Poultry industry

Was just thinking this morning after culling 8 cockerels how the poultry industry go about gutting. 

I've seen film of stunning, slaughter, plucking and packing but never the birds being drawn.  It must be done by machine but even a google search doesn't bring much up.

Anyone know.

Thanks for that GrannieAnnie altho i think it makes scarey reading

We thought it must be a suction sort of thing.

My cockerels are scrawny but think I'll stick with them

That link was interesting but pretty gross.  I stopped reading it before I got to the point where I'd have to stop eating chicken.

Are there still commercial suppliers of chicken that do it in a less mechanical way?  I don't suppose it makes a difference I'm just curious.

I don't know off any people now who process the traditional way commercially!

It's just not economically viable.  If you search the internet before Christmas when people are advertising chickens and turkeys for the festive season.  Almost all of them are commercially processed.  When I was looking for ideas of what to charge for ours, I found one website that was selling chickens oven ready weighing only 2 - 2.9kgs for £28 plus £25 P&P!  JUST FOR ONE CHICKEN!  Just imagine what they'd charge for a hand reared traditionally processed chicken!

When we lived in Essex, Brian had a friend called Don who had one of the last hand killed, hand plucked and gutted turkey farms in England.  Brian used to help with the plucking sometimes.  His turkeys were expensive, even though they were all grown indoors.  they never saw daylight!

And as to the polyphosphates Spana, yes, they are injected into the birds I think to either stop the water that is also injected into them from ooozing out or its a preservative.  I'm not sure, but people are amazed when we tell them that a commercially reared and processed chicken is not just chicken!

Which is why I like people to have a taste of ours to see the difference!  We gave a chicken to a nice lady today who told me she doesn't like the leg meat.  But she has promised to try one of our legs!!!!   

Mind you, around here they'd rather pass our house to get to Tesco and buy their cheap stuff rather than pull into our drive and pay £3 a kg!

I don't care, any leftover and Brian and I and our family and friends eat them!!!   

and this is not an advert, but commercially raised meat is something that I am passionate about!  I passionately hate the way people are continually duped by the supermarkets who try to tell us "We are here for you the customer!"  Bull poops, they are here for their shareholders! 

Oh yes Michellela, seen them all.  I've also worked in the food trade of some kind or another for many years apart from my 25 year stint as a secretary, and my Brian has worked in butchers when he was still at school, so we know all about what they expect people to pay good money to eat!   

We don't buy any ready meals, as apart from anything else I had a friend who worked in the ready meal packing plant with all the immigrants and some of their personal habits leave much to be desired! 

If I occasionally make sausages, burgers or chicken nuggets, its all our own chicken and turkey!  So I know what goes into my food!