How do I get started with meat birds?

[drewskimac]

Okay, so I am a recent college graduate and am only just starting my life as an independent adult. This sequence of life changes has prompted me to consider becoming more self sufficient in providing food for myself and my family. I am an avid fisherman and hunter - I don't have a problem pulling the trigger on a wild animal or throwing a fish in a cooler. However, I do not feel comfortable with slaughtering my own livestock. My main question for this post would be : How do I get myself comfortable with this? I have butchered coturnix quail that I raised from eggs on an occasion or two, and this really bothered me. And by bothered me, I mean that I felt sick to my stomach for several days over butchering animals that I had raised myself. I am seeking some advice from people who have struggled with this same thing and can offer me tips on how to get past it.

Thankyou all!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know what might work for you. We all bring our own personalities and experiences to what we do. It just may not work for you.

One of my goals with chickens is to raise them for meat. I don't enjoy the killing part but if I'm going to eat them it's part of the process. If I did not eat them I would not raise chickens. I don't raise Cornish X or Rangers, instead I breed dual purpose birds. I don't know if I'm a good person to help you or not.

I don't raise pets. I don't name them, cuddle them, or treat them as part of the family. I know from the start that they will be food. I get to know them as individuals but it's more like I raise the flock and the flock has interchangeable parts. The reason I hatch chicks is to eat or to replace older chickens I'll eat. Some of them are a little harder than others.

I think my chickens have a good life. They get food, water, predator protection, and a place to get out of bad weather if they want to. I let them be chickens. They grow up with the flock, some hens hatch and raise chicks with the flock. They have plenty of room to forage for all kinds of goodies and chase and eat creepy crawlies. They work out their own pecking order and dominance issues. I interfere with their daily lives as little as I can, though I get great pleasure in watching them interact.

Then they have one bad moment. I try to make that moment as quick and sure as I can. There is no need for them to suffer. I use the hatchet and stump method but there are plenty of other ways to actually kill them. You need a method that you can be sure to not close your eyes or flinch at the last moment. You don't want to injure the bird or yourself, you want a clean kill.

I don't know if this helps you or not. Good luck!

 

[Maeschak]

Okay, so I am a recent college graduate and am only just starting my life as an independent adult. This sequence of life changes has prompted me to consider becoming more self sufficient in providing food for myself and my family. I am an avid fisherman and hunter - I don't have a problem pulling the trigger on a wild animal or throwing a fish in a cooler. However, I do not feel comfortable with slaughtering my own livestock. My main question for this post would be : How do I get myself comfortable with this? I have butchered coturnix quail that I raised from eggs on an occasion or two, and this really bothered me. And by bothered me, I mean that I felt sick to my stomach for several days over butchering animals that I had raised myself. I am seeking some advice from people who have struggled with this same thing and can offer me tips on how to get past it.

Thankyou all!

I am/was the same way. I have been hunting and watching/helping the butchering of wild animals since I was 6 or 7 years old... So after 35 years of hunting and butchering I thought I wouldn't have a problem with butchering my own farm animals. Oh boy how I was wrong. There is a monumental difference between pulling a trigger from a distance and literally holding an animals head while you slit its jugular (or however you choose to do it.)
Now, I should state that even though I have hunted all of my life I still almost always shed tears for the animals I kill, but I always eat the animals I hunt (unless predators or pests such as ground hog) so I continue to hunt for eating purposes.
I think there are 3 components to what makes farm animal slaughtering so difficult for me: the fact that I must gauge the effort necessary for a quick death by my own hand, the proximity of the animals to myself, and that I have taken care of these animals every day of their lives.
What has made it easier for me (at least when starting out) was to (a) start with a**hole chickens... I recommend starting with a bad rooster or cockerel or two, (b) start with a quick kill device where your modulation of power is reduced such as sharp loppers or the pipe cutter decapitation method, and (c) a few nips of your favorite courage liquid.
There is no better way to start being comfortable with butchering your own chickens than to start with nasty roosters- you will not have too much trouble dispatching them with loppers or decapitating them since nasty roosters suck to live with.
When it becomes time to dispatch chickens that you do not hate, that is when the mental anguish really takes over and I have to do a whole lot of reasoning with myself. At first the anguish and sleeplessness lasted for days. As other poster said, you must remember that you gave it a good life, this is their purpose for you, etc. this is the time when you need to really up your mental reasoning game.
After awhile though, it becomes much much easier. One reason it becomes easier is that you are just much better and more competent at the mechanics of the job. The other reason it becomes easier is that you will start to see the problems that arise from NOT butchering members of your flock.. Chickens stop laying, feed bills get higher (with nothing to show for it), chickens get old and picked on by flock mates, harassed hens, overbreeding, etc.
I have been butchering my chickens for several years now but until this year had only done injured hens and boys. I couldn't stand the idea of butchering laying hens last fall so I didn't do it. Well, 75% of my hens went into a long molt so I fed and cared for 38 chickens all winter and got about 4 eggs a day. Not cool. Spring came around and the older chickens are having trouble getting off the roosts, the predators are catching up to them more easily, one had a heart attack, another got ascites, another had laying issues, another got an impacted crop, etc.
After losing so many chickens and not even being able to eat them after all these years of care I have changed my tune on hens- and it took me allowing them to live too long to understand for myself that all of my chickens are better off with routine culling.
Not sure that helped... But I hope so.
Good luck!

