Homesteaders

[Chicken girl 15]

Was my husband at your place today? Lol. That's what he keeps threatening to do to my roosters.

 

[Woodsdweller]

Was my husband at your place today? Lol. That's what he keeps threatening to do to my roosters.

Iffn I had help, I might not have injured myself. So.. I'd say no.. he wasn't here today. I could invite him for next time.

 

[Beekissed]

Words of advice:

If one has any thought of eating a chicken that is being processed..... one shouldn't get ****** off and shoot it with a 12ga.

Was going to process the last of the roos today. Got the first one in the cone, sliced one side of the neck with a scalpel, went to cut the other side and since holding hand was slick with life juice and the roo suddenly struggled, I lost my grip as I was making the second cut and sliced open the back of my thumb. By the time I got the bleeding stopped, scrubbed out the wound, glued and butterflied it to negate getting stiches, and got back to what I assumed would be a dead roo, it was on the ground and ran when it saw me. The even tempered individual that I am, got a 12ga. intending to calmly "incapacitate" the bird a little. Ummmm... bird disappeared in a cloud of feathers. What was left wasn't worth processing. I then decided it wasn't such a good day to proceed and packed it in. The other birds went back to the isolation coop and got a reprieve until next week.

Sounds like you need to take it down to a single cut and a better fitting cone!

 

[Chicken girl 15]

Iffn I had help, I might not have injured myself. So.. I'd say no.. he wasn't here today. I could invite him for next time.

depending on where your located I might just send him. We've never processed before so learning would be good.

 

[rancher hicks]

Iffn I had help, I might not have injured myself. So.. I'd say no.. he wasn't here today. I could invite him for next time.

It's much safer to put the bird on the ground, step on it's head and yank or twist it's head. THEN cut the head off. Or lay a rod across it neck and yank upward.

I usually put a plastic bag over it's head while holding the bird and twist it's head.

Though it sounds like you need a new system of cutting. Maybe a pair of loppers to lop it's head off.

 

[Woodsdweller]

Words of advice: If one has any thought of eating a chicken that is being processed..... one shouldn't get ****** off and shoot it with a 12ga. Was going to process the last of the roos today. Got the first one in the cone, sliced one side of the neck with a scalpel, went to cut the other side and since holding hand was slick with life juice and the roo suddenly struggled, I lost my grip as I was making the second cut and sliced open the back of my thumb. By the time I got the bleeding stopped, scrubbed out the wound, glued and butterflied it to negate getting stiches, and got back to what I assumed would be a dead roo, it was on the ground and ran when it saw me. The even tempered individual that I am, got a 12ga. intending to calmly "incapacitate" the bird a little. Ummmm... bird disappeared in a cloud of feathers. What was left wasn't worth processing. I then decided it wasn't such a good day to proceed and packed it in. The other birds went back to the isolation coop and got a reprieve until next week.

Sounds like you need to take it down to a single cut and a better fitting cone!

I do have different sized cones that I made out of flashing. It's never been an issue until now.

 

[Woodsdweller]

Iffn I had help, I might not have injured myself. So.. I'd say no.. he wasn't here today. I could invite him for next time.

depending on where your located I might just send him. We've never processed before so learning would be good.

If he wants to travel to a southern part of VA he can get some hands on experience.

 

[vmlocks]

Where at woodsdweller? My wife and I would love to see some demos and learn. Small flock right now but we anticipate culling some early next year.

 

[vmlocks]

Changing topics a bit. We were going to put in raised beds this year after having little success in ground last year. Then on CL we found "free hay" which I figured was mis-listed and was actually going to be free straw. And we decided to do some straw bale gardening but we would put the bales in and build the beds around them and then let the bales compost in place, and go from there after this season.

But as with most things free you get what you pay for. It is hay, and the bales have come apart so instead of standing on ends we had to separate the slices and lay flat.

Can I get some thoughts on "haybale" gardening and since we cannot really dig down some as you would on the cut end of a full bale, ideas as to getting our plants to take???

 

[Beekissed]

I do have different sized cones that I made out of flashing. It's never been an issue until now.

I gave a butchering demo one day where they had those flashing cones and it was a complete disaster...the birds didn't fit into those cones well because a chicken isn't shaped like a flashing cone, so one kick and those birds were flopping out of the cones right and left.

I happened to have a 2 gal bleach jug cone in the truck, so tacked it up to a fence post and proceeded from there...every chicken fit, from the 15 lb CX down to the 6 lb. BOs, and not a one flopped out. A bleach jug has shoulders where a chicken has shoulders and the birds fit in them snugly without a chance to get a foot down inside and dig out, whereas a flashing cone is just shaped like a cone and is hard sided, not flexible or molding to the bird's body.

A bleach jug is cheap, takes a few cuts with the scissors to turn it into killing cone and it lasts for years and years, bird after heavy bird without fail. I think you'd really like how they perform if you tried one.





One cut to the neck should do it and gets just as fast a bleed out as two cuts....and no way you can cut yourself with this method or hold on the bird's head.