New"ish" to Processing

[Dawn419]

Quote:
4 of them are a year old. The others are about 4 - 5 months old.

We know the older ones will be on the tough side so we plan on slow-cooking them.


mmajw,

The more I think about it, we'll probably just go ahead and use the cone method.


hdchic,

Thanks! I love your avatar!


Dawn

 

[MissPrissy]

Quote:
4 of them are a year old. The others are about 4 - 5 months old.

We know the older ones will be on the tough side so we plan on slow-cooking them.

If you have a pressure cooker it will help a lot in tenderizing the meat. You need nothing more than a small sized one that runs about $27 at walmart/kmart/target etc. Much more tender than a slow boil or crock pot.

Cut the meat into the leg quartrs and breast halves, wings and back instead of cooking it whole. You will get a really good broth too if you season lightly with onions and garlic.

 

[VaM715]

Go out and buy yourself some rat/snake shot. It won;t blow the heads off and is deadly. Also with the 22 lead bullet you almost have to be touching the head when you pull the trigger which makes the gas from the barrel blow everything all around. With the shot shells, you can be 6 inches away and still be lethal. But be sure to wear safety glases regardless which you use.

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

I love my wife's technique, just hold the chicken upside down by the feet bring the head up and hold both in one hand with a sharp cleaver in the other slice the throat and bleed it into a bowl, it might flap it's wings and struggle but they are only 6-10#'s my wife is just over 100#'s and has no problem. Blowing the head off seems to me to be extreme my personal feelings. We keep our birds whole.

 

[jaku]

I don't like the idea of guns to kill chickens. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with it, but there are a lot of issues with it as well. I considered it, but decided there were better ways. First of all, a gun of any caliber will effectively do the job, but there are other issues. Please know that I'm not talking down to anyone who uses this method. I'm just offering an opinion from someone who knows guns, and is trying to learn chickens. Some of these are very minor issues, but here's why I personally don't shoot my birds.

-If your hand moves or the chicken's head moves, you either miss or take a chunk out of the chicken's head, leaving it alive. It seems like people who are nervous about killing the bird often go with this method, as it's less personal than chopping off a head, which increases the risk of a nervous, shaky hand.

-When you hit them square in the head, it can be messy. Expanding gasses and high velocity bullets can do amazing and disgusting things to flesh and bone.
-Why have unnecessary bullets flying around? Even a .22 bullet goes a LONG way.
-For a chicken headshot ANY bullet is going to be overkill, yet a BB/Pellet gun won't effectively do the job.
-Anything but a .22 is loud and WAY too powerful.
-It takes a bit of time to line up the shot every time with a live chicken.
-You're spending money for EVERY chicken you kill, when other methods cost nothing.
-You're introducing lead and burned powder into your birds. The bullet going into it's head, and residual lead from loading the gun on your hands when you clean them.
-At the end of the day, it's just not any MORE effective, MORE humane, or quicker than head chopping, and can often be less effective with a misplaced shot.

 

[yotetrapper]

I kill mine with 22 long rifles. I used an axe once, never again. All I do, is stand lightly on the chickens neck, and hold the barrel right to it's head. You failed to mention if your long rifle shells are hollow points, or solid? Hollow points will make a mess... solids make hardly no mess. Solid points can be bought at walmart for under $2 for 50. As long as you shoot in the head, you won't have any problems.

 

[BettyR]

Quote:
I have a small pressure cooker that I use to cook grass-fed beef roasts in and they always come out very good.

How long do you process your roosters? I have some "packing peanut" roosters that I need to do something with.

 

[silkiechicken]

My guess is that it will be a bit of overkill. Using a break barrel .22 pellet rifle... an AIR rifle... my little brother was able to do a single head shot on a coon and dropped it on the spot, from about 200-300 feet away, using a pointed pellet. And that is a coon, a chicken head is tiny compared to a raccoon.

However, you'll know if it works for you once you try it. I prefer to use the knife myself.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Whoa. Part of me is laughing at the idea of you and hubby blowing off a chickens
head and part is concerned for your safety.

If you have the guts to use a gun then you have the guts to use a hatchet.

If you decide to go the gun route use a rifle that you can aim from a distance.
Even if your first shot doesn't do the trick you can just pull the trigger again.

Please take pictures of this. I'm so curious how it all works out.


Final thought: Have you considered dynamite?

 

[Dawn419]

Okay, calm down Peeps, did you miss my post (which is the very first post on this very page?) about deciding to go the "cone" route?

MissPrissy wrote:
How old is the rooster/chicken you are going to process?

4 of them are a year old. The others are about 4 - 5 months old.

We know the older ones will be on the tough side so we plan on slow-cooking them.


mmajw,

The more I think about it, we'll probably just go ahead and use the cone method.


hdchic,

Thanks! I love your avatar!


Dawn

I stated "newish" because my ex-husband took me the hatchet route and it was traumatizing to me and the roosters (20 years ago) because the "expletive" didn't sharpen the hatchet.

The reason I brought up the .22 was/is because if you own the Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow, on page 84, 1st paragraph, the book reads...

"Gun. At our place, we use a .22 handgun because it's fast and clean. This is not an option to consider unless you're familiar with guns and you live in a rural area where shooting is legal and can safely be done".

Thanks to Uncle Sam/U.S. Army I am, or atleast used to be a qualified Expert with an M-16 and an M-60 and am just as good with a handgun/s (proud and capable shooter of a .22 Deringer and a Glock Mini 9 MM, okay?

)

Secondly, we do live rurally where it is legal to use a gun on your property and kill predators if they're killing your livestock. Our chickens are livestock, even though Skip and I have our favorites.

PC,

We save the dynamite for people who "don't make our day" and we need to make a new sink-hole! Seriously kidding on that as sink-holes are a dime a dozen in our area (which rests on lime-stone cave formations.)

Thanks everyone! :aww


Dawn​