Butchering for first time- tips?

[Smuvers Farm]

You'll want more light, so I vote catch him tonight after dark then do it after church tomorrow.

 

[aart]

I am going to do it tonight when the sun is beginning to set and I can pick him up off the roost.

It will be easiest well after dark. Keep the flashlight dim and pointed away from an avenue of escape. Give him water in cage, I withhold feed to purge intestines but slaughter by 9am....last meal of scratch 15 minutes before kill to fill crop making it easier to remove.

Good Luck...you can do it!

 

[aart]

Yea, I would not do that. What I was acctually planning was to kill him and clean him tonight. I usually don’t go to bed until midnight, so I would have plenty of time. And I’m willing to stay up later. I would wear gloves and get him off the roost instead of chasing him around the run. I think it would be easier.

Ohhhh that should be fine....it gets dark earlier, as long as you have a lighted area to see to clean the carcass...don't cut your finger off! I'm not a night owl.

 

[The Golden Egg5]

I feel sad about losing one of my chickie babies but happy that I don’t have to watch my back when I walk into the coop. He was a beautiful bird though!

 

[TexasSam]

It wasn't as bad as you thought it would be was it? I will be doing this probably 6 times over the winter. A rooster and A few hens mostly for breeding genetic reasons but also to prevent overcrowding and fresh food. My wife doesn't like to watch but she has no problem eating them.

 

[The Golden Egg5]

Haha no it really wasn’t too bad. The initial part was pretty traumatic, but after that I was ok. I was already bawling when I went to get him off the roost. Cleaning him wasn’t so bad though. All I had to do was think about all the times he flogged me.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

He is done. Everything went well. He died quickly and painlessly with little stress. We plucked him quickly and started on cleaning him up. His crop was a bit challenging because 1. It was huge! Super full of food. 2. We weren’t sure what we were looking for. Also the intestines broke when piling everything out and it smelled up the house. Other than those things, everything went well. I would change a couple things next time, for example, I would not let them have feed 24 hours before. He is resting in the refrigerator and should go in the freezer on Monday. I’m just glad it’s over and I don’t have to stress about it anymore.
View attachment 1149284
Finished bird
View attachment 1149285
Kidney and heart. They seemed really healthy, so now I know I’m not over feeding treats.
Overall it was a success and he helped feed my family.

Good for you! I have to process a few edxtra Roos, and I am not loooking forward to it either. I did process meat birds in July, but a friend helped me and did the deed. This time it will be all on me. Right now I am waiting for my hubby to help me fix my turkey fryer so that I can scald outside.

I'm very proud of you, this is a hard but necessary part of owning chickens for most of us.

You're helping motivate me to take care of my extras...

Me too! It is getting awfully noisy around here, and those teenage boys can be such a pest for the girls...

 

[TexasSam]

Haha no it really wasn’t too bad. The initial part was pretty traumatic, but after that I was ok. I was already bawling when I went to get him off the roost. Cleaning him wasn’t so bad though. All I had to do was think about all the times he flogged me.

Flogging is automatic dinner but my boys know where they stand on the pecking order. I remind them all the time when he stands there looking at me I reach for him or step at him until he backs up. He is A good rooster though. Do you plan on getting A new rooster or do you have one allready?

 

[aart]

Grats!!
Yep, it's a bittersweet mix of bad and good.
Nice looking carcass.
Did you scald for plucking?

Purging the intestine is the main reason I crate at night then slaughter in morning, but you still have to be careful not to cut the intestine around vent or crush the gall bladder when pulling out gut mass.

I find a full crop makes it easier to remove as you can see the attachments, why I give a 'last meal' of scratch to fill it up just before the kill. Loosening the esophagus as far inside as possible with finger from neck end makes pulling gut mass out from vent end much easier.

 

[The Golden Egg5]

Flogging is automatic dinner but my boys know where they stand on the pecking order. I remind them all the time when he stands there looking at me I reach for him or step at him until he backs up. He is A good rooster though. Do you plan on getting A new rooster or do you have one allready?

As soon as this guy, peep, started to test me, every time I saw him stand too close to me or flap his wings next to me, I would kick at him or chase him away. I have another boy, espresso, who is a absolute sweetheart. He is a speckled Sussex and he loves to come sit in my lap (only if allowed) and he never tries to dominate me.