Ok y'all, I'm about to go butcher my first chicken!

Yep, you can do it! I did 12 of my home-growns on Saturday. Not meat birds, just dual-purpose "extra" cockerals. It's not "fun," but it is satisfying. You can do it!

 

Good luck! You can do it!



Scald 140-150 degrees for a minute or 2, then dunk in cold water to prevent skin from tearing. I pick them off the roost at night and put them in a dog cage. I take care of them the next morning. I dont feed them that morning .

 

Good idea to wait until Saturday if it is your first time. Not something you want to feel rushed about doing.
We processed 6 dual purpose roos last weekend and yesterday had the most amazing Sunday dinner with our family... two roast roos on the BBQ...veggies from the garden and blackberry pie from fresh pick blackberries...MMMMMMM nothing better than good home grown food. Now DH has lovely chicken, leek and potatoe soup simmering on the stove.
The effort is worth it...even for the dual purpose birds...and ours were 15 weeks so we thought they would be small and not very meaty. Did them then for the same reason you describe (LOUD).
We scalded and plucked ours following the process patman described. Also same with feeding....we took the feeder out of the coop at night but left the water.

So glad we tried this and will certainly continue....Good luck with yours.

 

We just did three roosters yesterday, our first time. The scalding and plucking was the easiest part, I thought. Guttin' & Cuttin' took me three hours. Just make sure you've got VERY sharp knives! I ended up cutting off the leg/thigh sections and filleting the breast meat off the carcasses. Everything else got saved for stock. Cutting those necks off was hard if not impossible. I got one of the three off, and just left the other two on the carcasses to go into the stockpot.

 

I found a bunch of GREAT videos on youtube. this one is my favortie and watch it everytime we are getting ready to process. It shows you how to get EVERYTHING from the craw-below right out the bottom.

 

Saturday is a good idea. Even though it's only 4 chickens, it may take a while your first time. I remember our first attempt. It took us over 3 hours to do 6 birds. Now, with the help of our kids, we can do about 75 of them in 3 hours.

Goodluck!