I slaughtered and cleaned my first chickens today.
They were five, seven week old Cornish Cross. I hung them and cut the jugular on one side. The first bird I had to cut twice to get the cut deep enough but it only took a few seconds for it to bleed out. I had one mishap when the third bird jerked its head back just as I was making the cut and I sliced open my finger instead of its throat.
I can tell you its true that a sharp knife really doesn't hurt.
I could see some blood dripping but the chicken wasn't cut, it took me a moment to realize that I was the one bleeding. A quick bandaid and some rubber gloves took care of the problem and I was able to finish the job without any further accidents.
Plucking was the worst part for me because there are so many little tiny feathers. Just when you think you have them all, you find a bunch more.
Anyway they are all done now. Five nice looking chickens are resting in the fridge. The heaviest is about five lbs and the smallest about three and a half. I have four more that will be ready to be processed in about four or five more weeks. I think I may just harvest them one at a time instead of all at once. Five chickens was three chickens too many for me today.
I don't think I'll be raising meat chickens after this though. I'll stick with egg layers from now on. I'll still process the occasional roo or old hen, but not raise them for eating. It was a good thing to learn to do, and it made me more aware of cost of meat, in time and in lives. But, I didn't really enjoy raising the meat birds.
They were five, seven week old Cornish Cross. I hung them and cut the jugular on one side. The first bird I had to cut twice to get the cut deep enough but it only took a few seconds for it to bleed out. I had one mishap when the third bird jerked its head back just as I was making the cut and I sliced open my finger instead of its throat.
I can tell you its true that a sharp knife really doesn't hurt.
I could see some blood dripping but the chicken wasn't cut, it took me a moment to realize that I was the one bleeding. A quick bandaid and some rubber gloves took care of the problem and I was able to finish the job without any further accidents.
Plucking was the worst part for me because there are so many little tiny feathers. Just when you think you have them all, you find a bunch more.
Anyway they are all done now. Five nice looking chickens are resting in the fridge. The heaviest is about five lbs and the smallest about three and a half. I have four more that will be ready to be processed in about four or five more weeks. I think I may just harvest them one at a time instead of all at once. Five chickens was three chickens too many for me today.
I don't think I'll be raising meat chickens after this though. I'll stick with egg layers from now on. I'll still process the occasional roo or old hen, but not raise them for eating. It was a good thing to learn to do, and it made me more aware of cost of meat, in time and in lives. But, I didn't really enjoy raising the meat birds.
