How do you mentally prepare yourself for the first butcher?

[Beekissed]

I seem to recall someone telling me that about being married too....... "Just get it over with. Don't think about it...just grit your teeth and get it done and try not to think about it all and it will all be over before you know it."

Yes...anytime I've had an unpleasant job to do, I focus on more pleasant things and try not to think about the grittier task at hand. I pull up my big girl panties and sharpen the knives.

 

[m.kitchengirl]

Quote: Sounds like my marriage.

 

[gg706]

I think that is what I am going to have to do..... put it out of my mind and go through the motions. Hopefully learning alot along the way. As well as growing emotionally and coming to grips with the fact our food doesn't just appear on the grocery shelf. Animals are butchered everyday for consumption. I do feel that by processing at home, the chicken is provided a better life as well as an easier processing experience...hopefully, if I can perform correctly and decisively without hesitation. There isn't really any use in keeping more than 1 roo unless you are a breeder and are going to sell chicks. Had my roos been born in a hatchery they would have been put in a grinder within hours of birth. I have decided for sure after I have read several threads including this one, that processing my roos myself is what I am going to do. Thank You to everyone for the good advice and to the Original Poster who brought to light exactly the post I needed to read. What is the routine a beginner should use? For example do 1 at a time or have more than one cone and do 2 or 3 at a time? How long can the bird sit in the cone passed before it needs to be done and on ice? I was planning on just skinning mine, not defeathering and all that as we pretty much eat skinless chicken anyway. Would I be wasting much of the bird by skinning and harvesting the breast meat, thighs and legs? I don't want to be wasteful. I do want to harvest the edible organs for my dog, served cooked of course so she doesn't get a taste for raw chicken organs. I am also not going to allow her to witness the chicken processing. I also had to cull 2 chicks that had an internal problem and couldn't poop...that was the first time I ever killed anything.....It was very difficult. I am afraid processing the roos will be worse for me as they don't have anything "wrong" with them, they were just born male...doesn't seem fair. I am struggling a little with the fact I may keep 1 of the roos and it sucks to choose life for 1 and death for the rest. There I go thinking AGAIN!

 

[Beekissed]

I just kill one, let it bleed, take it out and place it on my work station. Place another in the cone and cut it, let it bleed while I am eviscerating the other and just keep it going. Makes it more like assembly line work and gives you some flow to the thing~your back is turned to the one dying while you are working on the one dead, etc....it just makes it more business-like all around to get a routine to it.

 

[gg706]

Very good way of doing it...I didn't think about going at it that way! Thanks! That is what i am going to do...I think it will make it easier.

 

[what did I do]

Sounds like my marriage. 

Love it! I'll have to remember this comparison when butchering my husband's chickens.

 

[gg706]

I want to keep this thread alive! It is such a good one!

 

[EweSheep]

Sounds like my marriage.

Which is worse? You can get 'er done with the marriage and hubby still around while the bird itself would be gone forever once it was dispatched LOL!

Yep, put on big girl pants and have a go at butchering the meanest roo! Take THAT! (stab) Take THIS! (pulling guts out)

 

[Beekissed]

And I thought I had suppressed rage!

You ladies are scary! I'll tell you what will help.....get a gun, lots of shells and a good target~preferably something that makes sound or you can see explode...like clay pigeons or tin cans. Feels good to fill somethin' full of holes!

 

[what did I do]

And I thought I had suppressed rage!     You ladies are scary!  I'll tell you what will help.....get a gun, lots of shells and a good target~preferably something that makes sound or you can see explode...like clay pigeons or tin cans.  Feels good to fill somethin' full of holes! 

 

I wonder if my husband's meat birds would qualify, they don't move all that much but it will be nice to see them go.