 

[RUNuts]

When I was dating, Crazy Lady's family told me not to let her name anything that was food. Got it. On the zoo trips, I'd say we were going shopping and discuss recipes while looking at the animals. The kids know what food looks like. Did it help? Who knows.
Before we got chickens, all of us sat down and everyone understood that they are food. So get everyone on the same page. Enjoy them and care for them while they are here. I think because of this, I'm the only one caring for them daily. We chicken watch.

Butcher day came and I had one helper + fiancé. Not the 2 I would have picked, but we learned together. They still help.

In short, mind set. Some people name them after food. I call them with their distinguishing traits. Doesn't make it easy, but that was the contract when we started.

Second round was an egg bound hen that was messed up inside. Egg duct appeared ruptured.

Third time was the meat CX. Mind set.

The larger the flock the less you get to know individuals. I should have had more CX. The 5 CX that made it to butcher day were unique individuals. I started to keep a hen, but that wasn't the contract. So set a goal and keep the mind set. Enjoy every minute caring for them. Happy birds.

 

[drewskimac]

I don't know what might work for you. We all bring our own personalities and experiences to what we do. It just may not work for you.

One of my goals with chickens is to raise them for meat. I don't enjoy the killing part but if I'm going to eat them it's part of the process. If I did not eat them I would not raise chickens. I don't raise Cornish X or Rangers, instead I breed dual purpose birds. I don't know if I'm a good person to help you or not.

I don't raise pets. I don't name them, cuddle them, or treat them as part of the family. I know from the start that they will be food. I get to know them as individuals but it's more like I raise the flock and the flock has interchangeable parts. The reason I hatch chicks is to eat or to replace older chickens I'll eat. Some of them are a little harder than others.

I think my chickens have a good life. They get food, water, predator protection, and a place to get out of bad weather if they want to. I let them be chickens. They grow up with the flock, some hens hatch and raise chicks with the flock. They have plenty of room to forage for all kinds of goodies and chase and eat creepy crawlies. They work out their own pecking order and dominance issues. I interfere with their daily lives as little as I can, though I get great pleasure in watching them interact.

Then they have one bad moment. I try to make that moment as quick and sure as I can. There is no need for them to suffer. I use the hatchet and stump method but there are plenty of other ways to actually kill them. You need a method that you can be sure to not close your eyes or flinch at the last moment. You don't want to injure the bird or yourself, you want a clean kill.

I don't know if this helps you or not. Good luck!

Thankyou for all of your input! I appreciate your thought process of not raising pets - I know sometimes the women, kids, and even men struggle with that.

 

[drewskimac]

