I finally got the courage up to butcher our 1 year old barred rock hen...I posted twice already about how she was plucking the feathers off our other 3 girls. Well this morning I went outside to feed and water them and she had drawn blood on our 2 easter eggers...After I saw that I'd had it. I went and filled our biggest pot with water and started heating it up on the stove. The hardest part was the killing. I prefer to use a small hatchet, I think its the quickest and easy way for them to go. that went pretty well, except I had to kind of hold her still afterwards so she wouldn't flop around and bruise the meat. Scalding and plucking really wasn't too bad either. the feathers just wiped off. I could not believe how much yellow fat was on her though. it was worse than a store bought broiler!
Alltogether I had a good experience processing my first chicken. (I've had to cull 4 hens that were sick or hurt but we didnt use them for food) the picture in my avatar is the br hen....I think I'll keep her on there for a while now as a little memory of her. She was a very friendly girl towards me and very sweet, but I wasn't the one that had to live with her!!
Here are some after pics. Pretty good for a hatchery barred rock huh?!!
Alltogether I had a good experience processing my first chicken. (I've had to cull 4 hens that were sick or hurt but we didnt use them for food) the picture in my avatar is the br hen....I think I'll keep her on there for a while now as a little memory of her. She was a very friendly girl towards me and very sweet, but I wasn't the one that had to live with her!!
Here are some after pics. Pretty good for a hatchery barred rock huh?!!
