Heading out to gather up a few of the heritage birds tonite, I discovered that the lid of the pen had blown off. This is the second time this year it's happened, I've obviously got to do something different for the pasture pen lids.
The birds were asleep on top of the pen, and I was able to snatch 2 of birds, a bourbon red hen and a then a Narrangasett tom, before the other birds got suspicious. I managed to snatch one more bird, a bronze hen, before the birds flushed. I caught all but two of the turkeys in the dark by flashing my headlamp off and on to steer them into the pen/bushes where I contain a bird long enough to close the gap and snatch em. Rather than scaring the already skittish turkeys into the woods, I herded the two remaining birds into a felled hickory tree near the house where the dogs will make sure they don't become bobcat snacks.
I'm going to butcher 6 of them tommorrow for some of our customers. Unfortunately, I'm still without a turkey plucker, so I'll be hand plucking and dressing 10 birds by myself tommorrow. It's going to be a long day...
Lemon yogurt poppy seed muffins
13 hours ago
Have you looked at the plans for a whiz-bang plucker? I looked at buying one, and then ran across a plucker on craigslist that I got for less, but it always seemed like a good way to go.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Building+Plucker.html
thanks bruce. We based our plans this year around a borrowed plucker, but the motor gave out on the 3 bird. 50 birds later, my hands and head are convinced just how awesome a thing a plucker is.
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