Newbie , botched first try, need help please! Graphic description

[sstehm]

Hi,
I'm new here and really hope you all can help me or I just might have to become vegetarian!
I have had chickens for years, but have always wanted to raise my own meat birds for ethical reasons. I like the idea of knowing my food had a nice life and as peaceful as possible exit. But I totally botched the peaceful exit part... A few years ago I had someone show me the ropes. I was unable to make the cut .at.all. They said the blade was dull ( they were processing a lot of chickens to sell). So I knew to cut the sides of the neck under the jaw bone of the bird but figured I just needed to make sure I had a truly sharp knife, which I did. It cut very well, clean and even seemingly painlessly. However, I don't think I got the artery or I had super chickens. What is supposed to only take minutes took way too long to be humane in my book! I did re cut in an attempt to find the right spot, unsuccessfully. I need to know exactly what it is to look for or feel for before the cut. How deep do you need to cut, I saw neck muscle, I didn't want to cut that and cause more pain! I did brush up online and using a book I have before hand and still messed up. IF I ever try this again, I want to be so sure that I'm getting it right. I am very distraught over this and so glad I only got 2 birds to start with rather than a bunch.

2nd part. They finally passed. I did the poke the eye to ensure no response thing to make sure they were truly done.
So I started to process them. I had to skin them because I don't have any scalder set up yet. That went fine but then the breast meat started to twitch! I finished up the first bird ok because it didn't move much so I figured just neurons still firing. Please tell me that's normal. I don't recall ANY movement when I was shown but they also had a scalder and pluckers, so I would imagine any neurons left got pretty beat up.
But I could not finish the second one because I was too freaked out. Skinned fine, but after cutting into breast meat the twitching was so bad I was horrified. It was like it was trying to get away. So I stopped totally. Now here I am terrified to even think of raising my own meat of any kind for my family.
Are the birds supposed to hang around for a while first if you don't have a scalder?
I hope you guys can help me. Please don't be too harsh! Sorry for such a long post.
Thanks.

 

[iwltfum]

never seen twitching breast muscle post mortem. That sounds odd.

when you make the carotid artery cut, it can take a minute or two even if you do it right. The key is to perfect the cut so you get a gush of blood right when you make the cut. It should be alot of blood and if you have your hand in the correct position, the blood will drain right on to your thumb and hand. I hold the head there until I know I made a good cut and the bird is remaining calm. If you have to make the cut again because it's not gushing blood or things arent progressing fast enough, then make the cut on the opposite side. I am on kill cones all day when my crew and I butcher so I usually only have to make a second cut once or twice out of every hundred birds or so but that's with alot of practice. I usually do two quick swipes. First opens the skin, second is the arterial cut. I find it much easier than trying to do it in one pass. Good luck on your next batch!

 

[AprilsZoo]

I‘m pretty sure @frugal has either a thread or an article that details from beginning to end the slaughtering process. Including many tips and tricks. You might want to try a search for keyword slaughter or process and the username frugal.
Hopefully, they‘re still active here & will show up with some more wisdom for you.

 

[Molpet]

I was worried about the same thing...at first I used a sharp tree lopper and now I use a PVC pipe cutter and sever the neck. I know it's dead.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Southwire-...30m6d1jeersn6aqQrAEaAsGMEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[Parront]

It is only the nerves. You can be sure the bird is dead when you touch the eye with no reaction. This can happen when nerves fire -- us kids in high school biology would make frog's legs jump with a 9 volt battery to horrify the other kids in our lab class. The frogs had probably been dead months, but your birds were still having energy from being alive minutes ago and did not need a battery! I am sure you would not have this happen if you did your cuts after resting them an hour while you took a break or cleaned up a little. You could even put them in a frig and bone the breast meat the next day, meat cuts better when it is cold anyway. Do not feel bad, you did your best and your birds had a much better time than a commercial bird would, mistakes and all!

 

[RoosterML]

Try this

 

[sstehm]

Thank you all for your replies.
I was unable to find the @frugal article.
I did watch the video. That sounds good, but now I'm wondering, first howdoesone person hold an upset chicken and put its head in and work the lever on the neck breaker device? Also does it drain the blood as effectively as cutting ( he saiditall drains into theneck cavity)? Anyone use one of these and can tell me what it like using them? (I will look it upongoogle too)
Is it any easier to use than the suggestion of a pvc pipe cutter?
I am doing this on my own so everything has to be easy for one person to handle.
Thanks so much.

 

[RoosterML]

Practice will make it easier. I can do axe and stump by myself but it is easier with 2 people obviously

 

[ladybrasa]

I was worried about the same thing...at first I used a sharp tree lopper and now I use a PVC pipe cutter and sever the neck. I know it's dead.

I second this. Head off is as final and clear-cut (literally), no question. No learning curve either. It is more gruesome for the human with the decapitation and then the flapping afterwards (easier if contained in a cone), but personally to me I feel much better knowing the bird quickly and definitely dead.

As far as the breast twitching well after kill, I haven’t seen that either. But I only started last year butchering and only done like one and a half dozen or so! All skinned!

 

[Ruby Rogue]

You did well. I've yet to butcher my own bird but I'm hoping to try this summer. Your experience was encouraging and informative. Thanks for sharing. Hopefully it is a better one next time.