Recording a processing day

Flocks → Processing days → Processing day.

1. Pick the flock, the date and how many birds (and any condemned).
2. On the farm or at a processor, and the inspection or exemption you process under.
3. For geese and ducks, what else you saved: down and feathers, and fat rendered (in More details).
4. Scald temperature and whether you wax-dipped: about 145–150°F for chickens, 140–145°F for turkeys, 155–160°F for ducks and geese, which are then usually waxed to take out the pinfeathers.
5. Live and dressed weight, whole birds, cut-up pounds and giblets; chill temperature and time.
6. The processor's fee, and the product it becomes.

Turkeys and other birds sold whole: type the dressed weight of each bird (18.4, 16.2, 21…). When the product is sold by weight, each bird becomes its own priced package with a label, and the record shows how many birds you have in each size — handy for Thanksgiving orders.

Saving takes the birds out of the flock, adds the dressed pounds to inventory as a traceable batch, and puts the fee on the flock's costs. You'll see yield, average weights and how close you are to the 1,000- or 20,000-bird exemption limit this year.