First time butchering

[Keggen]

I have an aggressive rooster that needs to go. I knew this would be a possibility when I decided to raise chickens but I am still having a hard time envisioning me doing this. I am pretty sure anyone I re-home him to would just be butchering him because of his aggression so I feel like I might as well do it and have the bonus of a chicken dinner.

I am nervous though. I have only killed mice before and that was by drowning... nothing physical on my part. I still felt bad about the mice. lol!

Do you have any tips for someone new to this? What is the fastest but most humane way to kill the rooster? He is a Blue Splash Marans and he is really big so there is no way I could hold him down and hope to aim an axe at him properly. I have heard some sad stories about the person doing it making a mistake and not killing the bird right away and I want to avoid that.

We do not have a plucker and a quick search of Craigslist didn't show anything I want to buy, so would I be better off skinning him or working to pluck him? He is about 5 months old right now.

Thanks for any help!

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Well, you can tie his legs together firmly and tie it to a branch agaisnt a tree or piece of wood and then hitting him with a hammer.

Or you could stand over him, using your body to detain him, and grab his head,then taking a SHARP SHARP SHARP SHARP SHARP (NOT a 'old kitchen knife' or even one of those new kitchen knifes. Use a small game gutting animal knife, its the most humane IMO) knife and make a deep cut across the back of his head and hold him until he bleeds out (he is uncocious very quickly, and can't feel blood afterwards)

 

[wyoDreamer]

At the top of the Meat Birds ETC forum, there is a "Stickies" button that will take you to some very good threads on how to butcher a chicken.

From the threads on here, I would have to guess that the most used method would be to hang them head down (killing cone or by their feet), cut the throat and let them bleed out. They will pass out from blood loss very quickly.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

The video below is the method I use. I have watched a lot of videos and like this one the best by far. I like her whole philosophy about it. The video goes all the way from live chicken, through processing and butchering.

WARNING: chicken is kill in this video

http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/how-to-kill-a-chicken-video.html?campaign=th_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29

 

[Keggen]

Thanks for the help! My husband helped and it was over very quick and went alright.

 

[kizanne]

congratz. It is very hard to do your first chicken. You raised it and you should benefit from it. It is very hard to find a home for a rooster who isn't going to do the same thing.

Most likely if you remember to rest him you'll find you enjoy the flavor of home grown chicken.