Thanks to having neighbors from H...eck.... I knew that having a rooster crowing obsessively would only result in them making more phone calls to the county. They have already called animal control AND code enforcement on me. No violations were found EITHER time btw... which brought out a screaming fit by my neighbor at the code inspector (giggles@grouchy old man).
SOOO long story short... every time my rooster crowed.... I would cringe. He only started crowing about 2 weeks ago... and was proving to be obsessive at it. ALL FREAKING DAY LONG... and well into the night as well. We looked for a home for him but after two no shows for pick ups and the feed store being too full to take him... well... I referred back to youtube.
I had been watching youtube videos rather obsessively on this subject just 'in case' well... I woke up this morning early and told husband that I was going to butcher the rooster and he wigged out to put it mildly. So he spent the morning hiding in his office watching a movie with the volume up high. Honestly... it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. I had built up such a fear of doing it wrong that I thought I would not be able to follow through. Also... for most of my life I was vegetarian/vegan. *seriously!* well... I had isolated the boy since yesterday morning with no food (I gave him water) and once I opened the cage I just grabbed him, flipped him upside down, hung him upside down, and I tried to find the jugular but I couldn't with his thick boy feathers on his neck so I ended up just taking his whole head off. Not the way I had intended to do it but I just needed to do it quickly. I should have tied his wings into his body or something because he did flap around alto and he did end up spraying blood all over the place... including up the roof support beam on the back of the house. I scalded him (thankfully I had the water already heated and sitting next to me), and got to work plucking him. It was kinda hard to do because of all the little feathers that didn't want to come off. Well they aren't feathers... more like hair. Now I see why people use a blow torch!
I had a hard time trying to clean him because I think for some reason I was trying to be precise and gentle...well that didn't work. I finally just cut into him, reached up and yanked... and low and behold... done. Hardest part was when I was piecing him out, I had a hard time getting through the shoulder areas. I couldn't find where the separation is between the bone so I just cut through them.
He was a phoenix so there honestly wasn't much meat on him but for hubby and I who aren't major meat eaters.. that's not a problem. We have been thinking about ordering a bunch of meat birds for next year. I think we will do it
We probably wont butcher them ourselves... or shall I say.. myself.. but I think I like the idea of knowing exactly what they ate and how they were raised verses store bought. I never realized how pale and nasty looking store bought chicken really looked till now. Will let you know how home raised tastes tonight.
We are going to do Tandoori chicken tonight *hubby is from India so yes... it will be REAL tandoori chicken*
SOOO long story short... every time my rooster crowed.... I would cringe. He only started crowing about 2 weeks ago... and was proving to be obsessive at it. ALL FREAKING DAY LONG... and well into the night as well. We looked for a home for him but after two no shows for pick ups and the feed store being too full to take him... well... I referred back to youtube.
I had been watching youtube videos rather obsessively on this subject just 'in case' well... I woke up this morning early and told husband that I was going to butcher the rooster and he wigged out to put it mildly. So he spent the morning hiding in his office watching a movie with the volume up high. Honestly... it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. I had built up such a fear of doing it wrong that I thought I would not be able to follow through. Also... for most of my life I was vegetarian/vegan. *seriously!* well... I had isolated the boy since yesterday morning with no food (I gave him water) and once I opened the cage I just grabbed him, flipped him upside down, hung him upside down, and I tried to find the jugular but I couldn't with his thick boy feathers on his neck so I ended up just taking his whole head off. Not the way I had intended to do it but I just needed to do it quickly. I should have tied his wings into his body or something because he did flap around alto and he did end up spraying blood all over the place... including up the roof support beam on the back of the house. I scalded him (thankfully I had the water already heated and sitting next to me), and got to work plucking him. It was kinda hard to do because of all the little feathers that didn't want to come off. Well they aren't feathers... more like hair. Now I see why people use a blow torch!
I had a hard time trying to clean him because I think for some reason I was trying to be precise and gentle...well that didn't work. I finally just cut into him, reached up and yanked... and low and behold... done. Hardest part was when I was piecing him out, I had a hard time getting through the shoulder areas. I couldn't find where the separation is between the bone so I just cut through them.
He was a phoenix so there honestly wasn't much meat on him but for hubby and I who aren't major meat eaters.. that's not a problem. We have been thinking about ordering a bunch of meat birds for next year. I think we will do it
We probably wont butcher them ourselves... or shall I say.. myself.. but I think I like the idea of knowing exactly what they ate and how they were raised verses store bought. I never realized how pale and nasty looking store bought chicken really looked till now. Will let you know how home raised tastes tonight.We are going to do Tandoori chicken tonight
*hubby is from India so yes... it will be REAL tandoori chicken*
