Last night "harvesting" recap - second harvest better than first!

[elewis]

The killing part was the hardest for me as well. First 2 didn't go well for me either. I found the easiest way for me is to hang the bird, with the knife (sharp stiff 4 inch paring/utility knife) in my right hand i take my left thumb on the bottom of the beak and index finger behind the head and gently pull down and around my index finger. This way stretches the neck in the right place to slice. I then slice from the back to the front of neck on the chickens left side. The blood will immediately begin to run out, quick and "easy". A couple minutes later it is done bleeding out and ready to scald.

 

[bobbi-j]

I commend you for even trying it. We've been raising and butchering chickens for years, and I have yet to kill one. DH does that. We use the "two-nails-in-a-stump" method and decapitate them. In my opinion, that's the fastest, most humane way possible. Last time we butchered, we used a very sharp fillet knife and severed the head that way. That's what I would recommend for you. Put the rooster in the cone, take a VERY sharp knife, and slice through the neck as far as you can go. No "bleeding out for several minutes". The bird is dead in seconds. We also make sure the water is hot before we even kill the first one. Makes plucking alot easier. You don't want it too hot, though, because then you can tear the skin. Of course, you can skip the plucking altogether and just skin the bird. That's what we do with our tough old hens because we pressure-can them anyway. Those little feathers that you mentioned are called pin-feathers (new feathers growing in) and can be hard to get out. I take a paring knife and either scrape "against the grain" if you will, or kind of grab the feather between my finger and the blade of the knife and pull. For your first time, I think you did a good job. I doubt the chicken suffered after you debrained it. I know decapitation is messy, but that's the only way I would do it. Just make sure your hatchet, knife, or whatever you use is sharp. It will get easier next time. You have learned some lessons and you will have more confidence that you can do this. I have confidence that you can do this.

 

[mamaluvschick]

wow I have been thinking about getting some meat birds, but I think I will have someone else do the killing. I am impressed that you all can do that. I am just not sure I am ready. I may come back to this post in a few years and laugh, but we'll see. Good for you guys!

 

[LilyD]

Have to say that didn't go so well. 1 down 30 to go and would be happy to take any advice in making the rest go smoother. Some I've learned on my own from this first experience, but I'll share for those interested in learning from my mistakes. You old-timers may find some of this funny, but I'm not sure even time will let me look back and laugh.

Got set up last night as described in my opening post, went out after dinner was done and kitchen was cleaned to get it done. I had set up a killing cone arrangement under a large step-ladder, attaching the cone to a piece of 2"X6" that was across one of the ladder rungs and the support on the other side. A rope with a slip knot came down from the top of the ladder and I had a bag-lined trash can with pine shavings under the cone. I calmly picked up rooster and proceeded to tip him into my killing cone, securing his feet with a slip knot. There was remarkably little struggling on the part of the rooster, which made me feel somewhat better, until I realized that I had either made the cone too big or too narrow, because the rooster's head didn't extend from the bottom. As gently as I could, I removed the rooster from the cone and put him back in the dog crate and started working on altering the cone. By the time I had it fixed and secured to the 2"X6" I felt it was too late to continue and decided to put it off until morning.

My night was spent dreaming about chickens and I awoke 15 minutes before the alarm went off and decided to just get up and get started. Put water on to scald, walked and fed the dogs, had a cup of coffee while reviewing "The Deliberate Agrarian" pages on butchering a chicken, shooed my daughter out of the house to her job and went out to the garage to start again. This part is really hard for me to talk about because it makes me feel horrible even hours later writing about it, but perhaps someone will have advice for me as to how to do this better the next time. If you are squeamish, please don't read any more because I think the next part is awful and I'm not proud.

I got my rooster back in the killing cone without trouble this time and using the new curved-bladed "Exacto" knife I'd picked up the day before, slit his throat behind the ear area. For good measure I then used the straight-bladed Exacto knife up through the roof of his mouth in the "debraining" move I'd read about on this forum. He was bleeding and completely limp, so I decided to go out and feed and water the other chickens. I was horrified and mortified when I came back in...must have been 8-10 minutes later to find him still breathing! I grabbed the Exacto knife again and opened his neck up wider and deeper and he started to bleed much faster, did the final struggle and died but I can't help but feel like I botched it horribly and can only pray that the knife to the brain meant that what I was seeing was autonomic nervous system rather than suffering. Didn't cry then but am now writing about it.

