How to remove feathers from quails. Quail slaughter

On fattening quails most often selected in three cases:

When weak chicks are born, they are usually quails with weak or twisted limbs and other defects;
--- when, when examining grown chicksit turns out that there are more males or females than necessary;
--- when the quail has passed the peak of its egg production and it is advisable to replace it with a young bird.

On fattening It is best to place cages in rooms with a temperature of 19-23°C. Mode
lighting is one of the main factors of technology quail fattening. It is necessary to use low lighting, or even better, simply darken the quail cages. When fattening quails for meat, in the first three weeks it is necessary to maintain 24-hour low lighting. After this, intermittent lighting is used for females: one hour of light, two hours of darkness, the light is soft and dim; for males, daylight hours should be reduced to 8 hours, and the light should also be dim. In dense semi-darkness, males hardly fight, move less, and therefore spend less energy and eat food quite willingly. During this fattening period, it is necessary to double the quail’s diet (if on average 3 g of feed per day is consumed per quail, then when fattening the quail it is necessary to pour 5.5 - 6 g per bird). During fattening females and males are placed in different cages. In each cage you can plant 30-40 quails, the area allocated for one bird during fattening is approximately 9 cm2.

Weak chicksfattening quails are selected during the first culling-inspection after hatching. Quails with defects are kept separately; their legs are first tied with simple threads. At the end of five days, the threads are removed, freeing the paws, otherwise when further growth the chick's threads will cut into the legs, and this will cause loss of appetite and pain, which will affect the result of the quail's fattening. Since these quails can be weak, during the first days they are given water and fed directly from their hands until they become at least a little stronger. The chicks' diet consists of cottage cheese, sifted mixed feed , curdled milk, as well as hard-boiled eggs.

At the end of the first week, all strong and surviving chicks are transplanted into a darkened cage with personal compartments (limiting any movement of the quail), which allows them to be fattened for 23 to 26 days (a quail carcass reaches a weight of 80-100 g, the meat of such a quail is tender and juicy ). With longer fattening, about 2 months. the meat becomes coarser, but the weight of the carcass at slaughter can reach 250-400 grams.

Second option quail fattening like this: birds are raised on a simple diet for up to 1.5 months. Then they are fed with a fattening ration for about 10-12 days in a close cage that limits movement, while the live weight of the bird reaches about 200 g. The fattening time is largely determined by the growth period of the quail from birth to adult, which on average ends by 55-58 days after birth. It is not advisable to increase the fattening period beyond this period. U is correct fattened quails a layer of subcutaneous fat is felt on the sternum. The average result for simple fattening looks like this - average weight two-month-old quail egg breeds about 235 g, meat breeds about 390

Quails are selected for fattening at the end of the period of intensive oviposition - this usually occurs after 11-12 months, when their egg productivity decreases.

Fattening is carried out in the same way way , as in males. Quails are slaughtered for meat when they reach a live weight of 215-345g.

Feeding quails during fattening.

Quails are fed plenty, three to four times a day. In the morning and evening, an additional green mixture (corn, nettle, millet) with a small addition of feed fat (fuza or technical fat) is given.

As practice has shown, excellent results are shown by fattening quails with the following diet: 20 percent boiled peas plus 80 percent special feed for broiler chickens. It is impossible to immediately switch the quail feeding diet to a fattening diet. Birds can become seriously ill. Usually, diets are changed gradually over three to four days. An example of a feeding change: on day 1 give 65% of the old food and 35% new, on the second day 50% of the old food and 50% of the new, on the third day 40% of the old, etc., and thus gradually replace the old quail feeding diet new.

Slaughter of quails after fattening.

The poultry is slaughtered in a specially equipped place. The bird's head is cut off with a large sharp knife or hatchet. After the blood has drained from the carcass, the first joint of the wings and the shin of the legs are also cut off with a knife or large scissors. Then the carcass is taken with the neck away from you, belly up. The thumbs of both hands place the carcass on the abdomen, and the remaining fingers hold the back from below. With a quick movement of your thumbs in opposite directions, the skin on the abdomen separates, and is then easily removed with a “stocking.” Then comes the gutting of the carcass; you can even do this with your finger. Very soon the skill will appear and all actions of slaughtering and gutting a carcass will take no more than 20-30 seconds.

