First cull - hold me! No, really, critique my plan.

[Edwards' East of Eden]

Ok. That was a long day.

Once we finally got started, Dr-Wanna-Be Teen did fairly well. He was somber and respectful. He watched me dispatch the first two, then manned up and tried to do one himself - but he was afraid of hurting him, and didn't cut deeply enough, and I snatched the chook from him and finished it. Sometimes getting it done quickly is more important than him having the experience of doing it himself. He watched evisceration and said he was okay, but balked at doing one himself. He will be disecting a worm and a frog in the next few months at school, though, so next time we do chooks he'll be worked up to them, maybe.

Now, as for me. I managed to hold it together through the first three, cried a bit on the fourth, and sobbed for a long time with the fifth.

For each of the lil' guys, I held them in my lap and talked to them a bit, then settled them down in between my knees and worked their head downward. Calmed them there for a few minutes, then made sure I had their back pinned with my left elbow/forearm while I stretched over and held their head in my left hand, tapped a bit behind the beak until I felt them relax, then cut and bent the neck back a bit to open the cut further. For the first one, I dislocated first then cut, and then for the second I reversed the order. Cutting the head off on the ground was distressing for me, so I tried to just cut the head over the blood can and drop it in after that. For the second and third ones, I broke the neck after they stopped moving, then cut the head off. For the fourth one, after he stopped moving I got my husband to get the Fiskars long-handled limb loppers, and we broke the neck with that then I cut the head off. For the fifth one, I thought he was done moving and I broke and cut his head off - and then he moved a lot more, and that's when I really broke down. Note to self: do not rush it. Wait and wait and be absolutely certain that all movement has ceased before removing the head. I just cannot handle that.

Attention: Why did no one warn me I was going to get pooped on by a dying chicken? Why?

After each one was dispatched and beheaded, I placed him in a kiddie pool and rinsed him off, then moved to the crawfish pot where the water was about 140-145*F with a little Dawn in it. Dunk dunk dunk, hold, ten-missississippi, eleven-mississippi, ... 47hippopotamus ... checked a wing feather, it plucked, I moved him to the slip knots. Plucking was not nearly as bad as I had feared, but I was also probably not a fastidious about it as I should have been. For the first couple, I rinsed them again after plucking, but then I was having a hard time singe-ing off the hairy bits. So, for the other three I torched first and then rinsed, and that worked a lot better. The kiddie pool got dumped after each rinse, by the way.

Okay, time to steal myself and eviscerate. Cut off feet. Open up neck area, release trachea and esophagus and crop from fascia, try to reach down into chest and loosen it all up. Remove the oil gland. Cut breast side of vent, through skin, fascia layer, fat layer, then another fascia layer, and voila, I see intestines. Okay. Scoop my hand in there and start trying to loosen it up, but man this is pretty well put together, isn't it? Had my eyes closed, trying to picture what I was feeling in there, but was mostly guessing. Finally got it loose enough to pull out, and ... huh. Trachea stayed in. Okay, well, I can snatch it out, but obviously that's because I can't figure out how to get out the lungs. Peek up in there, and the heart's still in there too, and ... hey! Beige jelly beans! I know what those are - I saw some guy get a vasectomy on the Heath Channel one time!

Got the heart and the beans out, but ... lungs. Man o man.

Attention: Was I a layer of fascia too far in? I had intestines in loose loops, not in a package. Five chickens, and I only got ONE lung out while I was outside eviscerating.

After (kind of) eviscerating each roo, I rinsed him out and put him in ice water, then cut the next guy.

When I finished the last evisceration, we cleaned up outside and came on in, with a zippy bag of guts to go in the freezer until I get my soldier fly compost going, a bowl of feet to go in a hot pot on the stove, and five chicken carcasses in ice water. I got a crawfish tray and sat down at the kitchen table to start cutting them up.

Now, I know there's still lungs in here and they need to come out. So I skinned the first carcass and cut the breast from the back and started looking in there at how what was left was put together.

