A sad day here in the Colorado mountains. I lost one of my 2 Black Jersey Giants (about 5 1/2 months old) to a bob cat this afternoon. My mom was outside doing some yard work and the chickens were free ranging and she heard a loud racket and saw the bob cat with the chicken in it's jaws. She screamed and the bob cat dropped the chicken and ran off.
I ran out but poor Tyra was dead. I decided to butcher her, because I'm considering getting some meat birds next year and thought I should have an idea of what I'm in for and discover whether I have the "stuff" to do the deed.
I bled her out pretty quickly, after determining that she was indeed dead, but then had to get water boiling for the scalding process and read through some on-line information and watch a Youtube video. It took me at least an hour, probably closer to two to go from dead chicken to scalded, plucked, gutted, rinsed and into the ice-bath chicken. Along the way, I discovered two pretty good gashes, one high up on her back near the base of her neck and a bite mark on her thigh.
I've learned some lessons about butchering, which wasn't so bad other than the fact that I was A) sad, because I'd raised Tyra for eggs and become quite fond of her and B) I was learning on the fly and didn't have everything set up properly in advance.
But my real question is whether you think that this chicken is OK to eat. I'm satisfied with the final job I did, but wonder whether the time I took, and the fact that she was killed by a bob cat, rather than slaughtered by me will make the chicken dangerous to us.
What do you think?
I ran out but poor Tyra was dead. I decided to butcher her, because I'm considering getting some meat birds next year and thought I should have an idea of what I'm in for and discover whether I have the "stuff" to do the deed.
I bled her out pretty quickly, after determining that she was indeed dead, but then had to get water boiling for the scalding process and read through some on-line information and watch a Youtube video. It took me at least an hour, probably closer to two to go from dead chicken to scalded, plucked, gutted, rinsed and into the ice-bath chicken. Along the way, I discovered two pretty good gashes, one high up on her back near the base of her neck and a bite mark on her thigh.
I've learned some lessons about butchering, which wasn't so bad other than the fact that I was A) sad, because I'd raised Tyra for eggs and become quite fond of her and B) I was learning on the fly and didn't have everything set up properly in advance.
But my real question is whether you think that this chicken is OK to eat. I'm satisfied with the final job I did, but wonder whether the time I took, and the fact that she was killed by a bob cat, rather than slaughtered by me will make the chicken dangerous to us.
What do you think?
