andre@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Andre Burgoyne) (05/10/87)
Note: This is being cross-posted to the groups that have recently held animal rights or plant rights ( that was ca.general ) "discussions". Followups to sci.misc only, please ( too bad there is not an eng.misc, since this is really an engineering question ). Anyway, there was an article in the Los Angeles Times last summer about the poultry industry. It described some of the machinery that is used to deal with the live ( but doomed ) chickens. One of the machines is fed live chickens on a moving belt at a rate of three per second. The output of this machine ( described by the Times as a whirling, steaming, slicing mechanical wonder ) is packaged chicken parts, ready for loading on trucks. The mechanics of this seem interesting. We would guess that chickens do not just line up in a nice formation to make the job of the machine easier, so it must have some mechanism to deal with live birds in random configurations. Some of the ways we have thought of don't seem too plausible ( e.g., grab their feet through trap doors in the belt and pull down. This would simplify the problem, since you now only have two states too deal with, but somehow, we doubt it. Others here at Caltech have suggested that the chickens are perhaps killed before they are sorted, for example, by low rotating knives at neck level, but it seems that headless still living chicken bodies would be even more of a pain to sort! The best we could come up with was to steam the live chickens, thus killing them, and, as an elegant side effect, getting rid of the feathers too. But we digress... ) Does anyone out there know how this is actually done? How does this machine work? Why is this technology used on chickens but not beef or pork? -- "Juggling - It's not just a job, it's a way to drop a lot of things on your feet at once" Andre' "5 balls" Burgoyne Tim "almost 5 clubs" Smith andre@citvax.caltech.edu sdcrdcf!ism780c!tim
obrien@aero2.UUCP (05/11/87)
Well, my uncle once owned part-interest in a (manual) chicken-processing plant. It didn't process anything like 3/sec, but they did move right through. The secret (if you want to call it that) is that the chickens don't go through right-side-up. Their feet are tied to an overhead belt. How they deal with the killing part is a question, true; in my uncle's plant there was a human with a BIG knife. By the time the little beggars made it to the de-feathering bath they weren't any problem. -- -------- Mike O'Brien obrien@aerospace.aero.org aero!obrien
kirk@enterprise.UUCP (05/11/87)
In article <2642@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>, andre@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Andre Burgoyne) writes: > > Anyway, there was an article in the Los Angeles Times last summer about > the poultry industry. It described some of the machinery that is used > to deal with the live ( but doomed ) chickens. > > Does anyone out there know how this is actually done? How does this > machine work? Why is this technology used on chickens but not > beef or pork? > -- Grab the tape 'Faces of Death III'. It shows quite excplicitly how the chickens are processed. They are hung by hooks, while alive, which penetrate the area between the two bones in the leg. I believe a person then slits the throat and disembowels the bird. All the rest of the cleaning is done by machine. I am not sure about the cutting. It did show the chickens heads being torn off by the machine. There was a V shaped knife that would grab the head while the rest of the bird continued down the assembly/disassembly line. The net effect was that head was torn off. They are then defeathered and cleaned. That is about all I recall. Warning, Face of Death 1, 2 and 3 are all very graphic and should not be shown to children or anybody with a weak stomach. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Kirk De Haan "You take a lickin" | | Sun Microsystems, Inc. "And keep on tickin" | | kirk@sun.COM | | {ihnp4|hplabs|seismo}!sun!kirk Blue Oyster Cult | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
tim@uw-nsr.UUCP (05/16/87)
In article <18556@sun.uucp> kirk%enterprise@Sun.COM (Kirk DeHaan) writes: ^^^^^^ >Grab the tape 'Faces of Death III'. It shows quite excplicitly how the chickens > [ ... *gory* details of how chickens are killed while being processed ... ] Ha ha ha cackle cackle ... very funny. Whether actually real or just contrived specifically for this posting, the last name that Kirk is using means "the chicken" in Dutch. If Kirk ever has a son I would suggest that he name him " Kip Van DeHaan " just to make his posting even more ironic. Hee hee.