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Author Topic: Turkey Dispatch day  (Read 5872 times)

nanas1

  • Joined Jul 2013
Turkey Dispatch day
« on: December 17, 2014, 04:07:30 pm »
Afternoon folks,
Having reared two turkeys from chick, Sunday is going to be the dispatch day, having never done this before, I am looking for tips on
1/ best way to dispatch
2/ easiest way to hand pluck
3/ tips on gutting the bird

Ive read several articles on hanging the bird, but we do not have that facility, risk of a rat or feral cat getting to the birds.
So we plan to kill, pluck and gut the sane day and put straight in the fridge.
So any advice is welcome

HesterF

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Kent
  • HesterF
Re: Turkey Dispatch day
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2014, 11:54:28 pm »
I dispatched my six on Monday and they're still hanging. Even if you can't hang them, if you can even just leave them in a fridge for a few days with the guts in, you'll get a better flavour, I believe.

I had a friend help me and we used the broomstick method - I held the turkey whilst she placed the broom, then she held the wings whilst I did the double act of placing the pressure on the broom and dislocating the neck so I could get the timing right. We tried her on the broom and me yanking but it went badly wrong and that poor turkey suffered :-(

Plucking was easy compared with ducks and even chickens. Start with the wing tips - you might need pliers to get some of those feathers out - then tail, then body (that's the order in which it cools and the feathers are easiest to get out when it's warm).

I'll be gutting the first two on Friday because they need to be ready on Saturday but the others will be gutted Sunday/Monday (and I might even leave ours a bit longer). It does help to have some show you how to do it and also a very sharp knife, ideally a scalpel.

Good luck - dispatching is emotionally hard, I think. I have to prepare myself mentally for quite a few days.

H

Eve

  • Joined Jul 2010
Re: Turkey Dispatch day
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2014, 02:15:55 pm »
We use the broomstick method for our chickens but our turkeys are rather heavy so we did the first one by bleeding (the rest is to be done tomorrow as an emergency came up before we could do them). They're very tame so I just picked it up, we put a sock over its head, followed by one of those hay nets over its body (keeping clear from the feet) to prevent flapping and keep it under control. Then string was tied around its feet, he was suspended from a hook and the jugular was cut.
Our biggest and strongest turkey doesn't like being handled so we expect the hay net to be very useful when he's being done. ;)

We did wait a few minutes too long before we started plucking and that made getting the feathers out without tearing the skin a nightmare, we'll have to make sure with the others that we start as soon as they're dead and we'll keep the hot water ready as well just in case. With chickens we either wet pluck or skin them, we don't tend to dry pluck.


Can't advise much on gutting as that's hubby's job but youtube will give you some hints.


Hester, how much do your turkeys weigh and which breed are they? We have only toms, both bronze and black. :turkey:

HesterF

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Kent
  • HesterF
Re: Turkey Dispatch day
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2014, 02:42:01 pm »
Mine are all bronze - the three boys (toms/stags?) weighed in at just over 7kg but haven't been gutted yet. The girls were clearly smaller - between 3 and 4kg. I'm going to keep the smallest girl who will probably end up under 3kg after gutting and have beef on Christmas day too. It wasn't the original plan but I ended up with too many people wanting the boys. I got them from GrahamJ who used to be active on here - not been on for a few months at least - he breeds them.

FWIW, none of mine were used to being handled and I did get a hit round the head with a  wing plus some interesting scratches but if you hold them upside down for a minute or two before trying to dispatch, they go into a sort of daze which makes them easier to place. Definitely couldn't do it single handed though as I can with the smaller birds.

We did them two at a time - dispatch and pluck, then dispatch the next two and pluck. Apparently if you use hot water you shouldn't hang them as long because it makes them more susceptible to turning bad (I can't remember the technical explanation).

H

brooksidefarmer

  • Joined Nov 2014
Re: Turkey Dispatch day
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2014, 02:52:53 pm »
I am doing mine tonight. I am also new to this and have been left to do it by myself. I am going to use a large traffic cone and a broom handle so Ill let you know how I get on. I noticed this morning that one of mine had coughed up some phlegm with some blood in. It seems to be the weakest of my 4 birds and was wondering if anyone had seen this before?

