How to Butcher a Chicken

[chicknaddy]

The liquid is not grassy-green - it is watery green - almost looked like human urine, albeit green urine... Almost mountain-dewish.

 

[maplesky7]

I'm diein' here!

I've done chickens now for 4 or 5 years and I've always drove them to a processor--I like to affectionately call, "to market." My now 6 year old became aware last year that we eat our "yellow" chicks...and just exactly what it meant when Mommy said, I was taking them "to market."

She thought they all went to live on another farm. How my freezer got full of? what's that? chicken? I just don't know.

So out of curiosity--since I've had injured chicks and thought about...what if I ever had to?...yipes. I looked here and lo and behold I took it all in stride UNTIL you started talking about green mountain dew coming out of a chicken. Good thing I'm a coke drinker.

Don't know if I could ever bring myself to doing any of this and I give props to you all for being?...well, for not being wusses. I'll jab a long q-tip down my insision on my shin for leg surgery and change dressing for my own hematoma but I don't know about all of this...

I just like to pick it up "shrink wrapped." Just like in the store but tastier.

me,
g

 

[sarah]

We have bee researching dispatching and butchering one of our hens. And I remember reading on one website that a "green fluid in the cavity means a sick bird--don't eat it." I have checked so many sites that I can't give you the webaddress. Sorry.

On a related note, I'm having some emotional issues (related to guilt) based on the particular hen who is scheduled to meet her maker. She was an addition to our small flock of 6. We had a leader already, Sarge, and this one came in, pecked her down several notches and took over. Sarge is in some kind of clinical depression and ejected 1/3 of her feathers one day last week. She is a broken woman.

And the new leader has decided to become a roo and crow every morning--more of an annoying squawk, actually.

So now I'm feeling guilty for culling her from our little urban flock because I don't like her behavior! Everyone says once we eat a pot of chicken soup that she has given it up for, we'll never go back to the store for chicken.

Woe is me! Am I just being selfish?

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
You making a decision to be a "wuss" is completely up to you. Bringing your children
up to be wusses, like so many do, is something you might regret. Kids who know where their food comes from understand the "circle of life" better than their parents do.

You have already made the first step by raising your own food. Processing a chicken
is "work" so if you choose to have someone else do it that's fine.

You are the parent and they are YOUR children. You make the call.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
I don't think you are being selfish. Culling a bird you know is not a simple thing.
We cull hens on occasion that are nut cases and causes our flock stress. It should
be hard. Don't feel bad for being a caring human.

 

[curiousnewbie]

Okay, until I pull myself together enough to dispatch the bird myself, where do I find a processor to do the deed for me? I know I'm going to be able to do the job eventually, but we only have a small group of girls right now and we know them too well to dine on them. I have 25 coming next week and they will be more anonymous, therefore more munchable.

I feel like such a ninny. I used to hunt and fish with my dad when I was a kid, shot a few squirrels and game birds in my teens, but I guess I've become too "civilized".

I'm in Benton County, Washington.

Thanks!

 

[graykristen]

My husband and I raise Cornish Crosses and Red Bros and we butcher them ourselves on the farm every month.

We use a mobile processing unit which is a 7x12 flat bed trailer with the equipment mounted on it. We use 'killing cones' which are stainless steel cones. We put the birds in upside down with their head poking out of the bottom of the cone. This not only holds them in place but allows them to properly bleed out before going on to the next step. There is a scalder, plucker and eviscerating table mounted on the trailer as well. The fact that it's 'mobile' allows us to pull it wherever we need it to be. We generally process right near our compost pile so that when we're done processing we just layer the blood, feathers, heads and offal (guts) with whatever carbonaceous material we have. When we shovel out the brooder pens, we save the old bedding and just use that to layer.

We do a little over 100 birds in a day. We're processing 300 this week!

 

[waldeneffect]

Quote:
My boyfriend and I are very new to butchering chickens, though we've had egg producers for a year or so now. This past weekend, a friend taught us how to butcher and used a very cool handmade plucking machine --- you can see a video on our blog at http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Feather_Plucking_Fun/. My understanding is that it's too expensive to build if you only want to pluck a few birds at a time, but if you're really getting into the business it might be worth it!

 

[HobbyChickener]

That is a homeade whizbang plucker. You can buy it for about $400 and build it for about $300-$350

 

[Heidina]

A few weeks ago we lost a hen to a hawk. We got more vigilant, but let them out yesterday, and another hen was gotten. However, my hubby came upon the scene, the hawk took off, and the hen was in perfect condition, except the broken neck. So, we took the opportunity, went online, found directions and did it. What a biology lesson! She was a virtual egg machine, poor dear. So, she now resides in brine in the fridge, and we're going to have her for dinner tonight, bless her little chicken soul.

It was much easier to do than we had thought. We found these directions very helpful:
http://www.bobrow.net/kimberly/chickens/butchering/PluckDraw.htm