[docsal]

So, we are still new to chickens for meat. It takes me AGES to prep a bird. I've only done half a dozen so far but it takes me at least an hour to pluck a bird and similar to gut it/get it 'oven-ready'. I did one recently and he was so heavily-feathered (Araucana cockerel) that I decided to skin him instead. The skinning/prep still took 1.5 hours.

So 2 questions.........
- does it get quicker/easier with practice?
- anyone know of anywhere that would do small numbers for me (say 5 or 6 at a time)?

Regards
Sally

[SallyintNorth]

It’s easier to pluck when they’re warm.  So it’s best to kill then pluck immediately.

It does get easier and faster yes, but it sounds as though you might benefit from some pointers.  I don’t think any of us would want to watch an hour-long video to see you do a whole bird :/ but might you be able to make a video of highlights to see if anyone can offer you some tips?

[macgro7]

So 2 questions.........
- does it get quicker/easier with practice?
- anyone know of anywhere that would do small numbers for me (say 5 or 6 at a time)?

Yes it does get quicker. You can pluck a chicken in 10 mins. Skin in 5. Plucking a duck however takes like 2 hours!
Where abouts are you?

[PK]

It does get quicker with more practice. We process cohorts of meat birds over the course of a week. We just do three at a time because it can be a tedious task. For three birds it takes us two hours from setting up-dispatching-plucking-gutting-stringing-weighing, bagging, labelling, depositing in the freezer-clearing up. This includes Mrs PK’s meticulous  removal of any trace of a feather with tweezers after my initial plucking.