In our country, after slaughter, quail are treated like a chicken carcass - they are plucked. And processing one carcass can take from 15 to 30 minutes.

Hello! I have uneviscerated quail carcasses, but I don’t know what to do with them. Tell me how to properly cut a quail, maybe there is a video with instructions. (Marina)

Cutting up a carcass is not at all difficult. However, here, as in everything, a certain skill and knowledge of some nuances are required.

When a quail carcass lies in front of you, you first need to trim the legs to the drumstick and the wings to the first joint. Then the carcasses are scalded. Depending on how many quails you have, they are placed in baskets and placed in hot water (about 80 degrees) for 20-30 seconds.

Method 1

In principle, there is no particular variety in cutting quails, but this process can be roughly divided into two ways: when the final carcass retains the skin and when it is left without it. Let's look at the first method first.

So, we have a scalded bird. Sharp and fast movements We pluck it against the growth of feathers. Breeders engaged in mass breeding of quails have special feather removal machines for these purposes. They operate on the principle of a centrifuge and quickly remove feathers from the carcass. When the number of birds is small, you can do without such a miracle of technology. However, in this case, even at good speed, you are unlikely to be able to pluck more than 20 birds per hour.
The plucked carcass must be cut. To do this, a circular incision is made around the cloacal opening, and a small longitudinal one along the abdomen. This makes it possible to get to the internal organs. Carefully remove them and place the giblets separately. The esophagus and part of the trachea are removed from a small incision in the neck. Experienced breeders do without any incisions and remove the entrails through the cloacal opening.
The plucked and skinned quail is washed, dried with a towel and, if desired, oiled to remove the remaining feathers.

Method 2

This method will differ in that at the end you will have a carcass without skin. You may notice that these are the quails most often sold in stores or markets.

The presence or absence of skin does not significantly affect the taste. But breeders selling quails note that carcasses with skin weigh a little more.

So, in order to remove the skin from a quail, you need to place the thumbs of both hands on its stomach, and hold the back with the rest of your fingers. Then sharply pull with your thumbs different sides. The skin should burst and come off like a stocking.

Video “Cutting quails”

How quails are slaughtered and cut up can be seen in the video from the Poultry farming channel, which completes our review!

Currently, raising quails at home is becoming increasingly popular. There are many reasons for this, but first of all, it is worth noting the meat of these birds, which is distinguished by its excellent dietary qualities. At the same time, obtaining it makes mandatory such a procedure as quail slaughter: unpleasant, but at the same time necessary for every owner. As for its implementation, it is much simpler than it seems at first glance, which will be discussed below.

As a rule, individuals sent for slaughter are relatively young in age: about forty days, although more is possible. The key condition here is a high level of development of the muscles of the chest and thighs of birds, without which their slaughter can hardly be considered justified. In addition, it should be taken into account that quails to be slaughtered must have a clearly visible keel of the chest. Attention is also paid to the skin of such birds, the shade of which should be close to dark pink.

Before slaughtering quails, their owner needs to take into account several important conditions, the list of which is as follows:

birds selected for slaughter must be placed in separate cages;
It is necessary to feed quails according to a program that allows you to maximize the amount of meat;
the optimal diet is about 4 times a day, with mandatory content corn, millet and nettles;
It is recommended to add a special fat to the birds’ diet: fuzz.

Before quails are slaughtered and cut up, it is recommended to fatten the birds for half a month.

It is also noteworthy that several hours before slaughter they stop feeding the pets. This is explained by the fact that food fragments from the stomach and crop of birds during subsequent cutting can come out, staining the meat.

Delivery of quails and their slaughter

To transport birds to the place of slaughter, you must use special plastic boxes. One such container should accommodate at least a dozen heads (preferably one and a half). In order not to damage the quails, they should be placed in boxes carefully - best of all, clasping the birds around the back. As for the actions that the quail slaughter procedure involves, their order can be found below:

the birds are carefully removed from the boxes;
before slaughter, quails are fixed in a head-down position;
the solution to the problem under consideration is carried out using a conical tin funnel, the size of which is determined by the size of the birds (many detailed videos are devoted to how to make it with your own hands);
under the quails prepared for slaughter, a container is placed to collect blood;
the subsequent operation is to cut off the head in the area between the 2nd and 3rd cervical vertebrae of the bird.

