How to Butcher a Chicken

[treehouse]

JOYCLUCK
I am sorry I did not respond earlier. Your post was excellent! Thanking the chicken is very very nice. It sounds like an wise asian custom!!

 

[anotherviewinTexas]

treehouse,

Sorry for the late response.

Question: You mention keeping a meat cleaver handy.

How do you use it.

By the way, we recently processed two roosters, one old, one young. The diference in ease was significant.

 

[jaku]

I would disagree on the meat cleaver- Unless you are using the chop method for killing, you should never need to cut through bone when processing your birds- cut at the joints and a fillet knife works just fine for the whole project.

 

[JenEric Farms]

Just posting as a bookmark!b

 

[redhen]

Good thread! Thanks!

 

[TheMatador]

Hey All,
New around these parts (first post) and just wanted to say thanks for all the info in this thread. I slaughter my first 4 broilers in the morning and all the perspective has been helpful in me deciding that I've read and researched all I can and its time to jump in and get some hands on experience.

 

[Junkmanme]

I TRULY ENJOYED hunting and eating pheasant years ago. I NEVER plucked them..just skinned 'em.

I liked to cook them in my homemade smoker.

To replace the "fat" located just inside the skin, I "wrapped" the pheasant in raw bacon slices to provide "basting". Bacon, as we all know, is also very flavorful.

BEST eatin' pheasant I ever had....MANY times!

just my 2 pesos worth,

-Junkmanme-

 

[wolbachacreas]

I was wondering if your chickens can be to old to butcher. Ours are about 1 1/2 years old. I haven't partaken in this process since I was little and don't remember much. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dogfish]

Good information.

As to hunters and farmers, many of us look our animals in the eye when it comes time to do the deed, and many hunters like myself do our own butchering, which can be quite the chore when it is an 800lb elk. I hunt to have a closer connection to my food, and so that my boys know that meat doesn't grow in styrofoam trays, wrapped in cellophane. My elk and deer meat is organic, and I say a good word to the animal once it is down.

In both farming and hunting, the animal lived a good life up until the day it was time to go to "freezer camp", and in most cases was put down quickly so that a human could process and consume it, be it hunting or farming. It is just a matter of where the animal lived that is different.

Haven't bought fish in over 25 years and we eat salmon, steelhead, and halibut that we catch regularly. We might buy 40 pounds of beef all year long. Everything else is game or what we raise.

It is a personal choice.

 

[jodiv]

When I was younger, we had about 30 or so turkeys, that we raised. Then came the day that they had to be buthered. I was about 10 or so at that time. My grandfather was given 10 to process, and we made the trip to his house to do the deed there. My grandfather had to explain, as i got teary eyed. He told me that there was no need to cry, that they had a good life, and were well taken care of, and it was just how it was. Still.......it sent shivers down my spine when i would hear the knife slice....blugh......made my fillings hurt LOL I thought it might have felt the same as when i cut myself with a knife, and you feel the stinging burn. But he assured me, it was quick and they didnt feel a thing. As I nodded my head, and assured him I understood, all he said was..."alright then, lets get to it." With a pat on the head we started.

I was in charge of holding the turkeys wings to keep them in place over the wheel barrow they hung above while they bled out...which by the way is extremely hard to do without braking a wing or 2.

As I get older, i realize what he meant, and what my father meant. I plan on butchering my roos this fall, and my mother says I wont be able to do it after i have raised them from chicks, but i beg to differ. I still have compassion for my flock, roos or not, but when the time comes, they will have provided my family with good food. Period. I have given them to, a good life, love, and affection. Few people understand this.