Hubby wants me to let him kill my chickens!!

[sarahr]

Hi all, I am new here, and I am not sure if I am posting this in the right place, but none the less here goes. I have 13 7 week old chickens, they are all hens except one Roo. I also have 2 NHR Roos that are 5 months old, while a friends dog just killed one of my NHR Roos, and my hubby wanted to eat it!!

I said NO! I have raised them, and can Not for the life of me look at them like food. So my question is HOW do I become able to at some point do this when they are no longer giving eggs? I can buy chicken in the store, and GOD knows whats in it, and cook and eat that!!! How do I get over this? Thanks in advance!

 

[12321]

Once your roosters get a bit older, you might see a couple things you don't like. That will make it a bit easier. I've only chopped 5 heads so far (all roosters) and it's still not fun, but it's not that bad. I am a hunting, fishing killing kind of guy too. After eating the last 2, I've realized I really can't taste store bought chicken. It just has no flavor - I'm kind of looking forward to eating some more home grown.
As for my hens, who I like a lot more, I'm guessing by the time they start slowing down production they'll be kind of tough to eat. Just so I don't have to go through the heartbreak, I've found a lady at work who will pay me for them and take them away to butcher herself.

 

[nbenevento]

You have pet chickens. If you didn't start keeping chickens to eat, you have pets. With that said, there is nothing wrong with that. I don't eat mine either but mostly because my family would never allow it. However, you should do a do a little more research on cooking older chickens. I don't have the answers but I have read that the older the chickens are, the tougher the meat. I believe most people use older chickens in stews and so forth because they aren't good for just making a roasted chicken. Otherwise though, unless you learn to treat your chickens as livestock instead of pets, you will not be eating them anytime soon.

 

[JTifft]

I have a similar issue. The family wants pets. I am OK with that but I would also like to grow a flock of roos for the table. I am still dwelling on this as I may be the only one dinning We shall see if the "pets" are worth the time before I expand the flock. If I did though, I would nest them separate from the pets so the "attachment process" would not be so easy.

 

[Kilsharion]

You have pet chickens. If you didn't start keeping chickens to eat, you have pets. With that said, there is nothing wrong with that. I don't eat mine either but mostly because my family would never allow it. However, you should do a do a little more research on cooking older chickens. I don't have the answers but I have read that the older the chickens are, the tougher the meat. I believe most people use older chickens in stews and so forth because they aren't good for just making a roasted chicken. Otherwise though, unless you learn to treat your chickens as livestock instead of pets, you will not be eating them anytime soon.

The meat isn't tougher - it's just got a different requirement for cooking. If you cook it like you would a young broiler (what you get at the grocers or from killing a 4-6 mo old chicken) then, yeah, it will be tough and rather unpleasant.

However, older hens and roosters cook up just fine if you take it low and slow. Roosters will have a different flavour than you are used to, though, due to the testosterone that has been in their system - especially young ones (under 2 yrs). One that is five months old, especially if it's been crowing for a while, is old enough to have the flavour difference because the testosterone is definitely in his system. Some people swear there isn't much flavour difference, others beg to disagree - it depends on how sensitive your palate is.

When/if you do get around to eating an older hen, just remember to cook it really slowly. I have found a steamy smoking does wonders for the meat. Crockpot cooking isn't bad. Making stock and chicken n dumplin's with an older hen is wonderful. Or, just roasting it in the oven on a lower than normal setting - like 275° instead of higher temps and letting it cook very slowly. Baste it heavily with honey at the beginning and it really helps to hold in the juices which helps to keep the meat tender. You need to cook a lot of heritage birds that way, as well, since they tend to mature at an older age.

We have The Girls, The Rascals and The Menagerie. The Girls will not hit the table until they are too old to be productive - and one of them is just never gonna see the table...we're too attached. The Rascals - we haven't quite decided on them, they are still growing up so it will depend on their productivity levels. The Menagerie, however, is all about being put on the table or breeding...so, yeah. The easiest way to handle the separation like that is to have a main coop for your "to be dinner" and a smaller, removed coop that is for your layers/pets. We use tractors for The Girls and The Rascals...we are building a series of coops and runs for all those intended to be in The Menagerie - and the breeding programme.

 

[slbenter]

In all my researching, I too felt I might take a stab (pardon the pun), at butchering my own for our consumption. However, we live a city, in a track home housing development. Our yard is probably much smaller than many here.
I don't think the neighbors would care, but if you do your research on the subject, there is a plethora of information on how to do it, complete with graphic photos.

It really doesn't look like a job I want to undertake here at home. It requires a bit of an investment, a turkey fryer to be exact to heat water to submerse the chicken to aid in the removal of feathers. Plucking can be done by hand, but if you're going to be doing this on a regular basis it looks like you'd be well off to invest or make a spin plucker.
Then you get the pleasant job of actually gutting it, and one must be careful or you wind up with a very ugly green bile all over it.

Naw....I can bait a hook and clean/filet a fish all day long, but the process with chickens is certainly messy....I think I'll pass.

