butchering *was* sort of empowering . . .

[4H kids and mom]

We have our 23 Cornish going now. They are almost 5 weeks old now and about 3-4 pounds. We are planning on taking about a third of them out next week, to give us some smaller birds for the grill rotissery.

I am not excited about it. But I suppose it does help that they are not exactly 'cute' compared to our "normal" chickens. They have their chubby legs with little sausage toes, and bare breasts that feel so WEIRD when you pick them up! But it also helps me to know that I raised them humanely and in a clean environment (well, as clean as they would let me keep it! Man they poo alot! And it STINKS! Oi!) with good food and fresh cool water (we finally had to install an automatic waterer in their pen cuz I got tired of refilling their 2 gallon waterer 3 or more times a day! Now its connected to a hose and refills on its own! Yay!) then eat a store bought bird. I have seen those videos too, and seen things online, and after a taste test with my neighbors 'home grown bird' versus a store bought competitor....I dont think I could ever eat a store bought again! Now we're drooling over ours telling them to hurry up and get a little bigger! We keep saying "Just a little bigger...com'on! I know you can do it! Just a little bit bigger!" lol

Anywho, we are debating doing it ourselves with cones, or paying $2.50 a bird to have the meat plant in town do it for us. Anyone ever use a processing plant with your birds? How can you be sure you are getting YOUR birds back?

 

[Freebie]

No processing plant. I paid the Amish lady 3.50 a bird to do the deed. I dropped them off alive and my husband picked them up that evening, in nice little bags ready to freeze. I am sure I got my own birds back. They were quite delicious. I would just like to save the money and do it myself. I just don't know if I can. But I think if we get the meat birds again, I am definately going to try. And I really don't think the cutting up would bother me, so much as the killing itself.

 

[boilerjoe_96]

Worst part was pulling them out of the water and plucking. Now you have a wet, poop machine.... I guess the 'wet dog' affect. Once 90% of the feathers were gone it wasn't that bad at all...

 

[BirdBrain]

I didn't like the scalding water and plucking either, but we put a couple of drops of dish soap in scalding water and it cleaned the bird pretty well. I also took the garden hose and hosed off their rear really good before dunking them in the scalding water.

 

[Alleyoops25]

I grew up on a farm. And I knew that every animal, (except the dogs and cats) were going to end up on my plate. And we refused to name the live stock, if we did we would have gotten attatched to them. I grew up pretty much on what we grew in the graden and the live stock we raised, as well as the deer, elk and antelope we hunted. I am no old timmer, I am 25 years old now. And today I eat a lot of things that come from the store. I wish I could raise my own food. At least then I knew that what I was healthy, and wasnt packed for of preservatives. I the recent years I have pretty much been non-stop sick and in and out of hospitals. And I am about convenced it is due to the foods I have been eating.

 

[frankenchick]

The cleaning didn’t bother me (except that by #7 the smell was starting to get to me) and really, the plucking was far easier than I thought it would be (we used 170 deg. water and a few drops of Shaklee Basic H).

It was in the evening, when I went to sit with the remainder of the flock before calling them into the coop, that I really lost it. I cried for about 30 minutes! Bianca, Jane Marple, and Dora the Explorer came over a couple times to stand on my boots and try to figure out those weird sounds that Mom was making.

Oddly, I don’t really want to send them to someone else for the killing (we have 11 left; I forgot that Mt. Healthy sent us a spare). They sat very calmly in our arms and we were as gentle and humane as possible. If we indulged in a little gallows humor during the cleaning, it was only so that we could do the job.

I don’t know if we’ll raise “meat” chickens again next summer, but I suspect that we will. I like knowing that the chickens were respected and cared for -- and not filled with drugs and antibiotics. I like knowing that when they got to the end of the lifespan they were bred for that they were killed as humanely as possible.

And I don’t think I’ll ever convince my DH and DS that they should become vegetarian.

 

[greyfields]

Getting the lungs out irritates me to no end. I don't have tiny hands and I find my fingertips eventually get very sore, like running them over a corrugated washing board for hours.

I have to drive nearly 2 hours to the nearest processor, but I do. I want the product to appear appetizing to my buyers. I tend to rip the skin too much. I hate to spend a lot of time and care raising my chickens healthily and happily, then to screw it all up by doing a poor job processing isn't fair to the birds.

 

[JudyMcKinn]

If the skin is ripping, I think you may be getting the scalding water too hot, when you dip them to pluck them.

 

[michellerene]

Seems like it would be a lot less emotionally draining next time if you avoided naming them & interacting with them. That's what I would try to do. There is a "lung remover" tool I've seen on the net...

 

[4H kids and mom]

There is a "lung remover" tool I've seen on the net...

In our house, this tool comes attached to our 7 year old son who is blessed with such tiny hands!

He is eager and ready to go next week when we do some of ours. Nothin grosses that boy out, I swear.... lol​