Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[Jarocal]

Are there any links to how to go about this whole process?

I need to be able to do this.  Thanks for your help

If you look through the first couple pages of the thread you should find the links to videos and pictorial guides you are looking for.

If there are local butcher shops in your area one of them may process for a price. If not or if you want to do it yourself;

A killing cone and slitting the neck will have less flopping than decapitation with a hatchet.

Make sure to have sharp knives on hand for the processing.

 

[jajeanpierre]

If you look through the first couple pages of the thread you should find the links to videos and pictorial guides you are looking for.

If there are local butcher shops in your area one of them may process for a price. If not or if you want to do it yourself;

A killing cone and slitting the neck will have less flopping than decapitation with a hatchet.

Make sure to have sharp knives on hand for the processing.

Where can I buy good knives for this? From someplace like MacMurray Hatchery?

Don't I need a lot of skill to bleed it out? I understand you don't want to touch the trachea.

Thanks.

 

[katbriar]

You don't need a special knife. Just a good one that can be sharpened ( not a serrated one). To find the right place, cut below the jaw at the earlobe. This is a good spot because the feathers won't cover the blade and you can see what you're doing. Make a cut straight across the side of the neck about one-quarter inch deep.

I like to tip the bird's head to the side to hold it still and protect my other hand. After the cut (really with a sharp blade it's one quick short swipe) keep the head tipped till the bleeding slows. It doesn't take a lot of skill. Just a deliberate cut without much pressure.

Allow the blood to drain into a bucket with a couple of inches of water already added and clean up will be easier.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Allow the blood to drain into a bucket with a couple of inches of water already added and clean up will be easier.

Thanks for that tip.

I just watched a couple of those videos and I feel pretty sick about it. I had trouble watching them cut up the chicken, which I shouldn't have since I'm not squeamish about cutting meat. It was just the whole idea that this was a living, clucking chicken five minutes before that really got me. This is going to be a bit of a process to get my head around it.

Jarocal, you say that there is less thrashing by bleeding them out rather than chopping their heads off. Do you know why? I watched the video link you sent and I think it was edited so he slit the chicken's throat and then it went to the last death throes. I suspect there was a good 30 or 40 seconds minimum in between. What happens then? Does the chicken just quietly bleed to death and then at the very end there is those movements?

Thanks. This is going to be really hard for me.

 

[Beekissed]

Where can I buy good knives for this? From someplace like MacMurray Hatchery?

Don't I need a lot of skill to bleed it out? I understand you don't want to touch the trachea.

Thanks.

You don't need much skill at all and it won't hurt a thing to cut clean through the trachea...it has little to no effect on the dying process. They still die in the appropriate amount of time with the very same actions prior to death.

Here's a pic of knife placement on the neck and the knife in the pic is my old paring knife that I use in my kitchen every day...it has killed literally a hundred birds in its day..or more.





Quote:
Nope...the average time between the cut and the death is more 10-20 seconds. They hang there quietly until a sufficient amount of blood has drained out that will trigger the flight or fight reflex that all mammals get when they are bleeding to death. This stimulates the muscle to flex so that the heart speeds up in an effort to fill those blood vessels and get oxygen to the vital organs of the body. The actual movement and reflexes are happening simultaneously to their dying so they are usually fully dead by the time they stop moving or a little before that even.

People who know little about physiology see that thrashing and think it is a pain or stress response and it isn't..not in the way you are thinking. The body goes through some measure of stress as it tries to avoid the shut down of primary systems but most of that is reflexive in nature and not as a result of pain stimulus. The birds don't even seem to know when you've made the cut at all..they don't flinch or jerk when you do it and they just hang calmly for several seconds until that survival reflex system goes into play.

 

[katbriar]

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Thanks for that tip.

I just watched a couple of those videos and I feel pretty sick about it.  I had trouble watching them cut up the chicken, which I shouldn't have since I'm not squeamish about cutting meat.  It was just the whole idea that this was a living, clucking chicken five minutes before that really got me.  This is going to be a bit of a process to get my head around it.

....

Thanks.  This is going to be really hard for me.

First time copying a post and replying. Sorry if it turns out weird.

You're ok if it's hard. It was a living clucking bird. You're right to recognize that. And at some point in the process it will look like the food you are used to cooking. It is a miracle and one that you can help make for yourself.

Think, plan, do and ask lots of questions in the process. You'll probably feel better about it the more care anddeliberation you put into it. You will have done all you can do before you butcher and will cut yourselfsome slack for learning duting yhe process too.

There is a great thread here about someone's first experience butchering one of their roos. I'll find It and post the link.

Eta

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/747182/my-rookie-experience-to-butcher-a-chicken-video

 

[jajeanpierre]

You don't need much skill at all and it won't hurt a thing to cut clean through the trachea...it has little to no effect on the dying process. They still die in the appropriate amount of time with the very same actions prior to death.


