First time butchering this Friday!

[bakerjw]

I had some White Rock/silver Sebright crosses that were the most aggressive birds that I've ever seen. At 3 months they were already mounting my egg laying hens. They were chicks brooded by one of my girls so I left them in the run until they matured. AND boy did they mature.

So last night after work I decided that their time had come. Now I have no problem shooting a predator that is aggressively going after my chickens. but a defenseless little rooster upside down in a cone is another matter. The second one went much easier than the first. With it I hit the artery right away and it bled out quickly and quietly. The first one was more along the lines of a disaster. I didn't get a good cut and ended up trying to wring its neck. That seemed to do the trick enough for me to get to the artery and allow it to bleed out. I have always had a thing about chopping off their heads due to my dad chopping the head off of a rooster when I was very young. So I opt to slit throats. That said it wasn't much different than cleaning a pheasant. I didn't pluck because it was a spur of the moment decision and I didn't have a pot of hot water available.

Now that I've been through it, the next time will be much easier.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

it's been three hours . . . how many was she doing?

 

[ChickyLaura]

Whew! What a lot of work! We only have one done. DH decided to make breakfast, so we had a long break. Now he had to run to the store to get different plastic bags. There's no way these birds are going to fit into a one gallon storage bag. 4 more to go... This is taking a LOT longer than I expected, but then again that was only my first bird I ever did. Stepdaughter didn't show up, I think she "chickened" out.

I'm thinking we're going to skin the rest. I'm going to check that out before I put more water on. The first bird is pretty darn big!

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

way to go!

 

[ChickyLaura]

OK, stepdaughter is on her way! I have two pots of water on. The first time I don't think the water was hot enough, so plucking was kind of a pain in the rear. So, we're going to try to pluck again. I think we're still planning on skinning some, but we'll see. I'm tired already!

 

[booker81]

Woo hoo! Keep the scald water at 150, and put the birds in and swish around good. When you can pull on one long wing feather, and it tugs out easy, then pull out and pluck! The feathers should just rub right off!

 

[bluere11e]

Wow, Good for you! I haven't processed any of mine yet. I too will be a first timer when the time comes, but I will be able to learn from Carol Sunny_side_up in a month or two when she processes some of hers.. Then I'll have a better idea myself.
I'm cheering you on.. looking forward to hearing all about it and hoping each one gets easier than the next

 

[ChickyLaura]

Wow, that was quite an experience. We decided that our little roo is "excused", at least for the time being. DH and I were getting tired and we were trying to get it done before our younger kids got home from school. So, we got the 4 roosters done that I bought yesterday. The first one took us SO long! The second one not as long, and by the third and fourth, we were "pros" (yeah, right!).

Here is what I learned:

1) You can successfully process chickens when you live in town (that is, if you're allowed to). Chickens eventually calm down when being held upside down by their feet, so noise was not an issue. We did the killing and draining of blood outside, and I heated the water up on our stove, then filled up a 5 gallon bucket outside and did most of the plucking outside. When my back started hurting, I finished up the plucking in our sink.

2) You MUST make sure the water is 150-160! Otherwise, it's a lot harder to pluck their feathers! That's why it took us so long to process the first bird.

3) Chickens have a distinct "smell". Not a bad odor, but definitely a chicken smell!

4) The refrigerator looks awesome stuffed with fresh chicken!!!!! I honestly can't wait until I can cook one, probably Sunday or Monday evening.

5) Surprisingly, slitting the jugular seems to be a humane way to kill chickens. If that's possible. I do like the idea of doing it ourselves, rather than Tyson or Perdue. I'm not a vegetarian, and my favorite meat has always been chicken. Although tonight, I'm eating a fish sandwich. LOL

6) Buff Orpington roosters that are a year old do not fit into a one gallon storage bag. You need a 2 gallon bag.

We were rushing towards the end of our processing time, but then the kids got home and were really into it! They want to help us next time we do it. That's good, because I'm getting 10 Cornish X from Ideal next Tuesday or Wednesday!

Here are a few pictures from our experience today:

Here's a before picture. Excuse the muddy floor, it was pouring at the time. I tried to weigh these guys, but my scale wasn't cooperating.

Here's an after picture. We butchered 4, but my stepdaughter wanted to take one home! That made me happy!

And, here is my daughter. We hurried to get done before she got home, but she really got into gutting the birds! She thought it was really "cool".

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

great family effort!

 

[blackvelvet]

Congrats!!!!!

I can not wait to have my first experience with the process in 7 or 8 more weeks.