First Time... Tips?

[Chick15]

We are going to kill our roo's over the weekend and we have never done it before. SOOOO... I was wondering if you guys had any tips or things you do to make it easier. we were thinking we would strangle them (poor things) so if anyone has any tips for us?

 

[itsy]

Good luck, Chick! Are you going to help him?

This link will help a GREAT DEAL! I will warn you, though. It is graphic and shows step by step how to process your chickens. It's been a big help for me.

Let us know how it goes!!!

 

[jenny_kap]

strangle? why? they have to bleed out, so he has to cut the heads of.

 

[Erebus]

I'd tend to disagree that you have to decapitate them.

I found this YouTube video really helpful:

Survival Skills with Russ - How to Butcher a Chicken pt 1 (kill, pluck, gut)

My theory here after doing a bit of research (but nothing finding nothing very conclusive, sorry) is that if you decapitate a chicken it gets a hit of pain information all at once, cf. if you slice its throat it doesn't feel the pain for a few seconds by which time it's getting so blood starved it's losing consciousness. Slice, decapitate, neck-break - either way it's pretty quick in the long run.

Also if you ring its neck the heart is pretty much stopped by the time you hang it, so you would need to hang it for longer.

Hope this helps.

 

[Chick15]

There is no way I will be helping!!! I am distraught that we have to kill the roo's by ourselves. We were going to find a butcher but looked around a bit and couldn't find one to butcher our chickens for us. I will pass on that strangling isnt the best option. itsy, that link looks really good, although, i only looked at the first two pictures and diligently switched pages... You were right... pretty graphic, but i will print it out for him, it will probably help alot. Thanks

 

[Denninmi]

What I did last weekend was to sort of flip them -- hold on to the bird, grasp the head firmly but gently, and let go with a sudden motion. It will flap downward, and the head will instantly separate from the spinal cord. Then, quickly cut off the head, and it will bleed out like a fountain. Basically, this is the equivalent to hanging. I think it was as "humane" of a method as any -- it was instantaneous, a sudden loss of neural connection between brain and body, and the eyes closed instantly with absolutely no motion in the head of any kind. The body flapped and seized, of course.

And, if you want to save yourself a TON of work, just skin them, rather than plucking. Yes, you waste the skin, but in my household we very rarely eat the skin due to health concerns over fat and cholesterol. I could skin and clean 2 birds in the time it would take to just pluck one.

 

[Chick15]

Well, We Butchered our Roo's this morning

they were all between 1.11 and 1.14 lbs, I cant wait for some chicken!!!


Quote:
We watched the movie and He said it was the most helpful one he had found! He used this method and found it so much easier to gut them when he knew what he was doing... Thank you Very much.

 

[Erebus]

No problem! I found it really useful too. I also found that my boys were young enough to eat without leaving them to rest over night, but the meat is a lot tenderer if you leave the cleaned carcass in the fridge for a day or two before you cook them to let the meat soften.

 

[Chick15]

I have to change my signature now to "lovin' my 11 hens!"

 

[Erebus]

I've changed my sig twice for that reason