When the bird is to be killed, hang it up by the feet, holding its head
in one hand and taking care not to compress the veins in the neck.
Open the mouth and cut the jugular vein far back in the throat, just
below the base of the skull. For this purpose use the point of a sharp,
narrow-bladed knife. As soon as profuse bleeding begins, thrust the knife
up through the groove in the roof of the mouth and into the rear lobe of
the brain at the back of the skull so as to render the bird unconscious.
When the correct "stick" is obtained, the bird usually gives a peculiar
squawk, the tail feathers spread, and all the feathers are loosened by
a quivering of the muscles. After sticking, continue to hold the bird's
head and attach a blood cup to the lower jaw. The bird's wings should
never be locked, as this often results in their being broken, which
usually reduces the bird to a low grade. Likewise, no attempt should be
made to hold the bird's wings tightly. Blood cups weighing 5 pounds are
needed for large birds, whereas cups weighing 3 to 4 pounds are best for
small and medium-sized birds.
In dry picking it is essential that the feathers be plucked immediately
after the bird is killed. If the bird has been properly stuck, they come
out very easily. First remove the tail and large wing feathers and then
the body feathers, leaving the small wing feathers and neck and upper
breast feathers until last. Pull out all feathers a few at a time, but
do not rub them off as this injures the skin and often lowers the grade.
Dry picking can be learned best by personal instructions. The semiscald
method of picking turkeys is used in some sections at commercial dressing
plants, but nearly all home-dressed turkeys are dry-picked.[2]
[2] Detailed information on killing, grading, and marketing turkeys is
given in Farmers' Bulletins 1694. Dressing and Packing Turkeys, and
1815, Grading Dressed Turkeys.
Clean-picked turkeys are now preferred, but a single row of short fan
feathers on the last joint of each wing may be left. Leave no feathers
on any other part of the body. Remove all pinfeathers, especially from
the breast, but do not attempt to dig out pinfeathers too short to be
pulled. After picking, snap the blood from the bird's mouth with a quick
motion and squeeze the vent to remove any droppings that may be there.
The feet, if dirty, should be washed and dried. These methods make for
clean carcasses, good grades, and good keeping quality. After picking
and chilling the birds, cover the heads with head wraps made of heavy
waxed paper, to prevent blood soaking through and smearing the carcasses.
Whenever the skin is torn, sew it neatly with white thread.
When birds have been killed with feed in their crops, remove the entire
crop. Through a 2- or 3-inch slit in the neck, beginning where the neck
joins the body, the crop can be completely loosened and withdrawn, the
gullet being cut well below the crop. Then sew the opening with No. 36
white thread. Turn in the edges of the skin so as to make a neat job that
will not be noticeable when the bird is put on the market.
According to data on Bronze turkeys, killing and picking after the birds
had been starved overnight resulted in a loss of about 9 percent of
weight for large birds and 10 percent for small birds. The turkeys were
weighed both before and after they were killed and picked and again after
they had cooled overnight. The larger birds had the lower percentages
of loss in weight and therefore the higher dressing percentages. The
weight loss of dressed turkeys while chilling overnight is very small,
only about one-sixth of 1 percent. Therefore, practically all the loss
in weight that occurs during picking and chilling results from the loss
of blood and feathers. The weight loss of turkeys overnight just before
slaughter when they received no feed was about 3 percent, on an average,
making the total loss from their normal weight, due to withholding feed,
picking, and chilling, about 13 percent. When dressed turkeys are drawn,
with head and feet removed and giblets replaced, there is a further loss
of about 15 percent of the dressed weight.
[Illustration: Figure 23.--Single-layer box of 10 turkey hens.]