first welding class

[FieryFurnaceForge]

Well I had my first welding class today. Did pretty good; my first welding class was on a special order! We also welded a chicken killing rig for chicken butchereing day. (today and tomorrow) We have killed 15 and we have 10 to go. What did that have to do with smithing????
Thoughts?

[Sabre]

well congratz dave!!

[KevinD]

How about some pics of the chicken killin' rig?

Maybe you could take us through killin' a chicken?

Tips on pluckin' and butcherin' too perhaps?

[arftist]

It's kind of hard to explain what the chicken killing rig had to do with smithing, except to tell you that when you know, you will know.

[FieryFurnaceForge]

You will have to wait on the pictures! I'll try to get them up later.
My little brothers carry the bird upside down from the pen to the killing "cones," me or dad cuts the head off and drains the bird into a bucket, (up under the cone) I cut the wings/feet off and begin skinning, (we don't pluck, we skin the bird) dad finishes skinning, mom cleans the inside of the bird, the bird goes in cold water with apple cider vinegar, (kills anything on the bird, organically) finally my sister cleans the bird inside the house and packages it. We can do 10-12 an hour.


The kidsmith,
Dave Custer

[Thomas Dean]

Originally Posted by KevinD

How about some pics of the chicken killin' rig?

Maybe you could take us through killin' a chicken?

Tips on pluckin' and butcherin' too perhaps?

Yep, Done all that back as a kid....The BEST part of this whole deal is when that naked little yard bird gits fried! or cooked up with dumplins, or Bar-B-Qued! mmmm, smack, smack.

[KYBOY]

I know what the rig is.. Ive been putting chickens in the freezer myself

[jayco]

When I was a kid, my mom used to order 100 mixed chicks from a hatchery, early in the spring. She kept most of the pullets for 'layers', but the roosters.........we ate them

We would wind up with 50 or 60 chickens to kill and put in the freezer.
It was my job to do the killing. I used a hatchet over a stump or 'hack block' to separate the chicken from it's head. Holding it's feet with the other hand.

Funny thing is, a chicken can still get away from you........without it's head......if you're not careful. Of course, the novelty of that wears off after the first couple of chickens..........

Mom used to scald them, to loosen up the feathers, before plucking.
It stunk up the kitchen something awful.......It's been 40 years, but I can still remember that smell.........like it was yesterday.

No wonder we always waited a couple of days before we had fried chicken!

[Jerry W.]

When I was very young, we went out to my Great Grandmothers farm. When we got there they were in the process of killing about 200 chickens. They had a large cast iron pot boiling over a fire and had a very efficient assembly (or disassembly)line going. Most memorable though was the smell of the boiling feathers. As far as I am concerned, if they are up and walking, they can stay that way. If they are in the freezer or on the plate, that is good too. I will keep working so that I can buy them ready to cook.
Dave, keep up the hard work.
Jerry

[Glenn]

Jayco, the odor of the dispatching and the scalding is something I still remember. Years later when we raised meat rabbits and the dispatching odor was there but no odor of hot feathers. (grin)