Chicken prices

[TnAndy]

I hear this every Thanksgiving after raising turkeys all summer. A day old poult costs anywhere from 10$ up, and you are sure to lose a couple. By the time I get them raised to slaughter I have about 60$/bird... and the local grocery store sells them in November for around .39 $/lb. Yet the difference in taste is like night and day. Besides, I started raising them after my brother had a heart attack; and one thing his cardiologist told him not to eat was store bought turkeys.

As for chickens; it costs me around 10$/bird to raise them up to around 8 lbs. That includes having them killed, processed, and frozen. Unlike a store bought chicken I can actually taste mine, without adding all sorts of chemicals and spices. I can't even taste the difference between store bought chicken and pork, they are so bland.

I just finished off a drumstick from one of last year's birds before reading this and it sure was tasty. :licking:

Yep......quality of home raised stuff beats store bought time after time.

As for plucking, 30 seconds in the scalding water, followed by 30 seconds in homemade plucker and you've got a perfect naked bird.

 

[MossRoad]

Yep......quality of home raised stuff beats store bought time after time.

As for plucking, 30 seconds in the scalding water, followed by 30 seconds in homemade plucker and you've got a perfect naked bird.

Careful there... this is a family friendly site. :laughing:

I've seen those pluckers before. Pretty ingenious.

 

[TnAndy]

I was really surprised how well they work. Me hand plucking, best I can do is 15min, and don't get it nearly as clean.

 

[Jstpssng]

I was really surprised how well they work. Me hand plucking, best I can do is 15min, and don't get it nearly as clean.

It looks like yours in home built. Did you buy the fingers or make them yourself?

 

[Diggin It]

Sunday, my wife went to Aldi's to buy groceries and saw ten pounds of chicken quarters for $1.97 She grabbed 4 and then later went back and got 6 more. Now she is talking about heading back today and getting another ten bags.

This is why stores place buying limits. For quite a while last Spring, they had a four can per item limit because people had been going in a buying multiple cases of whatever they could carry.

When I find a sale, I get what I can reasonably use, maybe two, three, four of something. I don't take advantage.

 

[TnAndy]

It looks like yours in home built. Did you buy the fingers or make them yourself?

Bought the fingers. I(Actually bought the big pulley, the rotating aluminum plate/etc inside as well..WhizBang Chicken Plucker)

You drill a 3/4" hole and use a pair of Channel Lock pliers to pull them into the hole. They have an indention that seats them firmly.

I changed the design somewhat by leaving the bottom in the barrel and making a chute the feathers and water run out. The instructions that come with their stuff has you cutting the bottom out, so the stuff falls down on the big pulley, and looks to me like would fling everywhere. I just set a 5 gallon plastic bucket under the spout I made, bucket has 1/2" holes to allow the water to flow out. You spray inside with a hose while the chicken is spinning around to wash off the feathers.

This is the bottom plate that spins. I mounted some of the fingers pointing to the underside to sweep the feathers into the chute.

 

[MossRoad]

WhizBang Chicken Plucker

That's where I saw it. Thanks for the memory jar. :thumbsup:

 

[GeneV]

Yup, whizbang. TnAndy, nice! Unfortunately, those don't work too well for ducks. Ducks suck for plucking. I don't even bother anymore, I just harvest the breast and legs and the rest gets buried in the compost pile.

 

[/pine]

Speaking of the cost of chicken...Campbell's sure must get their money's worth out of one when making their noodle soup...!

 

[TnAndy]

Speaking of the cost of chicken...Campbell's sure must get their money's worth out of one when making their noodle soup...!

Don't know if true or not, but I heard that is where laying chickens go after egg production drops.