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Dressed and Ready We wore our best suits for the semicha ceremony, so we put on plastic guards to try to stay clean while chicken parts flew everywhere.	Reddin mit dem Shoichtim We had lots of questions for the shochtim.	Chatting with the Shochtim Note that there are several shochtim — Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Teimani...	Shochtim The shochtim are also the mashgichim.
The Chickens Chickens are delivered in crates.	The Chickens This schechthaus handles 6,000-12,000 chickens per day.	Sgan Shochet The assistant takes the chickens by the wings and hands them to the shochet.	Sgan Shochet Each shochet can shecht about 15 chickens per minute. We were asked not to photograph the actual shechita.
Feathers Feathers, plucked after the blood drains, come out this chute.	Feathers	Feathers In the course of a day, the dumpster will fill with feathers.	Checking After the chickens are plucked, another shochet checks the chickens to be sure they are kosher.
Checking Each chicken is individually checked by hand.	Checking After each chicken is checked, it is hung on the conveyor to go toward hadacha rishona.	Checking for Blood Clots The shochet checks for blood clots.	Blood Clot Here's a blood clot that he found.
Separating Organs The internal organs are removed from the otherwise whole chicken.	Sorting Organs All the organs are sorted and grouped together in the blue bins. In the background you can see the hadacha rishona corkscrew.	Hearts The hearts are separated. They need to be split and salted separately.	Heart
Livers The livers are also separated out.	Livers The livers will be sold separately or repackaged with the whole chickens.	Split Some chickens are split for salting. This is a chumra that not everyone follows.	Approaching Hadacha The eviscerated chickens approach the first hadacha.
Hadacha Rishona First the chickens are hosed down.	Hadacha Rishona The high-pressure water drives off any surface blood and grime.	Dom B'ain Dom b'ain is rinsed off by hand.	Hadacha Machine This giant corkscrew is used for hadacha. Each chamber is separately filled with water and chicken. The corkscrew turns slowly to gradually move the chickens down the assembly line over the course of 30-40 minutes.
Hadacha Rishona Lots of blood comes out in the first hadacha. This is the view of one chamber in the hadacha corkscrew.	Hadacha Rishona A view of the chamber from the other side.	Checking Hadacha Rishona Rav Jeremy Booty checks the first hadacha.	After Hadacha Rishona After hadacha rishona, the chickens go for a tumble to shake off the water so there isn't too much.
Hadacha Assembly Line The hadacha rishona occurs in the corkscrew on the right. At the end of the corkscrew, in the middle of the picture, you can see the white salt mountain where the chickens are headed.	Salt Each bag contains 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of salt.	Salting Two yeshiva bochurs salt the chickens that come out of hadacha rishona.	Salting Each salts about 15 chickens per minute.
Salting	Salting	Salting	Salting
Salting The inside must be salted as well.	Salting	Salting	Salting
Salting	Salting	Salting	Salting
Salting	Salting The salted chickens proceed up this conveyor belt.	Salting Hundreds of chickens are salted on top of one another.	Salting It takes 70 minutes to proceed to the top. The extra 10 minutes is to be sure.
Waiting One Hour	Waiting One Hour	Waiting One Hour At the top, the chickens will pass to another conveyor belt that will take them to the hadacha achrona corkscrew on the left. (That's Rav Benjamin Adler, shlita, on the left.)	Waiting One Hour Again, that's the hadacha achrona corkscrew on the left.
Nefitza From the top of the salting conveyor belt, the chickens fall down to another belt, which shakes off much of the salt.	Nefitza	Nefitza There is a constant "waterfall" of tumbling chickens.	Rechitza Before being dumped into the hadacha achrona corkscrew, water is sprayed over the chickens to rinse off much of the salt...
Nefitza and Shtifa After salting the salt is shaken and rinsed off before the chicken is soaked in the hadacha achrona corkscrew.	Hadacha Achrona ...then the chicken falls into the hadacha achrona corkscrew.	Hadacha Achrona Unlike the hadacha rishona corkscrew, this one lifts the chickens out of the water and passes them from chamber to chamber in order that they should have three separate hadachas (in addition to nefitza and rechitza in the air).	Hadacha Achrona Rav Aharon checks the hadacha achrona chambers.
Hadacha Achrona Is there a problem, Rav Aharon?	Hadacha Achrona There's lots of bloody tsir that rinses off in the hadacha achrona.	Second Hadacha Achrona The hadacha achrona corkscrew lifts and moves the chickens from bin to bin to complete the three rinsings.	After Hadacha Achrona The chickens come out of the second hadacha and fall down the chute to the bin.
After Hadacha Achrona The chickens now look like we are used to seeing them at market.	After Hadacha Achrona One of the workers picks them up and hangs them on the hanging conveyor belt to dry out and continue their journey.	Freezer The next stop is a giant freezer.	Freezer The chickens spend an hour winding their way through the freezer.
Freezer This chills them thoroughly — much more quickly than they would be chilled after they are densely packaged, boxed, and stacked.	Packaging Area Here's the packaging area. The chickens are sorted into bins — some to be sold in pieces, others are sold whole.	Sorting into Bins These chickens have been chosen to be packaged whole.	Packaging Whole Chickens
Packaging Whole Chickens	Packaging Whole Chickens Some chickens are packaged whole by sealing in a plastic bag.	Packaging Whole Chickens	Cutting Some of the chickens are cut up to be sold in pieces.
Cutting The pieces are sorted.	Cutting When you buy a whole chicken cut up, the parts may not actually be from the same bird.	Packaging The pieces are put into packaging...	Packaging ...wrapped and sealed.
Packaging The packages are stacked together...	Packaging ...and boxed.	Packaging	Stacking Boxes The boxed chickens are stacked onto pallets.
	Ready for Market The final boxed chickens are ready for shipping.	Ready for Market Pieces are packed separately from whole chickens.

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