As for the device that can be used to kill quails in the described way, it can be large and well-sharpened scissors. Also, many poultry farmers advise using an ax (this option involves using a wooden block).

Follow up

Once the quail slaughter is completed, several more important operations need to be carried out. To begin with, the carcasses should be scalded, placing them in a large container with an average of 10 pieces each. It is also reasonable to add that the water temperature should not be too hot (its optimal value is 55°C). This procedure should be carried out within half a minute, and then you should pay attention to the following actions:

plucking (manually or using a feather removal machine);
removal of the hind limbs of birds (at the level of the tarsal joint);
evisceration of carcasses, which must be preceded by two cuts: longitudinal in the belly area and circular in the cloaca area.

The last point is worth considering in more detail. It should be noted that many training videos can be found on this topic, and therefore the procedure in question should not be considered particularly complicated. So, cutting quails is done as follows:

First, the stomach, heart and liver are removed;
then, through an incision in the neck, the trachea and esophagus are removed;
The third step is to cut off the neck: where it connects to the chest cavity.

The procedure that follows cutting is washing the carcasses, especially thoroughly from the inside. This should be done without haste, using water heated to 30°C.

Cooling and storage

If the quail meat will not be used for consumption immediately, it must be cooled for preservation purposes. To do this, use containers with water, the temperature of which tends to zero. As a result of heat exchange, the carcasses will cool, and the water, on the contrary, will heat up, as a result of which it needs to be changed periodically. As soon as the meat temperature in the chest area of slaughtered birds drops below 4°C, they can be removed from the container and then hung to dry. The final stage is packaging the carcasses in cellophane or other material suitable for this purpose, and placing them in metal trays or other containers. As for storage, it requires compliance temperature regime from 0 to 4°C, or about -8°C, if the carcasses need to be frozen and thereby preserve them for a long time, and not for 1-2 days.

You can buy an egg incubator here!

When growing and breeding quails, the question of “plucking quails” arises. Today, there are two types for removing feathers from birds: manual and automatic. If the number of quails prepared for slaughter does not exceed a couple of dozen heads, then you can “defeather” the bird with your hands. In large production, when it is necessary to pluck feathers from hundreds, or even thousands of quails, it becomes necessary to use feather removal machines or entire systems for slaughtering birds.

When manually plucking quails, the average rate of feather removal is up to 20 quails per hour. When plucking in this way, it should be taken into account that quails have rather thin and weak skin, so plucking must be done with great care. It is necessary to remove the feather as quickly as possible, trying to prevent the carcass from cooling. The nib holds much tighter as it cools and becomes much more difficult to remove. To make plucking easier, heat treatment is used. To do this, the slaughtered bird must be placed in a container with hot water for 1.5-2 hours. The water temperature should be no more than 52-54°C, otherwise thermal burns may occur on the carcass, which will significantly reduce presentation carcasses. Sometimes, to speed up feather removal, you can place the carcass for 30 seconds in water at a temperature of 80-85°C. After such heat treatment, you should immediately proceed to removing the feather. First of all, the flight feathers are removed, then the coverts. You need to pull out the feather in the direction of its growth, twisting it slightly. Usually the whole carcass is plucked, including wings and head. Removal should begin with the belly and legs; first, the feather is removed from one side of the belly and leg, then from the other. After this, you can pluck the chest, back, shoulders and neck. The processed carcass must be inspected again for the presence of remaining feathers and the remaining ones removed. After gutting, it is necessary to singe the quail carcasses. Although it is undesirable to do this (fat is melted out during the procedure), you cannot do without it in any case. Therefore, singeing is also carried out with great care. You can singe quail carcasses over a fire, a gas burner, or set fire to flagella twisted from paper. In order to preserve the delicate quail skin as best as possible, some quail farmers dust the carcass with flour before singeing. You can simply wet the carcass with a small amount of alcohol and set it on fire.

