Butchering your roosters!

[Parront]

Where did you live in Cali? I grew up in the South Bay (Torrance/Redondo Beach). Moved to Prescott & then Chino Valley for a couple of years and then back to Cali (Redondo, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Riverside). Yeah -- it got real hot in Riverside too.

Orange Co. and Riverside/Palm Springs desert area. Way too hot to hang any meat, ever! The girls from the "OC" would be horrified, any way!

 

[Crooked Chicken]

Orange Co. and Riverside/Palm Springs desert area. Way too hot to hang any meat, ever! The girls from the "OC" would be horrified, any way!

Well.... we've been in the same places. Do I know you? lol

 

[Parront]

Well.... we've been in the same places. Do I know you? lol

I know some Yucca Valley keepers of chickens, who taught me to use swamp cooler mats for nest material. So. Cal is a lot of territory! Not as small as Prescott.

 

[rodeorulz]

Well we did go ahead and butcher 3 roosters a week ago (1 or 2 more to go soon!). Didn't end up using the feed bag afterall (hubby just calmed each rooster before butchering then laid his head out across the chopping block and held him upside down for a while until the blood stopped draining). I ended up piecing them out since my husband skinned them and we decided we may not have had big enough bags! Haha! 2 of them went straight to the freezer after piecing out, the other 1 sat in the fridge resting for 2 days. We'll see if we notice a difference or not! Thanks again everyone Your experience and help was and is greatly appreciated! I'll try to remember to come back here and share if they tasted different or not!

 

[BYCforlife]

Well we did go ahead and butcher 3 roosters a week ago (1 or 2 more to go soon!). Didn't end up using the feed bag afterall (hubby just calmed each rooster before butchering then laid his head out across the chopping block and held him upside down for a while until the blood stopped draining). I ended up piecing them out since my husband skinned them and we decided we may not have had big enough bags! Haha! 2 of them went straight to the freezer after piecing out, the other 1 sat in the fridge resting for 2 days. We'll see if we notice a difference or not! Thanks again everyone Your experience and help was and is greatly appreciated! I'll try to remember to come back here and share if they tasted different or not!

Thanks for sharing! I'm sure we're all looking forward to seeing how they both taste. Have fun!

 

[Windy_Acres]

I liked the idea of sticking the chicken in a cone or bag and using PVC pipe cutters to remove the head. Can't miss and hard to do 'wrong'.

Can you describe these cutters for me? I went and looked for some, but the only thing I've found so far was about the size of a pair of pliers, I'm not sure it would do the job (and I'm hoping that there are some with a longer handle, slightly more distance...). I, too am struggling with the emotions of this- I did my first 5 Roos last summer by myself, with a knife, but couldn't do this years batch (made the mistake of naming them, plus the 5 austrolorpes all looked the same, but the mutts had so much personality...). I had to take this years to the butcher, which meant shoving them in an impossibly small box, which just strikes me as so mean. So, now I have my 5 oldest hens that lay next to nothing and really should go... And I find myself intrigued by the idea of a pvc pipe cutter, thinking this might be the solution, if I can find the right one!

 

[Parront]

Can you describe these cutters for me? I went and looked for some, but the only thing I've found so far was about the size of a pair of pliers, I'm not sure it would do the job (and I'm hoping that there are some with a longer handle, slightly more distance...). I, too am struggling with the emotions of this- I did my first 5 Roos last summer by myself, with a knife, but couldn't do this years batch (made the mistake of naming them, plus the 5 austrolorpes all looked the same, but the mutts had so much personality...). I had to take this years to the butcher, which meant shoving them in an impossibly small box, which just strikes me as so mean. So, now I have my 5 oldest hens that lay next to nothing and really should go... And I find myself intrigued by the idea of a pvc pipe cutter, thinking this might be the solution, if I can find the right one!

You could use long handled loppers if you wanted more leverage. The kind in the garden store for pruning tree limbs. Get some new, sharp ones!

 

[BantyChooks]

Can you describe these cutters for me? I went and looked for some, but the only thing I've found so far was about the size of a pair of pliers, I'm not sure it would do the job (and I'm hoping that there are some with a longer handle, slightly more distance...). I, too am struggling with the emotions of this- I did my first 5 Roos last summer by myself, with a knife, but couldn't do this years batch (made the mistake of naming them, plus the 5 austrolorpes all looked the same, but the mutts had so much personality...). I had to take this years to the butcher, which meant shoving them in an impossibly small box, which just strikes me as so mean. So, now I have my 5 oldest hens that lay next to nothing and really should go... And I find myself intrigued by the idea of a pvc pipe cutter, thinking this might be the solution, if I can find the right one!

If you're in the US these are best.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-Flexible-Tube-Cutter-99518/206743941

 

[BantyChooks]

You could use long handled loppers if you wanted more leverage. The kind in the garden store for pruning tree limbs. Get some new, sharp ones!

Agree.

 

[Molpet]

I use a game shear .. which looks like a long handle anvil lopper for trees.. not sure if a bypass lopper would work...
I put the anvil part on the front of the neck and the curved sharp part on the back of the neck.. usually the windpipe and esophagus don't get cut, but the spine does..