I removed his head and decided to see whether or not the "dry plucking" that is supposed to be a side benefit of the debraining method had happened. Having only plucked one other chicken, and this was after it had been scalded, I can't tell you whether it worked or not. The feathers on the chest and back seemed to come off fairly easily, but not wiping off like the videos show after scalding. I went inside and discovered that the water still wasn't to scalding temperature (must be over an hour since I put it on the burner) so I try to continue dry plucking. About 10 minutes later I'm starting to panic because I'm not done and I have only about 15 minutes before I have to shower and go to work, so I came inside and dunked the chicken in the not -yet-scalding water and kept plucking. The carcass was far from pretty, but I have to move on and proceed with the butchering.

That part didn't go too badly...compared to what had come before. I learned that the knives I have aren't sharp enough and feel like I butchered the butchering, but I did remove the organs, intestines etc without anything bursting or cutting my fingers off. I gave the carcass a good washing and dropped it in the cooler of ice water and ran up to get changed for work, not having time anymore to shower.

When I got home, I inspected my work, spending some more time removing stray feathers and noted that I hadn't removed all of the lung material so got that done. Bird is now draining on the counter. Cleaned weight is 4lb, 6oz.

So what have I learned and where do I need help.

I learned that it takes way longer to bring that much water to the right temperature than I thought.

I learned that I need sharper knives if I'm going to do an attractive job of butchering a carcass.

I need to review the part of the instructions on removing the neck, because I don't think I cut far enough down and left a few neck bones attached to the back, which may freak out the kids when this chicken is served.

I'm guessing that I didn't cut deep enough into this bird's neck and caused unnecessary suffering on my part and probably on his part as well. Please tell me that it should not take a bird that long to bleed out, because I don't think I can do another chicken if it does. Perhaps cutting off the head would be better, because I'd know for sure that it wasn't feeling anything regardless of what the body was doing.

I'm trying to figure out why there were so many quill-like feathers, almost like splinters barely protruding from the skin that I had to get in a pincer grip and pull out individually. Did I, when dry plucking, perhaps break of the feather, leaving the quill in the skin, or were these probably new feathers growing in?

Is 4lb, 6oz a decent weight for a 9 week-old rooster? Should I wait a week or two before butchering the rest?

Anything else my saga has revealed about my lack of experience in this area?

I'm sorry that it didn't go as planned. My first time by myself didn't go amazing either. I think first that when you do chickens for the first time by yourself that you understand that what you thought of as sharp and really sharp are really two different things.

I had a really sharp set of knives but boy when it came time to process they were no where near sharp enough. I have edited that so that now I have a razor knife to use for the whole process with replaceable blades that I absolutely love.

I also use a turkey fryer. You can set it up way ahead of time, let it get just a little bit warmer than the temp you want and then do the deed and it is down to temp when you are ready to pluck. Because it has it's own heat source if it gets cool you can heat it just enough to make it work for plucking again and then turn it off again. It made things go much faster than the bucket in the house technique. I used that the first time too.

No it shouldn't take them 8 minutes + to bleed out so you are okay on that score. You need to cut deep enough so that you get the large flow of blood you probably saw at the end when you made the second cut. That is the main artery which is what you want. Using a razor is a good thing just use a little bit more pressure when you make your cut and you should get deep enough. Or make two cuts if you have to. The main thing is don't stop until you get that large flow then you will be okay. The bird will pass out relatively quickly 15 seconds or so once you hit the artery due to the large blood loss and it will be over relatively quickly although for us it feels like eternity.

I have never tried the pithing method so I can't help you with that one. But I have to agree the way to go is late night or early morning. I prefer the 3 to 4 am route. If they are in a dark area like your dog kennel. They go almost into a trance when sleeping and are very quiet to start which makes it much easier. I thought about trying the pithing but honestly I worry about the margin of error and hitting the wrong places rather than the brain so I haven't given it a go yet.

Just another thought. Not a bad thing but an observation. Personally I don't think I would process on a day I had to work. Even though I like doing it early morning. It's nice to have the detox time for afterwards to relax and just be still after processing. That's just me though and everyone is different.

The knife I got is the Havalon Piranta Edge the blades are as sharp as a razor and work well for both the deed and the processing afterwards in case you are interested in a knife that is sharper.

Good luck with your future processing.

 

[quercus21]

I use one of those razor blades that you can break the tips off. I replace the blades after 25 - 30 birds (or in the last couple of days, every day). You have to remember the skin in the neck is really loose, so I pull down on the head (slightly) and draw the razor across the side of the neck. While still holding the head, I'll gently till it to the side to see if I made a good cut. You should have a good stream of blood coming from the wound.

