Processed my first chicken!!!

[thebulg]

We arent raising meat birds. He was a lavendar orpington who threw a fit when another chicken we raised turned out to be a rooster, and started attacking the hens who opted to move to the other "flock". And then he charged my son, so it was lights out! Our plan all along has been to let the chickens brood and cull excess roosters. Unfortunatelyi had to run this one solo because my husband was out of town.

The killing part went very very badly. We need better knives and i would have benefited from having someone around who knew anatomy and pressure needed to make the cut.

Turns out taking the innards out is painfully difficult whe. you have no idea what you are doing! AND THE SMELL DEAR HEAVENS.

Anyway. My perspective on food has definitely changed, i have a pink stained, dressed bird resting in my fridge, my dog had the best dinner of his life, and i have feet and neck in my freezer for stock.

Most importantly, I DID IT!!!!!! Whole thing took my 2.5 hours from pick up to clean up, andmy flock is safe and can rearrange itself.

WOO!!!

 

[BBQJOE]

We arent raising meat birds. He was a lavendar orpington who threw a fit when another chicken we raised turned out to be a rooster, and started attacking the hens who opted to move to the other "flock". And then he charged my son, so it was lights out! Our plan all along has been to let the chickens brood and cull excess roosters. Unfortunatelyi had to run this one solo because my husband was out of town.

The killing part went very very badly. We need better knives and i would have benefited from having someone around who knew anatomy and pressure needed to make the cut.

Turns out taking the innards out is painfully difficult whe. you have no idea what you are doing! AND THE SMELL DEAR HEAVENS.

Anyway. My perspective on food has definitely changed, i have a pink stained, dressed bird resting in my fridge, my dog had the best dinner of his life, and i have feet and neck in my freezer for stock.

Most importantly, I DID IT!!!!!! Whole thing took my 2.5 hours from pick up to clean up, andmy flock is safe and can rearrange itself.

WOO!!!

There's all kinds of videos on you tube on how to kill and dress chickens, watch a few, it will make it much easier for next time.

 

[FridayYet]

Good for you! I'm still not very efficient with cleaning, but I've got the dispatching part down now. It's hard, especially when you don't grow up raising your own food.

I skin mine because it's too much fuss for just one or two birds at a time.

It does get easier!

 

[thebulg]

I really hope it does get easier each time!we've got months before qe have to do it again and i will use that time to get better tools and study up some more.

 

[donrae]

Good for you!

I remember my first solo time, I felt so clumsy and it seemed to take forever. And yeah, not the cleanest cut

.

But, it does get easier, and you do get more efficient. And doing more than one bird at a time helps, cause so much of the time is the set up and clean up. So, when you have a batch of 3-5 cockerels to do, it will be much easier.

It's kind of weird to say it's empowering to butcher a small animal, but it really is.

 

[thebulg]

It is empowering! It's satisfying to know that if push came to shove, i can do what needs to be done to eat. But i also feel really good about the ability to make hard choices to keep my flock healthy. The most disappointing part was probably that he was such a good rooster before the second rooster showed up, and was honestly beautiful. It would have been nice to find him a home so he could procreate, but i didn't put all that work and money in to send him somewhere else, and i sure wasn't going to send a possibly aggressive rooster to a new flock to terrorize more hens. I'm certainly proud that i know a bit more about how my food comes to be than many people even want to know!

Thank you all for the encouragement!

 

[SunnysideFowl]

I have to say i am happy to have found this thread. Today was the first hen i had to cull myself. She was in shock from some sort of trauma. Her head had a bald, red patch, one eye closed, neck flopping over. Anyway I couldn't see anything within reason I could do to help this hen.
I have a surgical blade.. I thought it would be sharp enough. But it wasn't, and i guess I didn't know the anatomy as well as i thought. Im happy she was at leasf already essentially passed out from the trauma. So I don't think she hurt or suffered to much at my hands. She seemed to go peacefully.

And yes, trying to figure out how to get the insides out without rupturing them inside the bird wasnt easy. At least i knew about the smell. A dog killed a hen last fall, and it was fresh so i used that one as practice at that time for plucking and dressing.

Glad to know im not the only one to struggle.

 

[thebulg]

well, i am now glad you replied. It took me about 2 days to finally explain to my husband what happend. There was definitely a bit of guilt or maybe shame at not having done it quickly and as easily as possible for him. Next time i think it will go much better.

I'm really sorry you lost a hen unwillingly.

 

[TurksPoultry]

well, i am now glad you replied. It took me about 2 days to finally explain to my husband what happend. There was definitely a bit of guilt or maybe shame at not having done it quickly and as easily as possible for him. Next time i think it will go much better.

I'm really sorry you lost a hen unwillingly.

Awe! I want to offer my support that you did what Should be done to each mean rooster! I take the processing of my extra cockrels very seriously. It was a rule I made of myself when I started and it sounds like you have the same expectaion of yourself, good woman! It is really in Everyone's best interest birds and humans alike, but of course your here so u must know that

 

[SunnysideFowl]

I gave all my cockerels food names. I hope that it will help me from becoming too attached while being realistic about the end game. I also hope that i get quicker. It took me an hour or more to get the hen all cleaned. The culling didnt take too long, just the cleaning.