I am/was the same way. I have been hunting and watching/helping the butchering of wild animals since I was 6 or 7 years old... So after 35 years of hunting and butchering I thought I wouldn't have a problem with butchering my own farm animals. Oh boy how I was wrong. There is a monumental difference between pulling a trigger from a distance and literally holding an animals head while you slit its jugular (or however you choose to do it.)
Now, I should state that even though I have hunted all of my life I still almost always shed tears for the animals I kill, but I always eat the animals I hunt (unless predators or pests such as ground hog) so I continue to hunt for eating purposes.
I think there are 3 components to what makes farm animal slaughtering so difficult for me: the fact that I must gauge the effort necessary for a quick death by my own hand, the proximity of the animals to myself, and that I have taken care of these animals every day of their lives.
What has made it easier for me (at least when starting out) was to (a) start with a**hole chickens... I recommend starting with a bad rooster or cockerel or two, (b) start with a quick kill device where your modulation of power is reduced such as sharp loppers or the pipe cutter decapitation method, and (c) a few nips of your favorite courage liquid.
There is no better way to start being comfortable with butchering your own chickens than to start with nasty roosters- you will not have too much trouble dispatching them with loppers or decapitating them since nasty roosters suck to live with.
When it becomes time to dispatch chickens that you do not hate, that is when the mental anguish really takes over and I have to do a whole lot of reasoning with myself. At first the anguish and sleeplessness lasted for days. As other poster said, you must remember that you gave it a good life, this is their purpose for you, etc. this is the time when you need to really up your mental reasoning game.
After awhile though, it becomes much much easier. One reason it becomes easier is that you are just much better and more competent at the mechanics of the job. The other reason it becomes easier is that you will start to see the problems that arise from NOT butchering members of your flock.. Chickens stop laying, feed bills get higher (with nothing to show for it), chickens get old and picked on by flock mates, harassed hens, overbreeding, etc.
I have been butchering my chickens for several years now but until this year had only done injured hens and boys. I couldn't stand the idea of butchering laying hens last fall so I didn't do it. Well, 75% of my hens went into a long molt so I fed and cared for 38 chickens all winter and got about 4 eggs a day. Not cool. Spring came around and the older chickens are having trouble getting off the roosts, the predators are catching up to them more easily, one had a heart attack, another got ascites, another had laying issues, another got an impacted crop, etc.
After losing so many chickens and not even being able to eat them after all these years of care I have changed my tune on hens- and it took me allowing them to live too long to understand for myself that all of my chickens are better off with routine culling.
Not sure that helped... But I hope so.
Good luck!

Thankyou! I agree that killing not-so friendly or pleasant birds is a good way to start. I have had to kill my share of mean roosters and that was much easier than butchering quail for meat.

 

[drewskimac]

When I was dating, Crazy Lady's family told me not to let her name anything that was food. Got it. On the zoo trips, I'd say we were going shopping and discuss recipes while looking at the animals. The kids know what food looks like. Did it help? Who knows.
Before we got chickens, all of us sat down and everyone understood that they are food. So get everyone on the same page. Enjoy them and care for them while they are here. I think because of this, I'm the only one caring for them daily. We chicken watch.

Butcher day came and I had one helper + fiancé. Not the 2 I would have picked, but we learned together. They still help.

In short, mind set. Some people name them after food. I call them with their distinguishing traits. Doesn't make it easy, but that was the contract when we started.

Second round was an egg bound hen that was messed up inside. Egg duct appeared ruptured.

Third time was the meat CX. Mind set.

The larger the flock the less you get to know individuals. I should have had more CX. The 5 CX that made it to butcher day were unique individuals. I started to keep a hen, but that wasn't the contract. So set a goal and keep the mind set. Enjoy every minute caring for them. Happy birds.

I hadn't thought of it like that, but it makes sense. I will remember that when I start a flock of meat birds: More birds = less personal attachment to each bird.

 

[teriz1091]

When my husband & I raised meat birds this spring for the first time, we did a few things to help ease butchering day. My husband wanted nothing to do with the actual killing, which is fine. It ended up that our babysitter backed out & he had to stay with our daughter, so he didn’t get involved at all. My dad helped me.
I decided from the start that I wasn’t going to raise the Freedom Rangers or any dual purpose bird, for fear of becoming attached. I wanted the fat, plain white, ugly Cornish X. We did not interact with them at all (no handling) other than to feed, water & clean their pen.
We opted to go for slitting the jugular as our kill method. I hung a bird up by its feet, apologized to it, thanked it for feeding my family, & gave it the fastest death I could.
Now that we’ve done a batch of them, I’d absolutely raise more.

 

[trudyg]

I hang them head down with a cord from a nail in a tree. Wait until they pass out, sometimes several minutes. This allows them to calm down, too. Do it out of sight of the rest of the flock. The first is the worst, so do the ones you like the least first, then the rest become more automatic since you're already in the groove. I've been doing them myself but this year 12 year old granddaughter says she'll help because she wants to be a dr and needs exposure to blood, cutting, etc. She's always been matter of fact about pain, etc. Grandson, on the other hand, is more tender hearted and would definitely have a problem with anything other than to cooking. I got the birds to feed my family, planned on them being butcher age in time for the family reunion cookout. We're all looking forward to it.

 

[TK421]

These are all good points. Also consider that you’re on a continuum right now and there’s a possibility that you can tackle the meat birds another time. Perhaps layers first then after you get the hang of it then do the meat birds. Many of us intended only to have layers but then welcomed the meat challenge later.