Slaughtering your own chickens can be intimidating, but as meat eaters, we are responsible for making that kill as quick and painless as possible. Chicken's muscle spasms after a kill stroke are violent and there is nothing you can do to stop it from being that way. We keep a plastic garbage can, weighted well, and lid which are easily washed and sterilized. The axe is sharp, and we resharpen as we go. A large wood stump, just like in the movies makes the chopping block. After each serious slaughtering, we use a chain saw to take a thin slice off the top of it. That leaves a fresh and germ free surface for the next slaughter. If it gets too low, we block it up. When it no longer can be raised high enough, we cut another block and burn the rest of the first. We wrap tape around the birds wings, make the stroke, and drop it in the can. It will still kick and bounce, but NOT splattering everyone involved in blood, and not bouncing all over the yard.
The second 'traditional' problem is plucking. I don't do it. Since both my husband and myself agreed it made little sense to worry about plucking when we both skin chicken parts before cooking for our health. We just skin after slaughtering, feathers and all, then we drop them in cool to cold water depending upon the air temp. Quick cooling keeps the meat better, and reduces the smell of gutting the birds. We save hearts and gizzards, but livers go to our dogs as does any part left over fit to eat. This does not include the skins and feathers which will be buried in a pit filled with sawdust in out woods to 'mulch' over the winter.
We hatch and grow to time out our slaughtering to be in winter. I have 5 children who have always helped with this. We spent a memorable evening slaughtering about 60 chickens during an unexpected snowfall by the headlights of our truck. They were all between 6 and 14 years old. They know their food has a 'face' and have grown up as responsible meat eaters. My grandchildren, ages 9 to 3, are being guided this same path. They know the lifecycle of thier food from start to finished plate. We also raise pigs, geese, fish, and hunt.
If any of the scary prophecies running around the internet, do occur, my family can feed themselves. That gives me a great feeling of comfort. If it never happens, they still will be good caretakers of their livestock and accept the responsibility attached to raising them all the way to the plate.
