Have you ever butchered a naked neck chicken?

[cluckmecoop7]

Have you ever butchered a naked neck chicken? If you have, I would love to see pictures and hear your experience! I imagine that is was quite easy because there are no feathers on the neck. As I said, pictures would be awesome!

- Clucky

 

[igorsMistress]

Yes I have. No pics sorry. It depends on the mix in your bird as to whether they really have fewer feathers in general. A bird can have a naked neck, but could have very fluffy breeds in the gene pool so you end up with almost as many feathers as a fully feathered bird.

In my experience those with fully naked necks and/or the bare V under the neck tend to have fewer feathers over their entire body than those with big bibs.
It’s a bit easier than the fully feathered birds, maybe, to cut the head off because you don’t have to cut through feathers and the neck. Not really noticeable though.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Ah, that's too bad that you don't have pics.

Anyway, I was talking about when you slice the neck....not the rest of the bird. I was thinking it would be easier, like you said, to do so, without all those feathers.

 

[igorsMistress]

Ah, that's too bad that you don't have pics.

Anyway, I was talking about when you slice the neck....not the rest of the bird. I was thinking it would be easier, like you said, to do so, without all those feathers.

Not noticeably so according to hubs. Sorry I don’t have pics.

 

[Morrigan]

We've been butchering naked necks hybrids this year. Rooster was a NN, crossed with either a slow white broiler or a red ranger hen. My husband dispatches with hatchet and said he finds it easier with the naked neck. I pluck and find the plucking moderately easier as well. It's still plucking, but there are less feathers. I don't have pictures of the butchering process, only before and after of a couple of the first birds we did this year. The broiler genetics added a lot of size. These guys were 13 1/2 weeks old and dressed out around 4 1/2 lbs.

Live birds

Post butchering:

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Thanks for the pictures!

 

[CaroleW]

First harvest of anything yesterday. 3 NN cross cockerels hatched in June and one fully feathered breed that could not be used for breeding (hatched a couple weeks later than NN I think). I didn't hatch any of these and I only raised the fully feathered breed, NN was from a breeder of NN and NN crosses for dual purpose birds in the desert of AZ.
I only had a very cheap fillet knife for fish. There was definitely a difference between the two breeds on the initial cut and a major difference in plucking (done by hand). I confirm as the breeder has pointed out to me that NN cross had significantly less feathering on the bodies along with no feathers on the neck's where you make the cut.
A couple of sample pics of NN cross with live weight and yield weight which includes feet, organs and pieces for broth...

 

[BlueBaby]

First harvest of anything yesterday. 3 NN cross cockerels hatched in June and one fully feathered breed that could not be used for breeding (hatched a couple weeks later than NN I think). I didn't hatch any of these and I only raised the fully feathered breed, NN was from a breeder of NN and NN crosses for dual purpose birds in the desert of AZ.
I only had a very cheap fillet knife for fish. There was definitely a difference between the two breeds on the initial cut and a major difference in plucking (done by hand). I confirm as the breeder has pointed out to me that NN cross had significantly less feathering on the bodies along with no feathers on the neck's where you make the cut.
A couple of sample pics of NN cross with live weight and yield weight which includes feet, organs and pieces for broth...
View attachment 2354514View attachment 2354515View attachment 2354516

I'm glad that you had someone to give you the hand's on experience of learning how to do it correctly.