I work in a chicken plant, ask me anything

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imasoftov

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 11:59 am

thunderstorm wrote:

I know that my FIL gets free chickens.

Chazak613

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 12:36 pm

Do you get grossed out from the chickens occasionally? (I would) Or are you used to it?

honeymoon

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 12:43 pm

thunderstorm wrote:

I know that my FIL gets free chickens.

so does mine..

octopus

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 1:09 pm

What does it mean if I open my chicken package and a bone is broken? Can I still trust the kashrus of the plant? (I've spoken to my Rav about this, just curious what you would answer).

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 10:12 pm

yo'ma wrote:

For the meat, they don't work from about a week before rosh hashana until about a week after sukkos and about the same with pesach. Same for you?

We are only off for the actual yomtov days. We work chol hamoed succos as well as erev and motzai (day after, not night of motzai) all chagim. A very short day erev YK. There is no shechita on hoshana raba, but we do processing then.
We get off for the entire pesach (one of our main hechsherim don't allow shechita then) and erev pesach is for processing and cleaning the plant only. I am not expected to work then.

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 10:16 pm

thunderstorm wrote:

He checks the chickens that were shechted to make sure they don't have wounds that would render it non Kosher. He actually has done this in multiple Chicken plants over the years. He has even traveled across the world to teach it to others .
He does "nikkur".

No, he doesn't work in the same place. The job you describe is done by the mashgichim on the line. Never heard it called anything but 'working on the line'.
There is also a check of the Giddin (tendons) every morning. If they are bad, the check continues throughout the day. If the first few hundred of each batch is good, then the check is not continued. This is also done by mashgichim.

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 10:17 pm

Pooh wrote:

How did you get into this job? Do you like it?

I was called and asked "amother, would you like a job?"
Yes, I do enjoy it most days.

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 10:18 pm

honeymoon wrote:

an aspiring one... as of now he's a mashgiach.

Then he doesn't work by us. None of our mashgichim have married kids.

browser

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 10:21 pm

How are the chickens treated?

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 10:27 pm

InnerMe wrote:

Would you switch jobs if you could?
What's one myth people have about chicken plants?
Was your plant affected by the Rubashkin saga? Has government heightened their watch on the going-ons in plants?
Are you used to the smell by now?
Do you change before you go home?

Lots of questions;)

Switch jobs? Depends what is offered. I was offered another job that I decided not to take as I felt it wasn't right for me at the time.

Myth? can't think of any, but if anyone wants to ask about things they heard, I will try to answer.

Affected by the Rubashkin saga? Maybe got more business when their shechita declined.But no one wanted that to happen-and would prefer less business to Rubashkin going through what he did. We all rejoiced at his release from jail.

Gov? The usda is always on site in every meat plant. You can't work without them there-it's illegal. Did it increase? Not that I know of.

Yes, I'm used to the smell.

I have to change before I go home. I am wet-sometimes soaking wet. And my kids don't let me wash my uniforms with any other clothing!

Lots of answers Wink

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 10:32 pm

flowerpower wrote:

Do you get chicken there at a discounted price?

I pay wholesale price rather than retail. I also get to pick out what I want. Bones are free.
There is one item by us that doesn't sell well, so I get that for free (only me). I get alot of that 1 item, so I give out to others. Both at the plant and in the community.

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 10:33 pm

Chazak613 wrote:

Do you get grossed out from the chickens occasionally? (I would) Or are you used to it?

Nope. Never.

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 10:38 pm

octopus wrote:

What does it mean if I open my chicken package and a bone is broken? Can I still trust the kashrus of the plant? (I've spoken to my Rav about this, just curious what you would answer).

Yes you can. Bones are broken after shechita too.If there is no or minimal blood around the break, it happened after shechita. If there is a lot of blood that is so dark it's almost black, that could be a problem. But it's rare that someone doesn't see the break if there is so much blood. And nobody or place is perfect in catching everything. That;s why we have rabbonim to ask shailos to.

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 10:39 pm

browser wrote:

How are the chickens treated?

I'm pretty sure I answered that on page one. Unless you have a more specific question?

naomi2

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 10:59 pm

Is the high price of chicken really justified by the extra work needed to make sure it's kosher? Non kosher chicken is so much cheaper and I always wonder if it really costs that much more to produce kosher chicken or are we being cheated.

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Nov 05 2018, 11:40 pm

naomi2 wrote:

We have at least 20 people extra needed for kosher/kashering the chickens. That includes shochtim, mashgichim, and regular workers.
Then there is the salt. We go through over 3 TONS of salt a day.

Then there are the extra staff needed to pin chickens. Pinning means removing the feathers that are still on when ready to be processed. In a treif factory, the chickens are sprayed with hot water after slaughter. The hot water opens the pores and the feathers come right off. We spray with cold water-hot water would make them treif. So the feathers don't come off as well. Hence the need for extra staff and time to Pin the chickens.

There is also extra machinery needed to soak, salt, and rinse the chickens. That adds up to tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of $$.

I have no idea how much the hashgacha companies charge, but there is that cost too.

And then there is the loss of the treif chickens. The chickens are bought by us, but not sold.

Does this explain some of the extra cost? I'm sure I missed 1 or 2 other things too.

yo'ma

Tue, Nov 06 2018, 6:42 am

About how many chickens do they go through a day and about how many are kosher of those amounts?

My dh told me they used to do 500 cows a day and only about 300 were kosher. Now they do much less. Every single part gets used up because the factory is in a non kosher place and they work together somehow. Probably with chickens it's different, but is every part used up in different ways or is it all sold together?

InnerMe

Tue, Nov 06 2018, 10:39 am

amother wrote:

Thanks for the answers!
Very interesting.
I just reminded myself.. there was a story in one of the magazines on succos about a dh that works in a chicken plant and a SIL whose jealous of his steady job, but masks her jealousy by ridiculing the job, and saying how awful it must be. But in that story the dh stays in the plant the entire week since it's far away.

Which brings to my next q: How long do you travel to the plant every day?
Did you move because of your job?
Do you ever need to stay late?

amother

Slategray

Tue, Nov 06 2018, 11:59 am

InnerMe wrote:

Thanks for the answers!
.. there was a story in one of the magazines on succos about a dh that works in a chicken plant and a SIL whose jealous of his steady job, but masks her jealousy by ridiculing the job, and saying how awful it must be. But in that story the dh stays in the plant the entire week since it's far away.

Actually, in the story it was a dairy farm. Wink

InnerMe

Tue, Nov 06 2018, 12:00 pm

amother wrote:

Actually, in the story it was a dairy farm. Wink

My bad. I'm growing old. LOL

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