Food safety, quality and welfare should all be taken into consideration when harvesting your own birds.

BY MAURICE PITESKY

Processing poultry for meat is becoming more common for some backyard-poultry enthusiasts and also small commercial poultry businesses that may offer poultry meat at a local farmers market or via a community supported agriculture mechanism.

Some excellent online resources exists that are largely applicable for backyard processors and small commercial producers alike. The Cornell Small Farms Program has a webinar program that includes a section on poultry processing (https://bit.ly/3zlI2gx).

Consider processing your chickens outside on concrete or similar surface.

PHOTOSCOURTESY FISHERMANSDAUGHTER/FLICKR; HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0; NO CHANGES MADE

A second good resource is the Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network, an extensionbased service at the University of Oregon that provides relevant info for small meat processors. Available resources include regulations, webinars and case studies, fact sheets and a video series (www.nichemeatprocessing .org). You can also check out HobbyFarms.com for videos and information.

BASICS OF POULTRY PROCESSING

The two most important things to remember when processing poultry are to keep things cold and always err on the side of caution with respect to discarding or condemning the birds. “When in doubt, throw it out” is a good approach in poultry processing in order to reduce the potential risk of food poisoning.