But here's a suggestion. I asked our local feed store personel if there was anyone in the area that would dress a chicken FOR me. I did this years ago in a former life. To my surprise, there are still folk here that for 5 bucks, "do the deed" for you. As long as I could see the process, still go home with a chicken that I knew what went in him, I'd be pleased as a kid on their birthday.

Maybe this is an option for you?

 

[12321]

We just put a couple of pots of hot water in a 5 gallon pail and the feathers come off nice, but we only do 1 or 2 at a time and if it's cold,might have to put in more hot water for the second bird. You do have to be careful not to cut into the gut, but even if you do, you'll be washing out the insides when you're done anyway. It's not for everyone, and like SL said, maybe you can find somebody to do it for you.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I started raising my first chickens for eggs about two years ago when my daughter decided that she didn't want to have anything to do with commercially raised meat or eggs, due to the horrific conditions many "food" animals live their lives and meet their deaths. After raising my first 8 chicks to pullet age, I had come to realize that chickens were pretty interesting animals with individual personalities and that I may have to decide either to stop eating chicken or raise meat birds for myself so that I would know that they received plenty of fresh air and kind treatment while they were alive and as quick, pain-free and stress-free a death as was possible.

I wasn't, however, sure I could actually "do the deed". I actually looked on Craigs list for an unwanted rooster, figuring I could see what it was like to actually kill and butcher a bird before I purchased a whole bunch of them. About this time one of my Jersey Giant pullets was killed by a bobcat. They were out free-ranging and I managed to chase the bobcat away, but the pullet died moments later. I made a split second decision to butcher her so that I would learn something from the loss. It was difficult, because I had named this chicken and had not planned on eating her, but I also think it is a huge waste to just toss her in the trash or even bury her, so I fired up the computer and worked through the scalding, plucking, butchering and storing of her. We then smoked her in the smoker and had a lovely smoked chicken salad (it seemed less...personal than just biting into a drumstick.) While I didn't actually have to do the toughest part, because the bobcat did it for me, the experience gave me the courage to purchase and raise 35 Freedom Rangers the following summer.

While I still do not like the part where I have to take a live chicken and turn it into a dead chicken, I am extremely proud of myself that I don't let emotion keep me from doing what I know is right, ending the life with respect and empathy. While not pets, my meat birds were quite calm up until the last moment, and the last moment was very quick. The plucking, butchering etc. isn't really that big a deal for me once you've done one or two. There really isn't that big an investment necessary. You need a pot big enough to submerge a chicken into to scald it. We did our chickens in batches of 6, with my mom doing most of the plucking and me doing pretty much everything else. A big stock pot does the trick (although it does mean heating the water in your kitchen, which some folks prefer not to do). I did invest in a very sharp knife and a knife sharpener, because it makes the butchering job so much easier and quicker. You need a cooler with ice water to chill the bird once it has been butchered...and who doesn't have one of them? You need to decide how you are going to package and store them but even that can wait for several days while they "rest" in the refridgerator. As someone else said, there are some great informational threads on the "meat birds" section as well as some great on-line sites.

The secret for me was to remind myself that I was doing this to improve the quality of meat I was serving my family as well as decreaseing the amout of suffering by not supporting often unethical commercial meat raising practices. I still don't know how I will deal with it when my layers stop being good producers. I've become very fond of fresh eggs and am also quite fond of my hes, but refuse to just keep adding to my flock every year or two. I have butchered one rooster that I had named and intended to keep, but he became so huge and so rough with the hens that I decided he had to go. Adult rooster can be a very tasty meal if cooked properly. I researched "Coc au Vin" which is a classic French recipie (Cock in Wine) and requires a mature rooster to make it the authentic way.

 

[Melabella]

Once your roosters get a bit older, you might see a couple things you don't like. That will make it a bit easier. I've only chopped 5 heads so far (all roosters) and it's still not fun, but it's not that bad. I am a hunting, fishing killing kind of guy too. After eating the last 2, I've realized I really can't taste store bought chicken. It just has no flavor - I'm kind of looking forward to eating some more home grown.
As for my hens, who I like a lot more, I'm guessing by the time they start slowing down production they'll be kind of tough to eat. Just so I don't have to go through the heartbreak, I've found a lady at work who will pay me for them and take them away to butcher herself.

I need to find a lady like that by me,,, I too don't think I will be up for the task, but I have signed up for a chicken processing course at a local organic farm the end of April. Maybe I will see it isn't so bad. Start with chickens I don't know.....

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I told my partner that this was either going to turn me into a vegetarian or a farmer. Farmer it is. I highly recommend doing your own processing even just once. It will change the way you think about food and I have come to feel quite strongly that anyone who eats meat should do it at some point. I feel like you owe it, in a way, to the animals you eat. Every single chicken you buy at the store is the same as the ones you are raising the only difference is that the ones you are raising can have the respect of a good life and a good death. Seems much better to me. I feel that I am kinder to the ones I butcher than the ones I buy. I plan on trying to expand and raise more of my own meat so I can buy far less.