How do I find a hit man?

[Sunny Side Up]

Quote:
If you're willing/able to do the plucking or skinning and the excavating, why not do it all yourself? Or get someone to help? There's lots of info on this forum about how exactly to do The Deed, and lots of philosophical discussion about how to remain a nice person during & after.

Few people enjoy the actual taking-of-life part of it, but it's a necessity if you want to eat meat. Chickens just keep hopping off the plate if you try to eat them alive. And for those of us unfamiliar with the procedure, it can be unnerving the first few times it's done.

But by doing it yourself you know for certain that these birds you've raised are being dispatched humanely, that they're receiving kind words & gentle handling right up to the very end. The way I do it is very quiet & calm, and quick.

The person who showed me how to process chickens was a neighbor who hunted. Maybe there is someone you know who hunts or fishes, or who has had experience in butchering livestock, who could assist you.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

Chickens just keep hopping off the plate if you try to eat them alive.

hee hee hee hee hee​

 

[dancingbear]

To my way of thinking, it's a lot more stress on the birds to be crated up and hauled off to a processor, than it is to just do them at home. If you aren't going to offer them for sale to the public, you don't have to use a processor, and it's expensive, too.

Cowboy up. Come on, you can do it.

After years of sticking my DH with "the deed", I finally started doing it myself, and it's not nearly as bad as you might expect. Just do it fast. Whack. Done. Then pluck and clean.

Most of the really disagreeable part of processing is your own attitude. If you psych yourself into believing t will be the worst thing in world, it will be. If you approach it with the attitude that it may be somewhat unpleasant, but with the idea that you can deal with it, you'll be fine.

It helps to shift your focus to the mechanics of the job, and concentrate on getting the killing done as quickly as possible. That way instead of dwelling on the ending of the bird's life, you can concentrate on making it fast, and getting it over with. Once they're dead, they're meat, and the rest is easier to cope with.

Maybe if you can get help for the first time, you'll have an easier time of it.

Good luck, however you decide to go.

 

[chicks4kids]

A proffessional butcher will butcher them. Usually you have to have a minimum and I believe around here (Walkerton, IN) It's 50.

You'd be amazed at the things that you can do if you just put your mind to it. I've shocked my husband a time or two!!

 

[foweler]

Foster Farms, Safeway, or whoever has really allowed us to become disconnected from where food REALLY comes from. We live in the jungle whether we admit it or not.

Any one of us who eats meat should take the life of our meat with our own hands, at least once.

I could do it to my three girls if I had to, well, I'm not really hungry yet, and they were meant to be pets all along. I wouldn't have named them otherwise.

I hate killing but I love eating.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

well said, Dancing Bear

we focus on the task and by then the whole thing is so interesting we kind of forget to be worked up. we call it CSI Chickens


it also helped up to work with someone the first time - we went over and helped while he "removed the smiley parts". it also helps if you develop a sense of humor....... and realize that the words used to describe what is going on is worse than whats really going on.

hope you know we're not being hard on you - go back and read some back posts and you'll see that everyone who had the nillynallies said afterwards that it wasnt as bad as the thought.

here is some cheering: yay you!! go team go! yay!

 

[AHappychick]

sometimes they can be hard to find under "butcher" try looking under "Live Poultry" in spanish areas, that is where it is most prevelent. At least around me it is.

 

[ChickenCrazy]

Thanks for the encouragement! I agree with all of your philosophical reasoning as to why I should do it myself. I am sure I could do the actual gutting, it's just the killing that I am unsure of. My husband or another family member could do that part. Maybe I will one day be brave and try it. The issue this year is that I do not have the time to do it with seminars, veggie garden, school, and my sister-in-laws wedding. Bad time on my part, I know. I really do appreciate your help!

 

[vermontgal]

I asked around via other people interested in local foods (we have a "localvore" movement here), and also put an ad on craigslist farm & garden to ask. I also was planning to ask farmers who sell chicken at the local farmers market whether they would butcher for me (at a fair rate). It turns out that many people recommended the same person, so I am using him. I think he uses a killing cone. I also got a reference for a state legislator (a farmer, this is Vermont!) who does it by pithing.

This is also the closest solution, the mobile butcher coming to about 7 miles from my house to process birds for a local farmer who sells at the farmer's market. I'll pay part of the travel fee for the mobile butcher and the farmer is kind to let me in on his butcher day.

The mobile butcher where I am won't come for fewer that 20 birds, so if you have a small quantity you have to go in with someone.

I decided to raise them this year, and think about doing the killing /processing next year. Given that I am having a hard time with just raising them, I think I might need to go back to being a veggie...