Day 30

This morning didn't go so well. Tractors ended up being a bit problematic so we called it a day earlier than usual. Later I helped slaughter the broiler chickens. They're a heritage breed so they're all brown instead of white like the others. The brown ones can also stand up for a lot longer because they only weigh 3-4 pounds whereas the white ones weighed 6-8 pounds so they could barely support their own body weight. This means the white ones spend a lot of time sitting in their own droppings. Slaughtering lighter, cleaner chickens ended up being a lot easier. The other thing that made it easy was the plucking machine we borrowed from a farm down the road. You dip the chickens in hot water to loosen the feathers then throw a couple into the drum. The drum spins around and rotates the chicken against rubber fingers that pull the feathers away while shooting water at them to wash the feathers down a drain. It works pretty good.

Here's me driving the baler about to clog it


Here's the plucking drum in action





"Woe betide any man who depends on the abstract humanity of another for his food and protection." - Michael Ignatieff, 1984