Eve

  • Joined Jul 2010
Re: Turkey Dispatch day
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2014, 08:50:48 pm »
I read the same about the water shortening the shelf life, I suspect that has to do with the number of birds being dipped in the same water when large numbers are processed. We only deal with a few. The one that's going in our oven weighs 7.3kg guts in... and there's only the 2 of us!  :D


Oh yes, 'toms' is probably an American term, whoops  :)



Haven't seen bloody phlegm before in any of my birds. I suppose Christmas comes just in time for her  :-\

brooksidefarmer

  • Joined Nov 2014
Re: Turkey Dispatch day
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2014, 08:39:12 am »
Mine are all done now and hanging. The traffic cone was a none starter as the turkey would not fit inside, the cone looked huge when I "found" it! Anyway, I went with Eve's advice and used the broom handle but I used a large bag for life :-\ from the supermarket with the corner cut out of it to stop the flapping. It certainly stopped them flapping but it was still tricky doing it on my own as they are very strong.

I was a bit over enthusiastic with the first bird and the head came off but as it was my first time I was keen not to go easy and prolong any pain. Id say try your best to get someone to help as it was tricky on my own.

I did them one at a time and hung and plucked straight away starting with the wing tips, then the legs and then the rest. I had to use pliers for the large feathers near the ends of the wings but it went quite well.

Good luck with yours and thanks to everyone on here that I have been able to get some tips from. Enjoy the fruits of your labour this Christmas.


benkt

  • Joined Apr 2010
  • Cambridgeshire
    • Hempsals Community Farm
Re: Turkey Dispatch day
« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2014, 09:40:27 pm »
Its been dispatch day for us too the last couple of days. Got all the geese done yesterday with no problems and turkeys were going well today until one of our members tripped and stuck his eye on a nail, a visit to A&E and five stitches in his eyelid wiped out the afternoon and evening so I've still got seven turkeys left in the shed to do and another twenty hanging that need gutting. Might be a busy day tomorrow as they are all due for collection on Sunday!
I keep meaning to mention it - although a bit late for this year - we've got a big Bingham plucking machine that only gets a couple of days work a year so if anyone in the Cambridge area wants to hire it for next year just get in touch - it makes turkeys a doddle and geese bearable!

Victorian Farmer

  • Guest
Re: Turkey Dispatch day
« Reply #8 on: December 20, 2014, 08:53:59 pm »
Well done

shygirl

  • Joined May 2013
Re: Turkey Dispatch day
« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2014, 11:32:31 pm »
did ours today, bit of a shame as when she saw me she came running up for a feed, all friendly like.
she was quite heavy to say harbros never had any turkey feed ever so we had to fatten on layers pellets.
we have kept the others to grow on a bit more.

HesterF

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Kent
  • HesterF
Re: Turkey Dispatch day
« Reply #10 on: December 21, 2014, 12:34:16 am »
 :( - at least mine all distrusted me anyway! You've done well if she was on layers- they're quite a lot lower on protein from memory - can you get any growers or finishers on line?  I get all my poultry food on line, much easier and just as cheap (even with shipping) as buying from our local food store (and they have to order in most of what I want which takes a week whereas I can often get it next day, nearly always in two days on line).

shygirl

  • Joined May 2013
Re: Turkey Dispatch day
« Reply #11 on: December 21, 2014, 11:30:40 pm »
what company do you use?

HesterF

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Kent
  • HesterF
Re: Turkey Dispatch day
« Reply #12 on: December 21, 2014, 11:54:54 pm »
Farm and Pet Place - they have discounts on the normal price so although you pay about £2.50 a bag for delivery, I did the calculations and worked out it was the same price as my local feed place ordering them in (and I have to use petrol to get there too). I do use organic Marriages and specialist waterfowl stuff etc. so not the cheapest. They are normally sooo quick too - sometimes I've placed an order one morning and the delivery has been here 24 hours later. They use DPD so you get a text or e:mail in the morning to tell you what time they will arrive to an hour slot which is doable for me. Don't know how it would work if you were working and couldn't be here (except they're happy to dump outside and run which is what they seem to do now). Only niggle is that they pack every sack in a cardboard box which tends to collapse so a pointless waste of packaging - fortunately I have a neighbour who runs a mail order garden business so he uses all the cardboard for his distribution.

H

shygirl

  • Joined May 2013
Re: Turkey Dispatch day
« Reply #13 on: December 22, 2014, 06:42:45 pm »
thanks, that's really interesting  :thumbsup:

 

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