Turkey Processing Day

Today was turkey processing for 2 lucky birds.  We processed 1 tom and 1 hen, the tom will be for Thanksgiving and the hen is going in the freezer.  It was 23 degrees out and a horrible wind so it was darn right cold.  We ended up doing the gutting inside because we were frozen.  Derek and Brandon came over to watch and stayed outside until we were almost done with the first turkey and then went in because they were cold.

Learned 2 things today:
1. We have to get the plucker made and soon before we do the next group of 6 turkeys in a couple months.
2. Looks can be deceiving, the turkeys dressed out a lot smaller than I thought they would.  Of course they are not commercial breeds and had plain old turkey food WITHOUT growth hormones.  The tom dressed out 14.8 lbs. and the hen 8.1 lbs.  The hen will be the perfect size for the 3 of us with leftovers.