first time killing

[Crickett]

Sunny_Side_Up, could you please let me know about how you did it? It's my first time and DH won't help me, and my processing friend won't be able to make it. I'm all alone! There are six roosters I want to do. Thanks for the help in advance! oh, and you can pm me if you want.

 

[patandchickens]

Crickett, you can definitely do it singlehanded if you need to. In addition to individual chickens here and there, I've done 10 meaties at a time, a coupla times, all by my lonesome, without much trouble. (And it turns out that 10 at a time is really about all I'd care to have to do in one sitting without help)

I have tried it several ways, including doing the whole process with each one before starting the next, and overall what's worked best for me is to kill 3 at a time, scald and pluck the first while the others are finishing hanging and then pluck the other 2 as well, then eviscerate and finish those 3 and put them in the cooler, before going and getting 3 more. Your talents and setup may lend themselves better to another way of doing it, of course.

The big thing is to have read through the procedure well enough that you are fairly comfortable with it -- nothing wrong with having a 'cheat sheet' out there with you

-- and make sure to assemble ALL your tools and supplies before you start.

You can for SURE do it all yourself, though

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Crickett, if you lived closer I'd be glad to come over & walk you through the process of processing. Maybe there's another BYCer in your area that is able & willing.

Here's what I do for processing:

The night before I select the birds I plan to process and confine them to wire cages. They have ample water but NO food, not even grass they can reach through the wire. I usually put a few more than I plan to butcher, just in case I get unexpected help, or a burst of unusual energy.

I assemble my tools & materials. Some are already in place, others are listed on a page taped inside a kitchen cupboard so I won't forget anything. They are:
sharp knives & sharpener
cutting board
disposable gloves
cooler of ice water
zip ties & duct tape
big lined garbage can
hose with trigger nozzle
if I'm plucking, big pots to boil water in, and a bigger one for dunking

I already have a tall work table in the yard, of plywood on sawhorses that I cover with a tarp. I also have a porch swing frame from which I hang the birds for slicing & plucking. I recently bolted a board across its length & attatched 3 different cones I made from different materials.

The next day I take the birds one at a time to butcher. That way if the weather turns bad or something unexpected happens I don't have a bunch of dead birds needing attention. Sometimes I'll have one bird hanging to bleed while I'm cleaning another. I take a bird out of the cage, zip-tie the legs & wrap duct tape around the wings -OR- place it in the cone. Things are pretty calm & quiet, the birds aren't really frightened or stressed, I talk soothingly to them the whole while.

Once the bird is head-down in the frame, I place the garbage can below it, hold his head in one hand, stretch the neck taut, and cut through the jugular vein right below the jawbone. I use a fishing filet knife that's nice & sharp. That neck skin can be surprisingly tough, & you'll feel bad if you have to saw away to cut through it. Not to mention how the bird might feel. You'll know you did it right when you get a nice stream of blood to flow out. At that point, the bird passes out and his problems are over. I cut through both sides of the neck, then hold the head a few moments while the bird wiggles reflexively. You don't have to do this, I just don't like the blood to splatter all around. I hold it in place until the bird gets still, so everything collects in the can.

It only takes a few minutes for the bird to bleed out. If I'm going to pluck, I'll cut off the head, dunk the bird in scalding water (around 140 degrees for about 10 seconds or so) swishing it up & down & around so the water reaches the skin. Test a wing feather to see if it comes out easily, if not, dunk a bit more. Then I hang the bird by its zip-tied feet and pluck into the garbage can.

Lately I've been skinning the birds, using the excellent method depicted in the YouTube video titled "Chicken Processing on Custer Family Farm". It's the most informative video I've seen on the topic. They show an easy way to skin the birds, and also how to clean them out. Even if you've plucked, you can still learn a great way to clean your birds from that video. They show how to lay the bird on his back, make a cut at the top of the cavity, and scoop the innards out towards the bottom.

Then I place the finished bird in the cooler of ice water, and do another. To me, the hardest part of butchering the chickens all by myself is the lack of company. I probably could have done more myself if I even just had someone there to talk to. And if that someone was also willing to do some of the work, we could have finished even more birds.

You may want to try doing just 2 or 3 birds your first session. I wish you the best of success!

 

[Crickett]

Thanks! They got a repreive tonight, because they got out and ate, the little rascals! So I'm going to try again on monday.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Mine pray for thunderstorms to postpone their processing...

 

[big greg barker]

I had to process 3 roosters this weekend. Someone in the city has been Bi@#$ing about chickens in the city, and now the council has said no chickens. I live at the end of a dead end street on a 2 acre lot surrounded by woods and river, but I don't need the roosters yelling and attracting attention. It isn't the most pleasant job in the chicken biz, but it must be doneif you're going to eat them. Congratulations on your accomplishment............

 

[Crickett]

Well, I have 4 separated to process come monday. I was going to do the six, but then I figured that four would probably be all I could comfortably handle by myself.

 

[mxpres]

cricket,,start the processing with all the confidence in the world,you will be surprised at how well it will go,Its the same for everyone doing it for the first time,including myself,I have been a hunter all my life and have processed many animals for food,but when it came to processing something that I had raised from a baby chick,it was a different matter,I wanted everything to turn out right and not make a mess of everything,every animal deserves a certian degree of respect,we all have out doubts about the first time,you can do this and you will feel proud that you can and did process your own food,,

 

[Raq.E]

This is by far the best video I have found on Chicken Slaughter.
I am really happy I came looking for advice I am planning to kill my first bird this weekend but I didnt know about letting it rest for a few days. Also now I have ammo to insist to my hubs that beerbutt chicken is not an option for a 1yr old bird. (Also I think its a weird thing to do to your own chicken but at least it would have been Homebrewed beer)

 

[Betsy57]

A good neighbor allowed me to come over and watch him butcher his chickens today. I wanted to learn but didn't want to kill my gals

I watched him do one and then I did one all by myself. That's the first time I've ever seen an animal get butchered and the first time I killed one to butcher. I'm quite proud of myself! I didn't get sick or pass out! We put the chicken in a cone and once the bird was upside down, it was like she went asleep. It was very smooth and easy, very humane to cut the veins on each side of her neck. There was very little movement from her so she wasn't traumatized and neither was I. So hopefully I can get my own meat chickens next year and kill my own. I don't have any supplies to do it on my own but will cross the bridge when I need to. But I have the bird downstairs in the refrigerator brining for now and will pressure cook her probably tomorrow. Will see how she tastes and how tender she is. I can't wait to taste her to see how different she tastes from the store bought ones. We plucked her by hand and it was quite easy so can't imagine why someone would spend hundreds of dollars for a plucker but I guess if you do more than a few of them, it would help speed things up. Don't think I could butcher my eggs gals, but may try the meat birds next year.