Nope...the average time between the cut and the death is more 10-20 seconds. They hang there quietly until a sufficient amount of blood has drained out that will trigger the flight or fight reflex that all mammals get when they are bleeding to death. This stimulates the muscle to flex so that the heart speeds up in an effort to fill those blood vessels and get oxygen to the vital organs of the body. The actual movement and reflexes are happening simultaneously to their dying so they are usually fully dead by the time they stop moving or a little before that even.

People who know little about physiology see that thrashing and think it is a pain or stress response and it isn't..not in the way you are thinking. The body goes through some measure of stress as it tries to avoid the shut down of primary systems but most of that is reflexive in nature and not as a result of pain stimulus. The birds don't even seem to know when you've made the cut at all..they don't flinch or jerk when you do it and they just hang calmly for several seconds until that survival reflex system goes into play.

I think what started me down this road was The Bambi Incident. The game warden shot the yearling deer in the head and I wasn't prepared AT ALL for what followed. I thought I had been a part in torturing this poor deer, so I did a LOT of research into slaughter, which is probably why I decided that no matter how uncomfortable it makes me, slaughtering my own meat is the kindest thing to do.

I understood that you don't want to cut the trachea so the bird doesn't suffer from the stress of near drowning.

I had the little deer processed and have a LOT of trouble eating it. And, there are positives to losing one's appetite after eating just a little!

I'm going to try to do this in the next two weeks. My son, who will do the killing, is not comfortable with cutting an artery, so I think we will be doing it with a hatchet. If I ever get comfortable enough to actually kill one myself, I will probably bleed them out.

 

[Elke Beck]

I think what started me down this road was The Bambi Incident. The game warden shot the yearling deer in the head and I wasn't prepared AT ALL for what followed. I thought I had been a part in torturing this poor deer, so I did a LOT of research into slaughter, which is probably why I decided that no matter how uncomfortable it makes me, slaughtering my own meat is the kindest thing to do.

I understood that you don't want to cut the trachea so the bird doesn't suffer from the stress of near drowning.

I had the little deer processed and have a LOT of trouble eating it. And, there are positives to losing one's appetite after eating just a little!

I'm going to try to do this in the next two weeks. My son, who will do the killing, is not comfortable with cutting an artery, so I think we will be doing it with a hatchet. If I ever get comfortable enough to actually kill one myself, I will probably bleed them out.

I have cut just the artery and cut the whole throat, and I don't think it makes a lick of difference. The bird is dead within a minute or two either way. I have never found anything that supports the drowning thing, and I have not found blood in the trachea or lungs when I have cut the entire throat. Trust me, when you get up the courage to do it the first time, it is easy to cut deeper than you expect to in the stress of the moment. Actually, cutting the whole throat stops them from squawking while they die, so if that kind of thing bugs you, it is an advantage.

If you do the hatchet method, have a bucket or other container ready to drop the chicken into while it thrashes. I have had a chicken flop out of the cone while it was thrashing and blood was splattered around the area, including on me, so I speak from experience. Also, if they flop around, they can break bones and damage the meat. A 5-gallon bucket is good for this.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Okay...let me recap. The chicken's head will be lopped off with an axe...including the trachea...it flops around violently with blood going in all directions...and it is in no danger of drowning in that process(????) but it is in danger of drowning while hanging upside down and the trachea is cut along with major vessels.

I've heard this theory before and I always chuckle about it. Blood is running down, not up. It gets into the nostrils and mouth of the bird, possibly occluding those airways...but~oh, look! it's okay because someone has cut the throat and trachea open so that the bird can still receive air!~ while it dies within 10-20 seconds.

Do me a favor, all who process, so you can attest to the validity of this assessment, try this method of killing and then inspect the bronchial tubes for blood residue and then tell us if this seems true: The blood cannot be sucked UP into the trachea and into the lungs enough to make a bird drown to death when the bird is hanging upside down. Even if this were possible, it could not be accomplished in the time it takes for the bird to die of bleeding out and the resulting cardiac arrhythmia. If the bird were going to drown because of blood near or in the opening of the severed trachea, could it not also drown because of blood in the nostrils and mouth of the bird with an intact trachea(it's all one airway)?

I've also heard Joel Salatin afficiandos stating that cutting the trachea cuts off oxygen to the brain and the bird dies quicker, resulting in poor bleed out....really? Wouldn't the lack of blood to the brain caused by the excessive bleeding cause the same effect...no oxygen to the brain? That's what is known as a tautology, I believe.

Let's use some logic...the bird dies within 10-20 seconds, on average...it cannot drown in that time frame, it cannot NOT bleed any more or less if the brains ceases to function due to lack of O2, it cannot do much of anything but die faster or slower(10 seconds vs. 20 seconds) in that time range, which is the desired effect..death that is quick.

 

[gryeyes]

You GO, Bee!