Off to the Slaughter House

[JohnyMac]

Well my neighbor and I took last Octobers bacon seed (Piglets) to the slaughter house last week. Once killed they will go down the road to our favorite butcher. He does the best smoking of anybody around.

Hanging weight on those pigs should be around 180-200 lbs.

Like last year, we had the heads and offal saved for panhaas (Scrapple)

We have another batch going to slaughter around January.
 

[thatGuy]

A little warm yet isn't it?

[JohnyMac]

Nah not to warm. The slaughter house is air-conditioned and the butcher does his thing in a BIG walk-in fridge.

There are so few slaughter houses and butchers around us anymore that you have to make a reservation months in advance. The days of calling up to drop critters off the following week are over. The next slot would have been January which is being used by our spring bacon seed.

Three lambs going next week when we pick up the pork. If it was cooler (day highs in the mid 40's), our neighbor would have done the lambs himself. 

[Well-Prepared Witch]

Nice!  I need to schedule our old hens and the one new hen who turned out to be a rooster for some time next month.

[Nemo]

WPW, you don't take the chickens down the road do you?  You do them yourself and just put it on the calendar, correct??

If you take chickens out for processing is it cost effective?  I cannot imagine that it would be?

Nemo

[JohnyMac]

Locally chickens cost $2- ea. to process and turkeys are $6- ea.

Chickens are done on the farm turkeys are taken to the processor in our neck of the woods.

Turkeys are a bitch due to their weight. Nothing like a 15-25 lb bird flailing around. 

[Nemo]

Wow, only $2.  That would be at least reasonable.  I can and have done chickens from egg to grill but the chop, pluck and such would be worth the $2 to not have to do it myself.

I never considered that or even realized it would be available.

Nemo

[thatGuy]

At 2 bucks a bird I'd never pluck another one!

[JohnyMac]

Yupper, $2- a bird. One catch...Min. of two Doz. chickens or turkeys or a combination there of to make up 24 birds.

If you do not have a dozen birds, you put your request in and have to wait till other folks add to the total. Around Thanksgiving, you do not have to wait long.

[Well-Prepared Witch]

Yep $2 a bird, and 5 minutes to pluck four or five birds at a time versus an hour or more (yes, I'm sloooow) per bird.  It's so worth it for me!