Help wanted: how to butcher squab

[HaywardGardener]

I have my first pair of King squab ready to butcher. How does one dispatch a squab? What kind of knife or other tools do you need? Do they lie still, as the chickens do? Is it worth making a small killing cone for easier drainage afterward? (Do they run around like beheaded chicken?) But my chicken hatchet is too big for squab necks!

I have heard of just pulling their little heads off. I may be a tough old lady that is able to butcher my own animals, but I can't do that. So can you just lay them down and cut off the heads with a sharp knife?

I understand they are easy to dry pluck at this age. I am guessing that will be easy.

And how much care needs to be taken with the gutting? I am used to cleaning rabbits and chickens, where you are careful to cut around the anal outlets as you extract the intestines, so as not to contaminate the meat.

Thanks!

 

[nzpouter]

use a garden secateur... make sure you clean around the anal gland and crop lining.

 

[HaywardGardener]

Thank you! That worked well. I bought a "Bypass Pruner" that cuts up to 1" wide (so it opens wide easily).

I am not sure where the anal glands are, so I cut around the cloaca and down around and through the tail and pulled the whole thing out like a plug, one unit with the intestines.