One Cull Cockerel

[3KillerBs]

If I'm not saving backs, wings and giblets I'll part skin. Just taking the legs and breast fillets.... freezer is full of backs waiting to be broth.

I can't see myself throwing out that much potential food.

Especially since the wings are my favorite piece.

The fact that DH saw me wrestling with that skin and knows how long it took (waiting for me to finish so we could have lunch), may have moved the propane burner of the sort meant for a turkey fryer up in the priority list.

 

[Molpet]

I can't see myself throwing out that much potential food.

Especially since the wings are my favorite piece.

The fact that DH saw me wrestling with that skin and knows how long it took (waiting for me to finish so we could have lunch), may have moved the propane burner of the sort meant for a turkey fryer up in the priority list.

Yeah that's why there's a bunch of backs in the freezer. But with getting sick Nov 2020 I didn't feel up to making soup. ... and birds needed to be harvested and stuffed in the freezer. I can get a parted turkey in a gallon vac bag lol

 

[Mosey2003]

The fact that DH saw me wrestling with that skin and knows how long it took (waiting for me to finish so we could have lunch), may have moved the propane burner of the sort meant for a turkey fryer up in the priority list.

That's why I got a scalder for Christmas, I am SO EXCITED!!! Just fill it up and walk away, ahhhh will be nice.

 

[aart]

Not only do I like to eat the skin, I do not find the experience of wrestling feathery skin off a chicken to be even remotely "the easy way". It took me a good 30-45 minutes to get him undressed

That was probably (WAY)harder on your wrists than the broomsticking.

 

[3KillerBs]

That was probably (WAY)harder on your wrists than the broomsticking.

Yes, probably.

The skin was well attached and one has to be so much more careful about how you peel it off when it's still got feathers attached than when skinning a grocery store bird.

He was just a little too big to dunk in the spaghetti pot and I don't have anywhere right now that I could have heated up my canner.

I was talking to my DH about how I don't need a whole turkey fryer, because I actually have a restraurant stock pot that is half again larger than the canner, I just need that big propane burner.

 

[aart]

The skin was well attached and one has to be so much more careful about how you peel it off when it's still got feathers attached than when skinning a grocery store bird.

Plus, grocery birds are very young.

I was talking to my DH about how I don't need a whole turkey fryer, because I actually have a restraurant stock pot that is half again larger than the canner, I just need that big propane burner.

Good move, turkey pots are bit too narrow, IME.
I borrowed a couple turkey fryer set ups before buying my own.
Bought the burner separate and it took a bit to find the right diameter pot.

 

[3KillerBs]

Plus, grocery birds are very young.


Good move, turkey pots are bit too narrow, IME.
I borrowed a couple turkey fryer set ups before buying my own.
Gut the burner separate and it took a bit to find the right diameter pot.

When we saw that giant pot for a few dollars at a yard sale we snatched it right up.

 

[springvalley123]

I know how to do the broomstick method and have done it successfully a number of times.

My wrists are variable and weather-dependent. I will have to see if I can find my old braces and what the weather is like tomorrow morning.

One of the advantages of broomstick is how clean it is.

I need to get this boy out of my brooder tomorrow because I have a day off in good weather. There is no possibility of getting help. DH and the 21yo are too squeamish and the 16yo, who is untested but interested in learning when we do a batch of meaties, will be in school.

I guess what happens, happens.

I only used the broomstick method once and it was very easy. I had a setup with a divot in the ground for the head, and it wasn't hard on my wrists and I'm pretty small and not young. I like that there's no blood so no worries about attracting predators later on.

 

[Anime2lover]

I've held onto Yellow a week or two longer than I should have been feeding him between bad weather, lack of convenient setup (as of Saturday we have some scrap metal to make killing cones), and a final nibble on the Craigslist ad (I said, "Yes, I have one left" but there was no response to that message).

I know how to do broomstick successfully, but have been increasingly concerned that my deteriorating wrists might cause me to have trouble doing the deed correctly so I'm thinking about hanging him from a cord around his feet and decapitating him instead.

Very sharp knife, grasp the beak to extend the neck, part the feathers, and strike with firm confidence, right?

How much blood is involved and how much does it spray around? Will I need to reserve butchering clothes because I will inevitably get spattered?

A pair of clippers will work to.

 

[cassie]

I became the designated chicken killer through no fault of my own. Just so you know, I am a wuss. I cannot use an axe, the broomstick method gives me the willies as do most of the other suggested methods. OK. The first chicken I killed I used a very sharp heavy duty pair if pruning shears, regular limb loppers. I tied the rooster's feet together with baling twine, hung him at a convenient height and lopped the head off. The deed was done before either I or the rooster quite knew what was happening. From the limb loppers I graduated to using a box cutter or utility knife. I hung the chicken and before and then severed the jugulars on each side of the neck. The chicken bled out nicely. Bear in mind that the sharper the blade the less pain it causes.