a possum last week and was about 3/4 bald, which resulted in sunburn, and still has scrapes and bruises. The damage is only skin deep, but we will eat her first for quality control in the freezer. Our last quote for processing was $3.75/bird, which would cut into our profit margins quite hugely. So, I will be envying you Saturday...
Wow, I never imagined it could be done so cheaply! I expected it would cost more than that. Hmmm.
How do you do that many all in one day? After 6 my back hurts so bad I don't want to do anymore!me&thegals said:
Wow, I missed that!!! She runs a CSA, so hopefully she had lots of ppl to help her.mandieg4 said:
