On-farm chicken and turkey processing holds a special place in my heart. It paid the mortgage. It introduced us to great people with great farms. It created speaking opportunities. Perhaps, most importantly, on-farm chicken butchering  has been demystified and I think it’s one of the keys to unlocking a self sufficient life. In this episode,...

Grady opens his Texas slaughter house for business, and he’s looking for a new apprentice. Apprentices, can go to eagerfarmer.com. Mike’s been processing with a group of chefs-in-training at a local-to-him college. So it seems appropriate to spend time answering some really great processing questions from the Pastured Poultry Talk audience. Do you put anything...

After listening to the episode on learning the art of scalding, listener Chad asked if I could explain how to pick a chicken plucker. I happy to help. Quick disclaimer: While the advice in the episode is general purpose, the examples use the Poultry Man line of pluckers to illustrate the points because that’s what...

This is an edited version of the article I published in Issue 113 of the APPPA Grit, which was based on the conversation in this podcast. Not a member of APPPA? Go check them out. Last fall, I had the pleasure of consulting with a producer on some questions about his farm’s turkey processing procedure....

Chicken health problems are not fun, but sometimes we don’t identify those problems until processing day. You can tell a lot about how a chicken was raised by what it looks like on the evisceration table. While the information you receive won’t benefit the birds being processed, it will give you information to evaluate the...

 Learn how to scald chickens, turkeys, ducks, or anything you find in your pot of hot water. Many people think plucking is the hardest part of chicken processing, but it’s not. A tough tough pluck starts with a poor scald. I’m going to explain to you how to scald chickens like a pro by...