Some quail breeders remove feathers along with the skin for domestic purposes. To make this easier and the skin with fat to be less torn, you need to put the quails in the freezer for 1.5-2 hours. When the fat hardens, it will be easier to remove. This method has been known for a long time; it was described by Aksakov in his book “Notes of a Hunter of the Orenburg Province.” There, quails were placed on ice in glaciers.

To facilitate the process of plucking quails, you can use hand tools. Such a device can be a regular drill with a special attachment. In this case, the bird is held with one hand, and the other is used to remove the feathers using a drill. There are also disc machines for dry feather removal. The disadvantages of such devices are low speed processing of poultry, inconvenience of operation and poor quality of plucking.

And the plus is the price and opportunity further use removed dry feather.

If plucking quails is carried out on medium-sized farms in terms of the number of livestock, then it is more advisable to use stationary machines for feather removal. There are a huge number of “handicraft” methods for manufacturing such machines, mainly of the centrifuge type. They are made from improvised materials. Often an old washing machine is used as a basis. Such designs are usually simple both to manufacture and to operate. And with a set of necessary components, assembly at home is possible. Today you can buy ready-made equipment for plucking factory-made quails. Such equipment will cost much more than making it yourself.

For automatic plucking, entire installations are produced for slaughter shops. As a rule, such a kit includes a head-cutting machine, a bath for blood drainage, a scalding bath and a centrifuge. It is also possible to order all these modules separately. The average dimensions of such an assembled installation are 1 m wide and about 3.5 m long. Such equipment is installed at enterprises where the quail plucking production line is 500/1000/1500/2000/3000/6000 pieces per hour. This feather removal machine works on the principle of a centrifuge. The main working parts in it are rubber strikers. The use of such fingers can significantly reduce the risk of damage to the skin of quails. The pins are removable elements. They are quite durable, elastic and can be easily replaced with new ones without special tools. To replace it, just cut off the used rubber finger and install a new one in its place. The service life of such feather picking fingers is 1000 feathers per finger. There are even machines for plucking birds, where the centrifuge drum has an antibacterial coating, which prevents the development and growth of bacteria. When purchasing such equipment, a hygiene certificate should be required.

Before loading poultry into the de-feathering machine, if scalding modules are not installed, you should heat treatment carcasses. To do this, you need to place the bird in water with a temperature of 30 ° C, make sure that all the plumage of the bird is well saturated with water.

The feather needs to be slightly ruffled. Degree temperature treatment You can check, to do this you need to pull the pen out with your hand, it should come off easily. But in any case, the temperature specified in the equipment instructions should not be exceeded.

When deciding on the configuration of a quail plucking machine, the following nuances should be taken into account:

The carcass processing speed you need;

Equipment price;

Easy to operate;

Availability of service.

1 Preparation of the carcass
2 Method 1
3 Method 2
4 Video “Cutting quails”

Carcass preparation

Cutting up a carcass is not at all difficult.

However, here, as in everything, a certain skill and knowledge of some nuances are required.

Method 1

Method 2

This method will differ in that at the end you will have a carcass without skin.

You may notice that these are the quails most often sold in stores or markets.

Video “Cutting quails”

Slaughter and processing of quails

In this article we will talk about how to properly kill and dress quail, cool and store quail carcasses.

Quails are not fed for 4-6 hours before slaughter, but they are not limited in drinking. It is not recommended to kill a fed bird, since the crop and intestines filled with food can rupture when cutting the carcass and stain the meat and entrails. In addition, such a carcass quickly deteriorates during storage.

In accordance with the standard “Domestic quail for slaughter,” birds are divided into adults and young animals.

In adult quails, the middle process of the sternum is ossified, the scales and skin on the legs are smooth, and the beak is keratinized. Young animals are quails up to 60 days old. The middle process of the sternum is not ossified (cartilaginous), and on the wing there are 1 - 3 juvenile flight feathers. The scales and skin on the legs are smooth, elastic, tight-fitting, the beak is non-keratinized.

In birds to be slaughtered, the muscles of the chest and thighs must be sufficiently developed. The keel of the sternum may be prominent. The ends of the pubic bones are easily palpable; there may be no subcutaneous fat deposits on them, as well as in the lower abdomen. The skin of quails is dark pink, with a lilac tint.

