Meat Handling on the Road

HS Strut

HS Strut

Active member
What do you guys do with your birds when your on vacation for several days?

We've been cleaning them at days end, bagging them with a wing, and if available freezing them till we get home.
I'd rather not keep them in the freezer with a wing attached. Anybody ever just keep them on ice for several days till you get home, clean them up, and freeze them?
Just curious how long we can safely keep them on ice after cleaning them?
 
HS Strut said:
I'd rather not keep them in the freezer with a wing attached.
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Not much you can do about that if the regs specifically state you have to. Its like transporting a filet of fish. You'll need a piece of the skin/scaled attached per transport law.

I would tend to think you could freeze the whole bird as is if you wanted to. If it were me I'd remove the guts/intestines before freezing them though. I wouldn't hang a deer or a wild turkey with the guts inside and I wouldn't do it with a pheasant either.
 
I think you’d be fine for 2 or 3 days. Just don’t pile them up , spread them out and let them cool down naturally in the shade before putting them in the cooler. A couple of weeks ago I took a quart out each out of 3 2 1/2 gall jugs and froze them. For hauling food with and bringing birds home, and still had forty pound of ice when I got home. IMG_3272.jpeg
 
Although I never have done it, I’ve read where guys hang whole pheasants in a cool place for a week or so. Maybe in a ziplock bag and in a cooler with ice?
 
I've always cleaned, wing attached, and placed the bird in a bag in refrigerator to cool overnight. If fridge is too small, like a hotel, then transfer bag into cooler (kept indoors) filled with ice. Process when home.
 
as long as they're cool they're fine. on ice in a cooler is fine for at least a week.

i've adopted the UK practice of aging. when i arrive home after a hunt my birds are whole. as to when i clean and freeze or refrigerate them depends on the weather.
 
You don't have to rub it in our face Qnerd! we saw it the 1st time!!:LOL: I have left birds in a cooler covered with ice and or water for 6 days with no problems. The Indians would have the kids climb up a tall tree and hang ducks with the guts in for a week. supposedly flies don't get very high off the ground.
 
birddude said:
You don't have to rub it in our face Qnerd! we saw it the 1st time!!:LOL: I have left birds in a cooler covered with ice and or water for 6 days with no problems. The Indians would have the kids climb up a tall tree and hang ducks with the guts in for a week. supposedly flies don't get very high off the ground.
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And dude we don’t have trees
 
Cleaned with a leg attached in a cooler on ice, is the best way to go. I hate to get home and thaw a frozen bird to finish cleaning it. After a few days on ice they will not be frozen and are super easy to finish cleaning.
 
Cleaned and cooled they last quit a while. I'm unusually home by day 5 or 6. I don't use water on them when I clean them however. I think that's more likely a situation for bacteria. If frozen and unthawed, it gets cooked or smoked, not refroze for me.
 
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