About butchering . . .

[frankenchick]

After 3 weeks of increasingly frantic searching, I have come to grips with the fact that I will have to “process” my Xrocks myself. Saturday, DH and I are going to celebrate our 17th anniversary by butchering the first 5-10 chickens (the really big, ornery ones). We should do more -- we have 15 more coming Tues. -- but I think the advice I’ve seen here re. letting the late bloomers mature more has convinced me that waiting will pay off.

The two things I don’t understand about the process are: 1) Does the vent have to be removed, and how does one do that? 2) Through which end does one remove the innards?

I am adding one thing to the excellent “tools” list mentioned on this forum -- rock salt. After skinning the chickens (good thing I read the threads here first; I’d have done a “Y” cut a la High School bio class), I’m going to scrape the “hide” and rub it down with salt to dry it. Our convenience store here in town sells bait; I’m hoping there are some fly-tiers among their clientele as well. Or, I could try to set up a booth at Gizzard Fest in Potterville June 8-10.

 

[silkiechicken]

Ok... as for butchering cornish x's....

I don't think their feathers are going to be any good for fly tying. I'm pretty sure they want mature roosters of the barred rock or similar breeds... like hackle feathers and such... which are pretty and slick like.. not the big round ugly cornish rock pinfeathered things... I don't reccomend trying to dry a chicken skin with lots of pin feathers eather... they won't really dry out right . Go for year old birds for fly tying... Check to make sure that is going to be worth your time. Cornish skin is very fatty too, unlike fly tying rooster skins which will dry easily... Look into your market first before you try is my suggestion...

Here is some info on the type of fly tying feathers that are used (rather selective):

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/beginners/part12.html

As for the butcher it's self. You have to take out all the guts from the bottom side.. like store chickens. You just cut out... There are some good tutorials online.

Such as:

http://siteupgrade.com/poultry/butcheringpoultryfinal.html

 

[marko15]

Hope this helps you, First make sure you withhold feed the night before and the morning of butchering or your in for a nice mess. Make a 2-2 1/2 inch horizontal cut above the vent towards the top of the bird. Then take two fingers and insert and take your other hand and do the same on the lower part of the cut and pull a little to make the opening bigger, Then reach your hand in and remove the innards. After the innards are pulled out , take your knife and go down one side and under the vent and up the other side, this should remove the vent. If you get a little mess just wash it off and proceed with your butchering process (the factories butchering process is not as clean ) so you should have no problem. To cut down on bacteria after the innards are removed and inside is cleaned out, make sure to put the whole bird into cold water until you are ready to cut it up and package it for the freezer. I hope this helps!!