Bird delivery

To deliver birds to a specially prepared slaughter place, metal or wooden boxes measuring 600 x 600 mm with lids are used, divided into 4 compartments, each of which can accommodate 10 - 15 birds. In order not to injure the birds, when landing, they are carefully grasped behind the back.

Having taken it out of the box, the bird is fixed in a certain position: head down. To do this, make a conical funnel from roofing sheet, nail it to a post or fix it on a table. The size of the funnel depends on the size of the quail. You can fix a group of quails (10 heads) at once by tying their legs with twine and hanging them on a hook. In any case, the quail must be placed over a special blood collector, such as an enamel basin, since the next operation is cutting off the head. It is performed with scissors between the second and third cervical vertebrae, and then for 30 s. allow the blood to drain from the carcass.

Scalding and plucking carcasses

After this, the carcasses are scalded, placing 10 pieces each. in metal or plastic baskets and immersing for 30 s in a container with hot (54 - 56 ° C) water. The scalded carcasses are placed on the table, dishes for feathers are placed nearby and plucking begins. First, large feathers of the wings and tail are pulled out, and then the chest, sides and other parts are plucked.

After plucking, thin filamentous feathers remain, which can be singed over a burning burner, a bunch of dry straw, hay, or just paper.

Removal of legs and removal of internal organs

The next stage is the removal of the legs at the level of the tarsal joint, followed by the removal of the internal organs. To do this, a circular incision is made in the cloaca and a longitudinal incision in the abdominal cavity. Then the heart, liver, and stomach are separated. Through an incision in the neck, the esophagus and trachea are removed, and the neck is cut off at the point of its entry into the chest cavity. With certain experience, the intestines and others internal organs can be removed with a finger through the cloaca without making cuts on the carcass. Then the carcasses are washed (especially the inside part). Water temperature 30 °C.

Carcass cooling

If the carcasses are not used immediately for cooking, then for better preservation and maturation of the meat they should be cooled. To do this, use containers with cold water(About -1 °C). As the carcasses cool, the water heats up, so it is changed periodically. When the temperature of the carcasses in the thickness of the pectoral muscles reaches 0-4 ° C, they are taken out, put in a basket and hung over a container to drain the water. After this, carcasses one or two at a time - 10 pieces. placed in bags made of cellophane, parchment or polymer films approved for packaging food products. The packages are placed close to each other in wooden or corrugated cardboard boxes. You can also use metal trays or plastic containers.

Carcass storage

Quail carcasses are stored in packaged form at a temperature of 0 - 4 ° C and a relative humidity of 80 - 85% for two days. For long-term storage, they are frozen at a temperature of -8 ° C and stored in the freezer.

Poultry preparation and selection

To slaughter quails for meat, males and females are selected at the age of about 40 days, so that the meat is more tender. The selected quails should have well-developed chest and thigh muscles. Selected birds are housed in separate cages and fed at least 3-4 times a day to build up their meat. Millet, corn, nettles and foose must be added to the quail diet. Birds are fed this way for 2 weeks before slaughter.

Slaughter process

They stop feeding the birds ¼ day before slaughter in order to avoid intestinal rupture at the time of slaughter, which will significantly spoil the taste of the meat. During this period, only water is allowed.

Quails can be slaughtered in two ways:

Hold the bird suspended with its head down.
Placing the bird on a wooden block.

In the first case, large and well-sharpened scissors can be used to cut off the head. The head is cut off between the 2nd and 3rd cervical vertebrae. A metal funnel of the appropriate size is used to drain the blood of the quail being slaughtered. The blood flows through a funnel into a container placed below. In the second case, the quail is placed on a wooden block and the head is cut off with an ax. To facilitate subsequent cutting, the carcasses are placed in a container with hot water (50–55 °C) for 30 seconds.

Removing feathers

Plucking quails can be done manually or using a household feather plucking machine.

The machine works on the principle of a centrifuge and plucks feathers in a matter of minutes. If you use the old grandfather's method, you will have to work a little.