Attention: There was more stuff in there! What was that - kidneys? Not liver, but close to the same color, on either side of the spine, way back end, buried, very fragile, the only way I could figure out to get them was to just bludgeon them with my fingertips and then spray them out? This was some big secret that no one warned me about?

Finally figured out to scrape the inside of the ribs high, under the breast part, to get through the fascia attached to the inside of the lungs, and then to peel them away from the ribs. Finally figured that out, that is, after cutting open the THIRD bird. Still couldn't really do it through the vent end opening for the fourth bird, and had to cut him open too. Then managed to do it without cutting open the fifth bird ... until my husband cut him open anyway, for the cutup prior to freezing. I was just trying to learn how to get the lungs out and leave a whole bird, though.

The dogs got the hearts, the livers, half the wings, and a few pieces of back. The gizzards went in the bag with what's going in with dumplings tomorrow. Half of the meat we got is in the freezer for the next batch of dumplings. Guts and skin are in the freezer for the compost. Feet are scalded and scaled and in a bag with necks and the rest of the backs for stock tomorrow - I didn't have all the ingredients (bad Melly) to start it tonight, so I'll just have to open the coop for the chickens in the morning and go directly to the grocery and get the stock going quickly then. I was just too beat to go this evening. The dogs get the other half of the wings tomorrow.

I checked the calendar, and our guys were 14 weeks old, thereabouts. Little bitty guys under all those feathers, and scrawny - but under the 16week limit! I wish I'd known that number beforehand - I'd have been using it to justify my culling all week. ::le sigh::

Any guesses why, across four birds of the same age and same breed, I had one set of teeny tiny jelly babies and three sets of full sized beans? One set the size of my pinkie nail each, and the other three sets the size of my thumbnail each. Really a remarkable difference.

Okay, enough jabber from me. I'm zoinked. Thank you all again, so much!

 

[Edwards' East of Eden]

That recipe really sounds wonderful, and I'm going to have to try it. Thank you so much!

 

[saladin]

I always feed the hearts and livers to the chickens.... don't waste them on the dog! lol.

 

[dainerra]

wow, if I did chickens that way, I'd be in tears too. For me, they have had a good life -well cared for, well-fed - they will have a quick and humane death.
They don't get loved and fawned over though. Just pick them up, take them to the spot and do the deed.

I do the hatchet method, though. Quick and fast - one bird flopping and draining while you are on to the next. After the first one stops flopping, hang to drain. I've never done for than 5 or 6 at a time though.

About the poop. Never thought to warn about that. I just assumed that everyone knew that "releasing the bowels" was a common occurrence in death.

For the intestines, maybe one layer in too far. Or could have been because you had your eyes closed? *grin*

Yes, birds that young are going to be REALLY thin. That's why I've never culled that young unless I put them on a high protein, high fat diet to chunk them up first. To me, a scrawny bird isn't worth the effort.

 

[Edwards' East of Eden]

Really? I'm kind of afraid to feed raw chicken back to chickens - wouldn't that set up the same kind of viral/protozoan/parasite feedback loop that you're supposed to avoid in feeding in other ways?

Spoiled rotten dogs, anyway. My littlest yorkie spit the liver back out and sniffed it on the floor, until my one of the two larger ones pushed her out of the way and snorted it up like a coke junkie after a three day lag.

The oldest dachschund spent so much time working on his piece that he only got the one - the other doxie and the two bigger yorkies took every scrap of the rest of it, then sat and watched me package up pieces for the freezer, with that look that said, "Hey. We know you' got shikken. We sees it. Don' know if'n you notice, but we's outta shikken down heeya. Pwease to pass downna shikken?"

 

[Edwards' East of Eden]

I absolutely respect your choice to dispatch in your way, and completely don't want to start another of the "best way" arguments here. I, too, was operating under the "good life, one bad day" theory. For me, a good life is that they get well-fed and cared for, but part of that caring for is the love and affection and names and being treated as pets, regardless of the increased discomfort for me in the end. I just baby everything. I know that this takes a chicken out of it's natural order in the world, but I figure so does having it in a covered run and providing it supervised free range while chasing away hawks and keeping a fence around it and providing it feed. In for a penny, in for a pound.

