Butchered chickens for the first time today

[Fearlessphil]

Quote:
Whew!!!!! I feel for you man. It took me half the day to do 5. I had no help though (the wife wants nothing to do with it).

 

[Miltonchix]

If you get yourself prepared and organized (mentally and physically) it will go surprisingly fast and painless. (for you)

 

[professor-yellow]

Plucking parties are the only way to go for big orders, My daughters help. We set up a process line, with bluegrass playing and feathers flying.

Seriously though, I have seen pluckers for under a couple hundred dollars used on ebay and craigslist. It is worth the money if you are going to do it on a regular basis.

We only pluck the ducks and the old hens for soup. The meatheads get skinned.

Back in the day I used to dress out my dads, and his buddies pheasants after a hunt. At 25 cents a bird I got good and fast.

Glad to see the homegrown experience so positive.

 

[greyfields]

If you can get a Featherman Pro it willl change your whole perspective. Or you can be a weenie like me and go to a processor.

 

[2boxers]

We butchered our four Cornish x this weekend. After the first one, the rest weren't too bad. My husband did the dastardly deed and the gutting. We read the butchering sticky and found it most helpful. The part I was dreading the most was the plucking, and it wasn't bad at all. I will warn beginners though. Wet, scalded feathers reek.

To stabilize the bird for the hatchet, we didn't use the cone, though we had first thought we would. We just took some twine and bound the birds up. Next year, we will make a sort of cuff with a velcro closure to wrap them in (That's his plan-I can't wait to see how he is going to get the chickens to put this outfit on lol!) We had an old backyard swing frame that we used to hang them while we bled them out. I won't say it was easy or pleasant, but it was not the traumatic experience I was expecting.

Next year, we plan to get 20-30. On butchering day, my true love is going to invite his brother over to help, and we will give him half a dozen birds for his freezer.

 

[FutureChickenMan]

well I just de-boned the meat in the crock pot after a 12 hour cooking on low. Deboning was really easy, it was more of find the bones, the meat was falling off the bone. I had to have a sample taste and I didn't notice anything particularly "strange", it just tasted like chicken to me. It didn't seem any stronger in flavor and the texture wasn't much different than store bought chicken. I suspect when I do one of the other non-cornish x rock birds for things to be a bit different.

as others have mentioned, the meat does seem more dense than the store bought stuff. Although the breasts are smaller, they have substance to them. They don't have that "jello" type feeling like the store bought stuff does. When you hold them in your hand they are stiffer than the store bought stuff.

On a side note, when I was putting the meat back in the pot after getting the bones, I felt a moment of satisfaction looking down at a crock pot full of soup that I made myself, with chicken that I raised myself and butchered myself. You just don't get that feeling when you pop open a can of campbells.

 

[chickenshadow]

Nice job FCM. You are now a member of the processors club.

Try baking a few of the CX's. I use my standard breed roos for
soup (best soup ever) since they aren't that great as fryers or
broilers.

24 hours on low in a crock pot makes the best stock ever and you
can actually chew the bones they get so soft.

 

[Mini Coop]

If you tie them upside down and slit their throat, they bleed out without any apparent undue suffering. You have to cut their throat without cutting their spinal cord, that way the heart will keep beating.

It sounds grisly and cruel, but in actuality they don't struggle if you truss the legs up and hang them. That way the blood all drains really well because the heart pumps the blood out.

 

[FutureChickenMan]

There really wasn't much blood left after I hung them for the 10 minutes. I think the only blood that was still around was all in the neck. No blood in the meat, joints, etc. I made sure to be real careful when handling the guts so none of them broke open so I can't tell you if there was any blood in those parts.

 

[chickenshadow]

We chop the heads and then hang them. There is no blood left. I've heard the theories
about slitting the sloat but I ask myself what I would rather; a slit throat or a guilotine.
I'll take beheading anytime. Most old timers break the necks or cut the tongues (yuck).