You need to start plucking from the hard feathers of the tail and wings, and the remains of bones and fluff are scorched with a gas burner.

Cutting

Cutting quail for beginners requires certain skills. To gut a carcass, you need to make two preliminary cuts - around the cloacal opening and longitudinally on the abdomen. The first step is to remove the stomach, liver and heart. The trachea and esophagus are then removed through an incision in the neck. When you get the hang of removing the entrails through a cut, you will eventually be able to cut the carcass without making cuts, removing the entrails through the cloaca.

To gut more quails faster, you can use a special quail gutting spoon. It is a small spoon with a cut in the middle. For this method of gutting, you need to make a small cut near the tail, insert the spoon into the hole to the very end and turn it. Without a sharp movement, the spoon along with the entrails is removed, and the cloaca is cut off.

After removing the entrails, you need to cut off the neck at the junction with the chest. After this, the plucked carcass is thoroughly washed from the inside with warm (about 30 0C) water.

If you want to end up with a carcass without skin, then this procedure will not be difficult. To remove the skin, place your thumbs on the quail's belly and hold it by the back with your remaining fingers. Sharply move your thumbs to the sides. In this case, the skin should burst and come off easily.

Cooling and storage

Next, the cooled carcasses are hung to dry, after which they are packaged in cellophane or special trays. Carcasses are stored for 1-2 days at a temperature of 0 to 4 °C, and for longer storage they are frozen at a temperature of -8 °C.

Video “Procedure for slaughtering quails”

From this video you will learn about all the intricacies of quail slaughter.

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Hello! I have uneviscerated quail carcasses, but I don’t know what to do with them. Tell me how to properly cut a quail, maybe there is a video with instructions. (Marina)

Cutting up a carcass is not at all difficult. However, here, as in everything, a certain skill and knowledge of some nuances are required.

So, we have a scalded bird. We pluck it with sharp and quick movements against the growth of feathers. Breeders engaged in mass breeding of quails have special feather removal machines for these purposes. They operate on the principle of a centrifuge and quickly remove feathers from the carcass. When the number of birds is small, you can do without such a miracle of technology. However, in this case, even at good speed, you are unlikely to be able to pluck more than 20 birds per hour.
The plucked carcass must be cut. To do this, a circular incision is made around the cloacal opening, and a small longitudinal one along the abdomen. This makes it possible to get to the internal organs. Carefully remove them and place the giblets separately. The esophagus and part of the trachea are removed from a small incision in the neck. Experienced breeders do without any incisions and remove the entrails through the cloacal opening.
The plucked and skinned quail is washed, dried with a towel and, if desired, oiled to remove the remaining feathers.

This method will differ in that at the end you will have a carcass without skin. You may notice that these are the quails most often sold in stores or markets.

The presence or absence of skin does not significantly affect the taste. But breeders selling quails note that carcasses with skin weigh a little more.

So, in order to remove the skin from a quail, you need to place the thumbs of both hands on its stomach, and hold the back with the rest of your fingers. Then sharply pull your thumbs in different directions. The skin should burst and come off like a stocking.

How quails are slaughtered and cut up can be seen in the video from the Poultry farming channel, which completes our review!

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Secrets successful breeding and keeping quails

The first time I was very afraid to cut up quail, but now I’ve gotten the hang of it, I do it very quickly. True, I don’t have a spoon like the one in the video, but it’s probably worth trying to make one.

Materials: http://klyv.ru/perepela/uchimsya-razdelyvat-10813/

Quail slaughter

Quails are slaughtered in order to obtain dietary gourmet meat, which can be easily sold or many delicious dishes can be prepared. To increase live weight, birds begin to be fed according to a specially formulated diet. For slaughter, substandard quails and excess quails at the age of 40-45 days are selected, placed in separate cages and slaughtered at approximately 2 months of age. Their further fattening and maintenance leads to irrational consumption of feed and use of space in the cages.

Before the start of the slaughter process, the birds are not fed for 5-6 hours, water is given in unlimited quantities. Feeding before slaughter is not recommended due to the possible rupture of the feed-filled intestines and crop during cutting of the carcass, as a result of which the meat will become dirty, which will quickly deteriorate during storage.

