Butchering question

[HollyTree]

Do you have to use a knife to cut the neck arteries? Can I take my big limb sheers and take the head completely off in one whack? I can't do the knife thing...hurts my tender girl feelings.

I want one of those mechanical chicken pluckers, but all the pics I see still have the head on the chicken. Any reason this "has" to be?

 

[Buster52]

A lot of folks like the bird to bleed to death because it bleeds out better, which is important to them. Not me. I like the axe (former wood shingle roofer, here). Clean, instant death.

But some folks here do use cones and shears. They can answer your question better than I.

 

[scooter147]

The big ole limb trimmer would work just fine, works just like the axe and stump method.

 

[jaku]

Quote:
Just make sure your shears are sharp, or it could be more traumatic than cutting or chopping. Personally, I am a neck slicer, and I use a razor blade from a utility knife. They are SO sharp, so there's no sawing or work to make the cut.

 

[cassie]

One day I had to butcher a chicken by myself. No one else was available. I didn't have a nice sharp knife and I wasn't sure where to cut anyway. An axe was out of the question. I had a large pair of pruning shears. Regular limb loppers. They were new and sharp. I hung the chicken up at a convenient height, took a deep breath, and whacked the head off. Worked fine and the chicken did bleed out OK.