Every proud owner of a private house or cottage sooner or later comes to the conclusion - should I have some home living things: chickens, ducks, geese, and better all of them a little! And now everything is ready - a shed for an overnight stay, a fence for walking, feeding troughs, and bird fry have been delivered. The bird grows, gains weight, and it comes time to serve it, hand-grown, to the table. And here you need to think how to process the bird easier and faster. We will help you to study this issue in more detail.
How to pluck a bird
It is tempting to plant and grow poultry: there will be eggs, healthy meat and even down and feather for pillows, blankets and clothes. If poultry eggs are carried without interference, then to get high-quality meat and clean feathers, you need to learn how to properly pluck the carcass. Chickens and turkeys plucked after slaughter, and duck and goose - after 2 hours to save feathers and down.
The sequence of feather removal, as a rule, is this: first remove feathers from the tail and wings, then - from the breast, back, and last of all from the legs. Moreover, feathers and down are removed carefully, maintaining the integrity of the skin. After plucking the bird, they remove the remnants of the plumage with a knife and burn the carcass with a flame. Plucking can be done both manually and with the help of mechanical devices - for example, cleaning for poultry.
Did you know? If the goal is to get a very soft pillow or blanket, you need to fill them with goose down or feathers, freed from hard shoes.
Hand plucking
Before slaughter, it is recommended not to feed the bird for several hours for natural cleansing of the stomach from the feed, while it should have fresh water freely available. Plucking is more convenient to carry out in a sitting position, placing the carcass and containers for feathers, down and eventually cleaned birds in front of you. Manual plucking of one carcass takes about half an hour. You can manually pluck the bird as a dry plucking, and with the use of scalding.
Plucking with pre-scalding. After slaughter, the birds give blood to drain for 5-7 minutes, while holding the carcass by the paws, neck down. Then the chicken or other bird is completely dipped into a large tank with hot water (temperature not less than 90 °) for half a minute. The impact of boiling water will open the pores of the skin and facilitate the process of pulling out feathers.
Plucking should be careful not to damage the skin with a sharp movement. After a little training, you can process the bird for a quarter of an hour, and in a day, pluck feathers from several carcasses. Scalding may give the meat red.
Dry plucking. The method of dry plucking does not tolerate delay, the removal of feathers should be carried out on a warm carcass. Pulling out the feathers of the tail and wings, proceed to the cleaning of feathers back, chest and in the last turn of the wings. A small feather is pulled out by a strong, but neat movement against growth, one can pick up several feathers in one pull. Pulling the bird's skin with one hand, you can ease and accelerate the plucking.
Mechanical plucking with the nozzle
In summer and autumn there are many economic troubles, you need to be in time, and a natural question arises - how to quickly pluck one bird or several carcasses at the same time? Since innovations have reached poultry breeders, such issues can nozzle for plucking poultry. This is a small device, slightly reminiscent of a ruff, in which, instead of bristles, rubber protrusions are threaded "fingers".
Consider how the perosmona nozzle works. To begin with, any rotator is taken - a perforator, a drill, a screwdriver, or an electric grinding tool. Then the peroshchipalnaya attachment is attached to the drill, the working motor drives the attachment, it rotates and pulls out the bird feathers with its rubber or silicone “fingers”.
For work, you need to install a drill with a nozzle on a flat stable surface and substitute the bird carcass to the rotating device with the tail first. Such perosemny attachment to the drill speeds up the plucking of the carcass up to 6 minutes, it can be used both in the household and on the hunt for plucking game. The cost of the nozzle is about 300 hryvnia.
Important! Plucking birds is accompanied by a very unpleasant smell. This process is best done outdoors.
Tips and tricks for plucking poultry
We considered the general technology of plucking poultry, but the successful processing of each bird species has its own secrets. We study the characteristics of the scuffing of chickens, geese and ducks.
How to quickly clean the chicken feathers
If you need a quick release of the chicken carcass from feathers, you need to steam it up in very hot water with half a teaspoon of baking soda added for half a minute. Before that you need to make sure that the carcass is completely bled. Then, until the carcass is cold, the skin is removed from the chicken legs, the bird is cooled a little, and you can begin to pluck. Purification of chicken feathers usually occurs with two fingers: thumb and index.
Pulling several feathers occurs in the direction of their growth. Deep-seated feathers, as well as broken off remains, are pulled out with tweezers. The carcass freed from the plumage is dried and gently battered on the open fire of a fire, a gas stove or a cylinder, after which the chicken is ready for gutting.
Did you know? The resulting feather and down should be soaked for several hours in warm water with detergent, washed and dried. This will ensure its long safety.
How to clean the geese after slaughter
Before slaughter, the goose is transferred to a dry room with poor lighting, and if possible it is allowed to swim in a river or pond to ensure the feather is clean. Water is given to the bird, food is no longer given 10 hours before slaughter to cleanse the viscera in a natural way. Having killed a goose, blood is drained from it and suspended by the legs for several hours for cooling.
After the subcutaneous fat hardens, proceed to plucking. Remove large feathers, then small, and in the last turn - down. The geese can be cleaned by any convenient method - dry, scalding and using a special bird plucking nozzle, as described above.
Some bird breeders have discovered another way to scrape geese. The bird is pumped into the carcass using a pump until the skin is firmly tensioned, and the neck is tied up to hold the air inside, then, wrapping the carcass with a damp cloth or gauze, they begin to iron it with a stream of wet steam from the iron. The dried-up fabric is unrolled and the goose starts to pluck. If necessary, the process of ironing the carcass can be repeated. After removing the feathers, the carcass is dazzled and cut.
Important! Duck meat will survive better if the bird is plucked by the dry method.
How to pluck ducks
Duck plucking is completely analogous to goose plucking, as these waterfowl have a lot of subcutaneous fat. After slaughter, bleed, cool the carcass and remove feathers in any way. The remaining fluff can be removed by scraping the back of a knife or lightly sprinkled with flour, singe on an open flame of fire. Singing should be done quickly to prevent melting and leakage of bird fat.
The diet of children and adults should include poultry meat. It serves as a source of amino acids, macro-and micronutrients, and vitamins. Since chickens, ducks and geese grown on their own will be the most delicious, then at the slightest opportunity it is worth getting birds, especially since plucking and processing is not such a tricky business. A device for cleaning birds from feathers will only accelerate this process.
