are you a chopper or a slitter

[nismo]

after processing my first chickens yesterday i have found im a chopper. we had a killing cone and a stump so we could see which we liked better. i did the stump with two nail a little over an inch apart and it worked great. we perfected it to where one person holds the chicken by the legs and does the chopping and someone else holds onto there wings so they dont rip them off when they start flailing around after the chop. since we had a killing cone right there who ever was holding the wings would just shove them in the cone after the chop to hold them still. i didnt like the killing cone because they would squak after you cut there throat and it seemed to take longer to die.

i had been dreading the process all day but after we got started it wasnt bad at all. almost enjoyable. i was with my wife, mother a friend and the neighbor and his family. there was about eight of up working and some spectators. the plucking wasnt that bad. after we figured out how to get the perfect scald we could have one plucked in about 30 or 40 seconds. it was a great experience and im glad i did it.

chase

p.s. if you are raising meat bird for the first time dont get attached. do what i did. always make it a point to think of them as a pain. how you have to feed them all the time and clean their water because they are gross and get it dirty stick your head in the tractor and take a wif and make a not how wonderful that smell is and look at them as dinner running around. dont talk to them and dont pet them and you will be fine i was.

 

[FrenchHen]

I'm a "tell the husband it's time to process the chickens" kinda girl.

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Congrats!!! It does get easier each time. I'm a slitter. I tried to be a chopper but I don't have the arm/wrist strength to chop and hold at the same time; I missed alot (usually do them by myself). The cone works much better when you're by yourself.

 

[One Acre Wonder Farm]

I put mine in a cone and then used a knife to take the heads off... So neither a chopper nor a slitter?

I'm glad you gound a method that works for you and some helpers to boot!!

 

[saddina]

Butchering shears, so I'm a scissorer.

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
I'm inclined in this direction, as well, although I haven't done it yet. What sort of knife do you use for that? I find cleaning fish is actually easier with a serrated blade, at least for getting the head off, than a straight sharp blade.

On the getting attached issue... I have taken a couple of hens I was planning on butchering and added them to my layers. I considered it with one gentle rooster, but then took one look at my huge roo I have in with the layers and decided a quick death would be much more humane.

 

[walkswithdog]

For turkeys I'm a slitter, for chickens it's whatever I have time for. Chickens chopping is easy. Turkeys - umm not so much. I also find it easy enough to break a chicken neck, neck under broom handle, foot on broom, pull chicken at a sharp angle up and away from broom = dead right there. Then slit and bleed, etc.

You youtube search for turkey slaughter and get to watch about 100 people MISS the first chop or botch it. I won't chop a turkey.

Umm as to the NOT attached thing. I like my birds, they're raised affectionately, they're not pains, most have names and feel quite comfortable hopping on my lap for cuddles and rubs. They come when they're called, they live free, are happy and die quickly. I do my best to see that they aren't afraid or unhappy. I do my job well. There's no reason to be unaffectionate to them just because they have a purpose, no reason they can't fulfill that purpose just because I care for them.

There are plenty of worse things in the world than being loved, eating phenomenally well, living happily and free and dying a swift clean death. Off hand I can think of an easy dozen worse things...

I'm probably a hard heart or perhaps something worse, but I can raise them by hand, hold them, pet them, love them and when it's time they serve their purpose, kill them swiftly. Doesn't bother me at all. I thank them, I appreciate who they were and their gift for my life and my family's life.

I figure that's actual respect for their lives.

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
Very nice.

 

[walkswithdog]

Buster I also like your Sig Quote.

 

[Intheswamp]

Hmmm. I've never processed poultry before (basically only wildbird that was already dead) but it seems from my understanding that the slitting in the killing cone is so that the bird will bleed out better.

I've got a question for folks that have done it both ways....is there a taste difference of the meat between birds killed by slitting and chopping?

Thanks,
Ed