First Time Culling and Processing

[horscraz]

Unfortunately, the majority of our pullets this spring turn out to be cockerels. Ugg. I never culled or processed before. Tips and tricks would be appreciated especially the visceral part.

 

[LizzzyJo]

How many do you have? What are your plans already? If you have only a few then opinions will change. I am now 100% on the skinning in lieu of plucking train. So much faster and easier. I also prefer to sit and hold the bird on my lap/ in between my legs with an apron to cut the throat. This allows you to hold them tight and prevent flapping and noise, etc. Have a bucket right underneath you if you do it that way. I find it to be much calmer and easier on the bird. What part of the visceral part exactly?

 

[RoosterML]

I’ll be doing the same thing this weekend or next. YouTube videos are your friend. I have a plucker so that part is easy. I use the axe and stump method. Actually a meat cleaver to be exact. Good luck and watch plenty of videos.

 

[LaFleche]

How many do you have? What are your plans already? If you have only a few then opinions will change. I am now 100% on the skinning in lieu of plucking train. So much faster and easier. I also prefer to sit and hold the bird on my lap/ in between my legs with an apron to cut the throat. This allows you to hold them tight and prevent flapping and noise, etc. Have a bucket right underneath you if you do it that way. I find it to be much calmer and easier on the bird. What part of the visceral part exactly?

The flapping is quite useful to help draining the blood.

 

[aart]

Unfortunately, the majority of our pullets this spring turn out to be cockerels. Ugg. I never culled or processed before. Tips and tricks would be appreciated especially the visceral part.

This blog helped me the most, out of dozens, about where to slit the neck and get the vent out without piercing intestines:
http://ramblingredneckmom.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-process-chickens-at-home.html

 

[Ridgerunner]

Part of the problem is that there are so many different ways you can go about this. Do you want the entire carcass whole after cleaning or will you cut them into serving pieces? Do you plant to eat or use any of the visceral parts? My dogs get the livers, I use the heart, gizzard, and much of the carcass for broth, and I feed a lot of the internals back to the flock. I pretty much cut the bird into many parts when I butcher. The other extreme is that some people just carve the legs and breasts off the carcass and discard the rest. They never clean the cavity. Most people are somewhere in between. Their age and how you cook them might factor in to this.

If you want the carcass whole the traditional way to remove the internals is to carefully cut around the vent and pull things out from there. I take the guts out that way but it's easier on my short, stubby, arthritic hands to cut the cavity open along a side to take out the rest if the internals. Others cut along the backbone to open them up, that suits the way they cook them better.

There ae a lot of tricks and tips on how to go about any of these and a wealth of knowledge on this forum. I think the first question is do you want the carcass whole or do you want it parted out? If you want it parted, what parts. If you are not sure, don't be afraid to ask questions. That's one of the benefits of all the knowledge on this forum, we can go back and forth to help you decide.

 

[Straw Hat]

My dogs get the livers, I use the heart, gizzard, and much of the carcass for broth, and I feed a lot of the internals back to the flock.

Which internals do you feed back to the flock?

 

[Compost King]

I can't describe it very well but I will try to explain how do not have to cut around the vent anymore. My first cut is right at the tip of the bottom or back end of the breast meat. all the intestines and guts are far away from that point due to gravity. Once I make that first incision and can get a finger in there I uses my finger as a buffer between the knife and the guts with my blade always pointing outward until I have a big enough of hole to pull the insides out. I pull everything out and let it hang over the the edge of the table and over a collecting bucket/bag or what ever you want to use. It all hangs by the Intestine connected to the vent. Then I cut off the tail and vent at once and it all falls into the garbage bag or bucket or what ever you collect it in. One day I will need to take of picture of me doing that because I doubt I was able to describe it well. I tried making a video of it but I can't manage a video camera and process a bird at the same time and the tripod method didn't work because hands/arms/shoulder were always in the way.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Which internals do you feed back to the flock?

Bits of fat. Loose bits of of protein. I cut the guts and crop into bite-sized (2") pieces, empty the crop and gizzard into that bucket. Testicles of the cockerels and roosters, ovaries in the pullets and hens. The lungs. Basically anything that I won't use, the dogs don't get, or that they won't eat like feathers and skin. They might eat the head but I don't feed that to them. I also do not feed them the gall bladder, they'd probably eat it but the gall bladder just doesn't feel right. I skin mine, I don't pluck.

To help put this in perspective, when I catch or kill certain varmints I might cut them open and toss the carcass in the run so they can eat those internals too. I remove what's left before dark so I don't attract predators. They really enjoy loading up on all that protein. Chickens are probably the closest living relatives to velociraptors.

 

[Compost King]

To help put this in perspective, when I catch or kill certain varmints I might cut them open and toss the carcass in the run so they can eat those internals too.

I do that, and if I see a squirrel get run over (actually see it happen) I grab it while its fresh and cut it up to feed chickens. If I do not see it happen then its not fresh enough.

....(yes my neighbors believe I am weird since I live in an Semi Urban area.)