And, honestly, the absolute worse one for me was the one where he was still moving without a head. There's no way, after this experience, that I could quickly behead. Absolutely no way. On this green earth. No way. I saw both yesterday, and the bleeding until still then beheading seemed, to the best of my observance, the most peaceful passing. That's all I'll ever do again.

Went an opened the popdoor earlier, and it's so empty in the run, with nearly a third of the birds gone. Oh, well. We'll have dinner tonight, and I have eight eggs in the incubator, two leghorn/wyandotte crosses and six buff orpingtons. Those should roos should be meaty birdies, eh? Hopefully

they won't all be boys.

I knew that pooping happened when muscles released. I knew this. I've watched CSI. I just ... well, if chickens can't hold it, then what the hell muscles are releasing? I guess, in retrospect, I should have known better, but ... Ugh. I cleaned four birds with water-poop-and-a-streak-of-white on my shorts.

 

[dainerra]

not arguing with that.

Just know myself and if I "loved on them" right before the deed, I'd be a blubbering mess. Kind of like the mentality "don't name your dinner"

I grew up the "weird" girl who cried after we did the butchering. I learned to do it fast and get it over with. Just a different way of dealing with the stress.

Sorry that the post didn't come off the way I actually meant it. I was thinking "OMG I'd be a mess and I'd never get the job done" lol

 

[halo]

Laniered, you did just awesome. The method doesnt matter, as long as it was right for you and right for your birds. You and your family should be very proud of yourself. I put some roosters in the freezer this morning for the puppies. Ive been putting it off and putting it off, but I need to set up breeder pens, and just have too many roosters. Plus the fact I was very heavy on hatching roos this spring, and they are just eating too much.

I have found the best way to dispatch for me is to hang them on the fence by their feet. They really seem to relax when hanging upside down. I used to try to use a knife to slice their neck, but I never got it right, either the knife wasnt sharp enough, or the skin and feathers were too tough. In any event, it never worked out quickly and cleanly. I now take a pair of sharp kitchen shears and just make a big snip under their throat. Sometimes, if the bird is small, the whole head comes off, otherwise, they just bleed out with head attached.

I only skin my birds, just too much effort for me to pluck. I also dont put birds away whole, just quarters, breasts for me, and hearts/livers/gizzards for puppies. I am also finding that it is much tougher skinning roosters from my regular breeds, than the Cornish X. The Cornish are so easy to do. I dont know if it has to do with being white, instead of black like my marans, but they are much quicker to do for me.

Really good post, thanks for taking the time to do that.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Wow, I've learned so much from reading this thread. Mostly I think I've learned that I'll take mine to someone to have it done.

Mainly because it sounds like a lot of set up for the task. If you had a bunch of them and help to get 'er done in one morning then
it might be okay, but for one or two it seems to be a lot.

I thought that bleeding an animal out is a slower way for them to die. How quick do they die bleeding them out as opposed to the instant "off with your head!" method?

I admire anyone that can do this. What a task both emotionally and physically!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
I think age is the biggest difference in how hard they are to skin. How old are the Cornish X when you skin them? The dual purpose?

I find that my Dual Purpose roosters start getting harder to skin around 21 to 22 weeks old. There seems to be more connective tissue. I tried skinning one 27 week old and will never try that again. Those older roosters will be plucked from now on. Pullets and hens are different from the roosters though. I have not had a lot of trouble skinning older hens.

I find that Coq au Vin recipe misleading. Coq au Vin translates as cock and wine. It is a traditional way to cook an old rooster. That recipe specifically calls for a young fryer and only 30 minutes of cooking. Totally inappropriate for an older bird. Even with 14 or 15 week old roosters, I'd expect it to not turn out very well.