How to Butcher a Chicken

[gwill23]

Processed my first chickens today. I couldn't stand seeing them all take turns at my poor hens. I only have 16 hens and 5 of those are young still, and 8 roosters. They were working the poor girls over. I already have one in the hospital / recovery coop

.

Anyway, thanks to this post and this video

. I did the job. Not as bad as I was thinking it would be. two are in the crock pot for dinner tonight and two in the freezer. I wanted to keep 3 but I am just couldn't decide between two so he escaped for now.

Anyway I did it just like the video except a few changes. I don't have a killing cone so I tied a rope across the barn with 4 smaller ropes haning with slip knots in them. I hung the roosters upside down in a large rubber garbage can and then cut the juggler. I did all 4 and then setup my space while the blead out.

I then hung another rope with a slipnot from the rafters over another can with a garbage bag in it and hung them up by the head. They I was able to work on them much easier I think than the video. I just cut around the neck and slipped the skin off like a peal pretty much. Then gutted them like on the video. Everything fell right into the garbage can with the back.

Clean-up was just washing the blood out of the garbage can and picking up the bag and taking it to the dump. If you have garbage day that is the morning I would do it on.

All in all not as bad as I though. We'll see how they taste tonight.

 

[RedfogsFlock]

This is one for processing turkeys! It's a very tasteful video & very informative. I watched it a few times & was able to do our turkeys!

 

[icre8arch]

Please add this site toyour list, i found itto be very helpful http://girlsguidetobutter.com/2010/08/chicken-butchering-101/
has good pics too.

 

[Erica]

http://www.permachicken.com/processing-a-chicken-for-food/


My version uses 'broomstick' (cervical dislocation) method, as well as dry plucking instead of scalding (far less smelly, though takes longer). Usually though I prefer to skin them, as we rarely roast.

Nothing like poached skinless chicken in ginger and spring onion broth...

Thanks for such a neat round-up thread. Some of the other posts are brilliant.

Erica

 

[Searsmom]

I've a specific question, I've looked at videos and pored over the pictures and instructions in Harvey Ussery's The Small-Scale Poultry Flock.

Most say if you use a cone you have to cut the jugular to let them bleed out, but if you do it almost any other way, you just chop the whole head off and hang them to drain.

Is there a particular reason you don't just use a sharp knife and slice the whole head off? Am I asking a stupid question, would a sharp knife - and I'm talking about a good knife, hand sharpened - not be able to cut through the neck of a live chicken without the force of an axe behind it? Does the cone impair blood-flow so you still need the windpipe working to pump the blood out? If that's the case, how do I know which is the windpipe and which is the jugular? There's an awful lot of feathers in the way.... Do I just cut everything that isn't spine?

 

[Beekissed]

I've a specific question, I've looked at videos and pored over the pictures and instructions in Harvey Ussery's The Small-Scale Poultry Flock.

Most say if you use a cone you have to cut the jugular to let them bleed out, but if you do it almost any other way, you just chop the whole head off and hang them to drain.

Is there a particular reason you don't just use a sharp knife and slice the whole head off? Am I asking a stupid question, would a sharp knife - and I'm talking about a good knife, hand sharpened - not be able to cut through the neck of a live chicken without the force of an axe behind it? Does the cone impair blood-flow so you still need the windpipe working to pump the blood out? If that's the case, how do I know which is the windpipe and which is the jugular? There's an awful lot of feathers in the way.... Do I just cut everything that isn't spine?

You can cut the head clean off with a knife, no problem. The cone does not impair blood flow and the windpipe is not hindered in taking in air when it is cut. The windpipe is a white, cartilaginous tube that runs midline down the throat of the chicken, whereas the jugular vein is on the side of the neck, deeper in the tissues. You can just cut everything but the spine and achieve a good bleed out and death.

It's all a matter of preference and mess control. When they bleed from a smaller incision, the blood flow is more controlled and when they start to spasm the blood has mostly already been drained out. When you cut off the entire head, they start to spasm immediately and the blood that is flowing out gets flung all over their feathers, the work area and you, if you do not step back quickly.

 

[Searsmom]

Thank you!

 

[RedfogsFlock]

We used to process our birds. We never named food, made it easier for our younger kids to seperate food feom pet.
We also plucked.well wiped. After dunking in boiling water the feathers just wiped off. We also thanked our birds and hoped they had a good life with us. We always raised free rangers and gave them fruit or salad everday as a treat.

 

[FourteenChicks]

When we would butcher when I was younger, we never chopped the head off and let the chicken run around.  We hung the chicken from a piece of heavy copper wire shaped in a W.  To keep the chicken's head from moving around too much we then took a piece of that same heavy gauge wire and had in the shape of a hook connected to a gallon jug half full of water to weight the chicken down this went through the nostrils, so all that could move would be their wings.  To dispatch them we would take a sharp knife and cut the artery going to the brain in the back of the throat.  They would bleed out this way with little or no mess.  Then dunk them and pluck.

That's disgusting

 

[LindaB220]

That's disgusting

It's called pithing. Piercing the brain through the mouth. I read about it in an old book. It was the way a ton of people did it back in the day. I'm not crazy about the nostrils bit either.