Is there any machine you know of that pluck the guts from the chicken or is it the farmers does it by hand?

Question

Is it people who pluck chickens by hand or a machine ,If it is machine how does it work.

Answer 1

Here is an article that details the entire 42 day life (they have a natural lifespan of about seven years) of the boiler chicken in the UK, including how they are slaughtered:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2...

From the above article:

====

The headless chickens are then dragged through hot water to open their pores and loosen their feathers. As they pass though three sets of automatic pluckers, rubbery artificial fingers rub their feathers off. Wet, bloody feathers lay in heaps on the floor. 'They go in dressed, and come out undressed,' jokes the factory manager.

As they continue their odyssey along the conveyor belt, the naked headless chickens have a hole drilled in their backside by one machine, and their innards scooped out by another. Their livers are automatically passed down a line for use in liver pates, and their hearts and intestines pass down another line for pet food. The eviscerated birds are then internally vacuumed, their feet and gizzards cut off.

====

It's different for layer hens (and the little boy layer chicks) because they are so abused and have so little left they aren't much for meat and are sometimes just gassed and dumped as landfill instead after just one season, two at the most.

However, here's a complete series on the horrors of a chicken processing plant in the Carolinas (very eye-opening):

http://legacy.charlotteobserver.com/poul...

From one of the articles in the series:

====

GREENVILLE. S.C. --The production lines rarely stopped.

An endless stream of raw chickens -- thousands an hour -- had to be sliced and cut into pieces for family dinner tables.

He paced and often screamed at Mexicans and Guatemalans cutting chicken thighs. He demanded they move faster and scolded them when they left too much meat on the bone.

...

Pressure to produce

Pagan's department was required to keep production levels between 150 to 160 birds a minute, about 70,000 a day, he remembers. No excuses.

If his workers fell behind, it was his job to make sure they caught up. If they could not get the work done in eight hours, they stayed overtime until they finished, he said.

====

Few farmers butcher birds anymore. They almost all go to a slaughterhouse.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/...

==

EDIT TO ADD: "Chickenfarmer" read the article I originally included. That's where the lifespan stat comes from though I have known individuals to raise them (even industry rescues) to 10 years. However, you are correct that they are bred so that they become cripples and die from it or have little chicken heart failure often before they even make it to butchering -- covered in the article I included too:

====

...Three breeding companies, which supply 90 per cent of chicks used in chicken farms worldwide, have selectively bred them to grow as fast as possible. Modern broilers now put on weight twice as quickly as 20 years ago, reaching the slaughter weight of 2kg in 42 days rather than 80: they are the fastest growing bird in the world.

First thing each morning, the farm manager Les takes a walk around to check how the birds are doing. He collects up any that have died in the night, and wrings the necks of any that look poorly. In the last three weeks, in this one shed, 444 birds have died or been culled.

====

That means we've bred 6.5 years of life out of them; what does that say really? Uh... Yum?

http://www.mypetchicken.com/Cornish-B39....

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/C...

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/B...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/200...

BTW, I have my own chickens. I know a fair bit, but I also like to back up my claims with a few facts others can pursue to verify and get more information, including you. So you don't have to believe me...

Answer 2

They are done by hand. Silver: the typical breed of chicken used in the commercial industry is the cornish X....they do not have a life span of 7 years. They are raised for meat and develop huge health problems if allowed to live longer than a few months.

Answer 3

They are cut open and the innards are removed by hand.

Answer 4

A machine removes the feathers, but the gutting is done by hand.

Answer 5

It'll be done by whatever way is cheaper. The farmers/slaughterers/supermarkets don't care about anything but profits.

Answer 6

its all automated i'm sure you'll get a video on google