I never pith, so I can't help you out.

I heat my water with a propane turkey fryer. Yes it seems like it takes for ever to heat up.

I also use a bench moment plucker. Does a bird in about 1.5 - 2 minutes.

I have 3 cones, so I do 3 birds at a time. By the time I am done plucking the first set of 3, the next set has been bled.

I just put 55 Cornish X in the freezer over the past couple of days. We are trading 10 birds for a turkey........

The more you do, the better and easier it becomes and don't become discourage.

 

[Life is Good!]

I purchased a 4" Fiskars fish filet knife from Farm & Fleet specifically to 'do the deed'. It was sharp enough and long enough to get to where the blade needed to be in order to cut the vein.

For processing, we used a quick-change contractor's razor blade knife from Menards. It was all metal, so it went into the dishwasher along with the Fiskars knife. (I cut myself pretty badly washing a fish filet knife two years ago - now swear by dishwashing those sharp suckers! Or, NO ONE ELSE is in the kitchen with me - no distractions while washing that knife!!!) I liked the contractor's knife for processing, especially to start the gutting, as you couldn't cut too deep, the blade was too short!

Also, the filet knife stayed where the cone was, the contractor's blade stayed on the processing table - never misplaced either of them in the craziness of it all.

Yes, the first one was VERY very hard. We too did ok, but certainly learned a whole lot. By the last of our 25 FR's, we had a good system going and could process in about 18min per bird (from catching to in the sink for washing to package.)

Best wishes - it doesn't get easier, you just get better skilled. And with skill comes expertise - your hands start to know what to do before your brain catches up!

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

wow I have been thinking about getting some meat birds, but I think I will have someone else do the killing. I am impressed that you all can do that. I am just not sure I am ready. I may come back to this post in a few years and laugh, but we'll see. Good for you guys!

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow, when I head back to the garage for another go. However, the advice and support of folks on this forum have made even thinking of it possible. I don't expect to be perfect at something my first time doing it, but it is hard when I think that something else suffered because of my lack of experience. However, if my goal is to be sure that what I'm eating had a healthy and respectful upbringing and that it has as quick, painless and trauma-less end as possible, then I figure I can't hire someone else to do it for me, because unless I stand there and watch over their shoulder, will I really know what they are doing? If I thought someone else could do it better, I might consider it, but I refuse to chicken out (didn't intend that as a pun but I guess it is) OK I refuse to WIMP out just to spare myself. I'll learn...whether I ever again purchase meat birds is a big question at this point...hubby has asked me not to, because he doesn't like to see me stressed out...but I'm committed to follow through on what I started with this batch.

Thanks for all of your support.

 

[trifecta]

If it makes you feel better, the first one I did I "thought" I had a sharp utility knife... basically really ****** the poor thing off by moderately cutting the skin. The scalpels work really well, that's currently what I am using, but I am thinking a good quality filet knife may actually work well too; I've decided its just really hard to find a great butchering knife. As far as the rest of the cutting, I splurged on a pair of Henkel's poultry shears, which are worth their weight in gold. They can cleanly remove the neck and the blades are super small so its easy to get between the shoulder blades. Basically, the only tools I use are the cone, scalpel, chef's knife (to debone/separate the hock joint), and my super poultry shears.

I think it as a good thing that you debrained it as that probably eliminated any suffering on the bird's behalf. Likewise, I think if you talk to any person on this forum who butchered their first chicken without "direct" instruction (and there are LOTS of us on here!), no one's first chicken goes all that well. I did mine in groups of 4, over several weeks, and by the time I got to the last group I was actually pretty fast, as well as "fully proficient", LOL. Another thing to consider... its possible that your rooster did not have a great 8 minutes of its life. That is NOTHING compared to the suffering of commercial broilers. Please don't beat yourself up over it, learn from your experience and move on.

As far as the scalding water- how much were you heating? I use a cheap blue-speckled metal stock pot, fill it up, and throw the lid on. I don't ever think its taken a full hour to bring it to boiling, but I have no idea how big it is (it comfortably holds one bird at a time).

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Well, here's the final result of my first "harvesting". Doesn't look so bad in it's tidy shrink-wrapped skin. That is one part of the process that went very well the first time!

 

[bobbi-j]

Well, here's the final result of my first "harvesting". Doesn't look so bad in it's tidy shrink-wrapped skin. That is one part of the process that went very well the first time!

Looks good!