Chronicles of Raising Meat Birds - Modern Broilers, Heritage and Hybrids

Wow, lots of you like slicing the jugular... I do not like that way. I feel like it prolongs things. One swift chop with my hatchet and everything is done with. The move less and it is less mess in my opinion. I did the kill cone and slicing, it was not my favorite method.


I feel like a cone is best for *me* because I'm a small person, and I'd rather hold the bird to get a clean cut. A lot of my neighbors do the ax, but i just dont think i can do that myself
 
I do think the heritage birds are a bit of an acquired taste. We've really grown to enjoy the fuller flavor, but it took a couple of years to adjust our expectations of what chicken "should" taste like.

As far as processing goes, we do the stump and axe, following immediately but putting the (now headless) body in a cone to drain out.

The one thing I'm loving about the naked necks is how much easier they are too pluck. Fewer feathers and they seem to come off easier as well.
That is what interested me in them, too. I have 2 young ones now. The Arizona people like how they survive the desert heat, too. You can have the best tasting bird in the world, but if it dies in the summer, you have to make a new plan! I got 2 chicks from @BlueBaby in Maricopa, one was hatched from eggs laid by a hen she hatched from @Compost King -- that chick is twice the size of the others.
 
I can understand that. Lots of people do not have good sharp knives. I sharpen the knives each time I processes, and use more than one, depending on the job. I have an old boning knife I got from a brother-in-law in Kansas who worked in a chicken meat plant, the family still calls it the chicken knife. Never a problem holding an edge for the length of the job.
I have sharp hunting knives. It’s the method itself. My whole family doesn’t like slicing. We have our own sharpening stones, round and rectangular. We are a family of hunters.

I just know that slicing prolongs in my experience. More twitching and what not.

Everyone has their own method they prefer
 
I have sharp hunting knives. It’s the method itself. My whole family doesn’t like slicing. We have our own sharpening stones, round and rectangular. We are a family of hunters.

I just know that slicing prolongs in my experience. More twitching and what not.

Everyone has their own method they prefer
True.
 
I forgot which thread I read it on, maybe this one, but someone wraps their birds in an empty feed sack, then does the jugular or chops the head (I forgot which) and the bag contains the bird well so it doesn't bruise itself flapping. I don't have a cone yet but will have to make something. I don't care for the flapping all over the place.

Which brings me back to the link aart posted. That person lowered the body into a bag lined can where it's dark. Which I'm guessing doesn't really do a whole lot for the nerve flapping and muscle spasms because the bird is gone by that point. :confused:
 
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Which brings me back to the link aart posted. That person lowered the body into a bag lined can where it's dark. Which I'm guessing doesn't really do a whole not for the nerve flapping and muscle spasms because the bird is gone by that point. :confused:
I think that's just to contain the splatter.
No matter how you kill them, the 'death throes' are gonna happen.
 
I forgot which thread I read it on, maybe this one, but someone wraps their birds in an empty feed sack, then does the jugular or chops the head (I forgot which) and the bag contains the bird well so it doesn't bruise itself flapping. I don't have a cone yet but will have to make something. I don't care for the flapping all over the place.

Which brings me back to the link aart posted. That person lowered the body into a bag lined can where it's dark. Which I'm guessing doesn't really do a whole not for the nerve flapping and muscle spasms because the bird is gone by that point. :confused:
I think the bucket does restrain the flapping wings. Keeps blood from spattering all over, I would think.
 
I have always taken a picture of the birds I processed shortly before “stuff goes down.”

I wash an outside table down with dilute bleach solution before doing this and I have a garden house nearby, ready to be turned on.

That’s certainly not necessary, but it’s helpful for me.

I catch the bird off the roost the night before and put it in a wire cage with water but no feed.

I just sit in a lawn chair. There is a bucket in front of me. There is a large pot on a slow boil in the kitchen for scalding and rubbing the feathers off.

I have the bird’s legs between my feet. I massage under the wing for maybe 10-20 seconds. Calms the chicken down. Unless the bird was an attack rooster, I say I’m sorry but (situation i.e. egg-eating hen).

Then I put the bird mostly upside-down between my legs. I take the knife and cut the neck, usually on both sides. Both sides seems to make ithe bleedout quicker.

After the cuts, I immediately drain the blood into the bucket.

The times when I lacked confidence with the knife were the worst and slowest with the most flapping. Cut hard and confidently with the knife for a fast bleedout. Or use the hatchet and stump....

Once the bird is dead, swish it in the scald pot which is not too hot and not too cold. Try pulling the big wing feathers and the big tail feathers. The temperature is correct if you can pull those out. Then you can pretty much rub the rest of the feathers off.

Set up two or three bowls on a clean table. One bowl is for the giblets while gutting (heart, liver, gizzard). Another bowl is for the feet for soup. Optional - a bowl for the back.

Then you will cut the crop, cut the neck, cut the tail, and remove the intestines and giblets. It’s really helpful to have a hose running while you are gutting the carcass. Be careful with the liver because the NASTY gallbladder is attached to it. Remove the gallbladder from the liver carefully.

The lungs are probably the last thing to remove before washing the whole carcass or cutting it into parts. To remove the lungs, just scrape with a fingernail against the ribs in the otherwise-gutted carcass. They are spongy. Once you do this on a bird, you will know what the texture is like so you know what they are like to remove on others. Fingernail doesn’t have to be long, just enough to “scratch an itch” and not extremely short.

After the bird is in the fridge with your choice of buttermilk, milk, wine, or brine, get the bowl with the giblets and slice open the gizzard. Discard the gizzard contents (unless there are gold nuggets inside) and remove the lining of the gizzard. Then put the cleaned gizzard with the giblets.

It’s been a couple years since I did any, but will probably need to do a couple this month because of flock growing pains.
 
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