According to the standard, quails intended for slaughter are divided into adult birds and young birds. Adult quails have a keratinized beak, smooth scales and skin on their legs. Quails that are up to 2 months old and whose beaks have not become keratinized are considered young animals. They have smooth scales and skin on the legs with a tight fit and elasticity, an unossified median process at the sternum and 1 to 3 juvenile flight feathers.

In quails to be slaughtered, the muscles of the thighs and chest should be sufficiently developed, the keel of the chest should be visible, and the ends of the pubic bones should be easily palpable.

Quails have dark pink skin with a lilac tint.

When delivering quails to a special slaughter place, wooden or metal boxes with lids measuring 600x600x200 mm are used. The box is divided into 4 compartments, each of which can accommodate up to 15 birds. To avoid injury to quails during landing, they must be handled carefully, grasping them behind their backs.

After arriving at the site, the quails are taken out of the box one at a time and fixed in a head down position. For fixation, a conical funnel is made from roofing sheet and mounted on the table.

The next operation is to cut off the head, while the quail is located above the container for collecting blood. The head is cut off between the 2nd and 3rd cervical vertebrae using scissors or pruners. Then the quail carcass hangs for 30-40 seconds until the blood drains completely.

After the slaughter of all quails, the process of scalding the carcasses begins. 10 carcasses are placed in a metal basket and immersed for 30 seconds in a container with hot water at a temperature of 54...56°C.

After scalding, the carcasses are placed on a table for plucking, and dishes for feathers are placed nearby. First of all, large feathers of the tail and wings are pulled out, then the sides, chest and other parts are plucked. Despite the plucking process, filamentous thin feathers remain on the carcasses. They should be scorched using a torch or plain paper.

Next, the legs are removed and the internal organs are removed. A longitudinal incision is made in the abdominal cavity and a circular incision is made in the cloaca; the stomach, liver, and heart are separated. In the neck area, the trachea and esophagus are removed through an incision. The neck is cut off where it enters the chest cavity. If you have some experience in cutting carcasses, internal organs and intestines can be removed through the cloaca without making cuts. Processed carcasses are thoroughly washed in water at a temperature of 30°C.

To better preserve and ripen quail meat, it is then cooled in a container with cold water at a temperature of 0...1°C. While cooling, the carcasses heat up the water, so it must be changed systematically. When the carcasses reach a temperature of about 3...4°C in the depths of the pectoral muscles, they are removed and placed in a basket, which is hung to drain the water.

Next, one or more carcasses are placed in cellophane or parchment bags, or in polymer films intended for food packaging. Packages can be placed in corrugated cardboard boxes or plastic containers.

One of the reasons why quails are bred is for their dietary meat. But for many breeders, the most difficult process is not the breeding itself, but the slaughter of quails. Sooner or later, every poultry farmer will be faced with this need, since when breeding quails for meat, constant and timely culling of individuals that are still young but not suitable for breeding is necessary. In this article we will talk about the rules for slaughtering quails at home.

Slaughter process

Slaughter

Quails can be slaughtered in two ways:

Hold the bird suspended with its head down.
Placing the bird on a wooden block.

Removing feathers

Plucking quails can be done manually or using a household feather plucking machine. The machine works on the principle of a centrifuge and plucks feathers in a matter of minutes. If you use the old grandfather's method, you will have to work a little.

You need to start plucking from the hard feathers of the tail and wings, and the remains of bones and fluff are scorched with a gas burner.

Cutting

After removing the entrails, you need to cut off the neck at the junction with the chest. After this, the plucked carcass is thoroughly washed from the inside with warm (about 30 0C) water.

Cooling and storage

For long-term storage of cut carcasses, they must be refrigerated. To cool, place the carcasses in a container of water, the temperature of which should be about 0 °C. The water must be changed periodically until the temperature of the carcass in the chest area is 4 °C. Next, the cooled carcasses are hung to dry, after which they are packed in cellophane or special trays. Carcasses are stored for 1-2 days at a temperature of 0 to 4 °C, and for longer storage they are frozen at a temperature of -8 °C.

Video “Procedure for slaughtering quails”

From this video you will learn about all the intricacies of quail slaughter.

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