dead chickens walking **UPDATE (graphic)**

[KatieH]

It's okay, go easy on yourself! It's something totally new and you did the best you could.

 

[bibliophile birds]

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i name mine too, just not the ones that will be eaten. as soon as i could tell they were cockerels and not the ones i wanted to keep for breeding, they didn't get names. it made it a lot easier. and occasionally i would call them things like dumplings or tenders or roast. it helped remind me that they had a purpose and i couldn't get attached.

 

[autumn_mi]

they didn't get names. it made it a lot easier. and occasionally i would call them things like dumplings or tenders or roast. it helped remind me that they had a purpose and i couldn't get attached.

I like that idea - i know we will need to call them something...not that our hens have that original of names Bas, Lacey and Isa (Silver Laced Wyandotte, Australorp, and an ISA Brown)

we didn't know if we would eat our hens when the time came and were not expecting to have to make that decision so soon (they are 9 months old) - but after a weekend of trying to help an egg bound hen we knew we needed to kill her and it seemed almost disrespectful to throw her away and not use the meat

surprisingly although i'm still teary eyed over it - the chicken noodle soup cooking on the stove right now really does smell good

 

[petrelline]

they didn't get names. it made it a lot easier. and occasionally i would call them things like dumplings or tenders or roast. it helped remind me that they had a purpose and i couldn't get attached.

I can't name any of my chickens, not even food names. I get too attached. For me I need to keep that distance so that when the time comes I can put them in the pot.

This does make it somewhat comical trying to identify them in a crowd, though, since they sometimes have names-that-aren't-names ("the really mean brown one," "the escape artist," "the loudmouth," etc).

Congratulations, bibliofile, on your first bird. It can be really hard, and don't feel bad if you didn't get it right this time. You learn something every single time, and it gets easier each time, too. It's never EASY, and it shouldn't be, but it does get easier.

 

[dancingbear]

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You might want to do a little more research. If you hang an un-gutted bird for a couple of hours before you finish cleaning it, you could be risking getting sick. Just about all sources agree that the bird should be gutted and chilled as soon as you can. Also, the blood will be completely clotted by that time, and if the body didn't all drain into the neck, it won't after the head is removed. Most of the neck will be encased in a huge blood clot, too. Some fluid will drain, the serous portion of the blood, but the red cells and fibrin and so on will be solidly clotted.

That head-pulling-neck-breaking isn't always as easy as it sounds, either. I've tried it and just had a P.O'd bird with a sore neck, fighting and pecking at me.

If you have hens hatching eggs, you'll at some time have too many roos. Once they start ganging up and gang-raping the hens, and your hens are all nervous wrecks, bare backed and bare headed, and quit laying because of the stress, and won't get off the roosts in the daytime because the roos can't jump them while they're on the perches, you might find it easier to think about eating the excess roos. They're hard to re-home, there's no shortage of them. You may have to choose between eating them, and killing them and wasting the meat.

For me, if I gotta kill it, I'm gonna eat it. (within reason, I don't apply this to vermin such as mice, but I do to raccoons....)

Anyway, whatever you decide you need to do, I wish you the best of luck. Just don't give yourself food poisoning.

 

[bibliophile birds]

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yep. i had been planning to process these all along, but this was the EXACT scenario that let me know the time was at hand. my poor little pullets were hardly leaving the coop because the boys were running mad in the yard. the worst was seeing one roo "aggressively romancing" one of the girls only to have the next roo bump him off so he could have a go. poor little ladies necks were going bald from all the "love bites."

there are still 2 too many roos in my flock, but the numbers are much better stacked with 12 girls and 6 boys (as opposed to the previous 10 boys). today all the ladies were outside and only dashed back in the coop periodically to avoid unwanted romance. made my decision feel even better.

 

[mmtillman]

I read about how we chicken owners dread that first day of butchering and how hard it is to actually do the deed.

..Especially the first-timers.

Well..I can relate. I, too, felt that trepidation...but after enjoying the best meat I ever ate in my life and knowing I raised them and knowing they had a good wholesome life and a painless end...I no longer have that dread I felt the first time.
Just wanna encourage all of you first timers that after you set that platter of golden brown chicken on your table...you will be ready to butcher again as soon as you run out of ''frest meat''

Enjoy and good luck!

 

[sires6]

You all are talking about butchering videos. Where did you all see these? did you just youtube/google? Anyway, getting our first batch of "meat" birds. We were struggling with rabbits, but the cuteness factor just made it so that we couldn't eat them. Have you looked at a mini rex and said "I'm going to eat you?" Doesn't work. But culls from litters might be eaten...

It's hard when the entire US and western world has moved away from the farm and we get so personal with our animals and so distant from where our food comes from.

Your discussion of the problems you are having killing sounds very Biblical, if you ask me. The Isrealites had to sacrifice their prize bull calf to the church. Description of it, but I forget where. It sounds just like what you must have gone through.

 

[dancingbear]

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Here's some, when you go to YouTube on any of these links, there will be a list of related and similar videos on the right-hand side of the screen. You can also go to YouTube, and search "Polyface Farm" and get a bunch of the ones from Joel Salatin's place, those are always a good place to start.

Slaughter (w/Grady)

Processing overview

Evisceration

Quote:
I would have the same problem with bunnies, if I could raise them at all, which I'm not sure of because I'm allergic to them. But, a New Zealand White meat rabbit isn't nearly as adorable as a mini-rex, those little things are just cute beyond words. Chickens are a little easier to distance yourself from, not being mammals, they don't have such a high "cuddle factor".

 

[bibliophile birds]

this is another video i found helpful. he does things a little differently, but he isn't set up for massive processing like Polyface, so his process might be closer to what you'd do at home. and he works slower so you can see what he's doing easier. it's good to watch both, this one and the Polyface, for comparison.