I did it! First processing!

[Stephanie739]

How did you kill them? I am going to eventually learn to do this to help feed my family.

 

[justdeb1107]

Definitely good to know!

 

[justdeb1107]

How did you kill them? I am going to eventually learn to do this to help feed my family.

I killed them by wrapping their bodies snugly in a towel, then stretching out the neck and chopping with a sharp hatchet. I chose that method because it is an "instant" kill, unlike just cutting the neck arteries and letting them bleed to death. After, I hung up the birds and let them bleed out.

To actually dress them, I went though the steps described on this blog:
http://ramblingredneckmom.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-process-chickens-at-home.html

I ran back and forth between the kitchen and my office computer to check the next step! lol

 

[Stephanie739]

I killed them by wrapping their bodies snugly in a towel, then stretching out the neck and chopping with a sharp hatchet. I chose that method because it is an "instant" kill, unlike just cutting the neck arteries and letting them bleed to death. After, I hung up the birds and let them bleed out.

To actually dress them, I went though the steps described on this blog:
http://ramblingredneckmom.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-process-chickens-at-home.html

I ran back and forth between the kitchen and my office computer to check the next step! lol

okay...I guess that is probably the best method. Thanks. I was going to try the artery method, but I was so scared of hurting them and not doing the deed quickly enough. Did the towels secure them so they didn't move or run around afterwards?

 

[justdeb1107]

Did the towels secure them so they didn't move or run around afterwards?

The towel would have if someone else was holding it. I used my knee and it slipped both times. There was movement and it wasn't super pleasant, but not terrible. I guess I was mentally prepared for that.

 

[justdeb1107]

Last night we finally ate the chicken. The BCM was tasty and tender except for a tough spot on one of his legs. The Americauna was scrawny and tough. They were both young, but the smaller bird would have been much better in a stew. I aged the meat 4 days in the fridge and then froze the pieces. I did NOT tell my 10 and 11 year old daughters that they were the birds we raised. The 11YO would have been fine, but my 10YO would have been traumatized for life!

 

[Anna-MN]

The feeling you get when you realize you have provided your family with the purest food possible is priceless. It is something to be proud of!

We butchered 64 Cornish X's last year and by golly, I gutted every single one of those bad boys. And by the looks of your cleaning talent on that rooster, you should really start raising meaties.

 

[justdeb1107]

The feeling you get when you realize you have provided your family with the purest food possible is priceless. It is something to be proud of!

We butchered 64 Cornish X's last year and by golly, I gutted every single one of those bad boys. And by the looks of your cleaning talent on that rooster, you should really start raising meaties.

64?! Wow! I can't imagine how long that took if you did them all yourself! Awesome!

Thank you for the encouragement. I am seriously considering raising a batch of 25 Cornish Xs in the spring. If that goes okay, then I will do 25 more in the fall. Providing for my family in this way felt like a tremendous accomplishment.

My only question was why was there a tough spot on the BCM? Did I do something wrong? Leave him to bleed out too long? (15 minutes or so) I tried to process him as quickly as possible, but it was my first time and I was pretty slow (about an hour and 20 minutes from butchering to fridge).

 

[Anna-MN]

All birds are different. It could be age, what they ate, how much exercise they got....

One of my Cornish X's slipped out of my hands when I was carrying the sealed up bags to the garage freezer. I marked it, and where it fell was tough and a little bit darker.