Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[Tomtommom]

That's what I was thinking. Maybe they are the slow grow out broilers. Three or four more weeks and you'll have something. UMMMMM.

I hold them lovingly, imagining them on my plate

They're really a single serving size right now.. a little less meaty than your grocery store cornish hen.

I think they know.... they do not like being held, they scream bloody murder if I touch them. The barred rocks love being all over me.. wish I had a few more pullets in that bunch, but it seems we only got one MAYBE pullet.

The other three are mystery birds, looks like two pullets and a cockeral.. probably Jersey giants. The person who sold them to me sold them because they weren't Australorps... they think the old man who sold them mixed them up with his Jersey Giants. They're slow growers like Jerseys... so who knows. It'll be a year before I can eat the little cockeral of that bunch.. if he stays quiet I will let him stick around, otherwise... well... guess he'll be a broth bird.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Now..ya have to ask yourself this...if someone just cut off your head and then told you to blink, are you really going to acquiesce to that request? Seriously? If you had conscious thought enough to weigh the question and give an appropriate response, wouldn't you also surmise that they can't kill you if you don't comply with their requests? Isn't it more likely the blinking was happening anyway as a result of neurons firing haphazardly due to the decapitation?

Are we going to believe the documentation of people who are crazy enough to decapitate people in the first place? The scientists, I can believe as they are recording data and have the equipment to do so, but a blink at an executioner's doctor is not what I call hard evidence.

I was thinking the same.

I've tried it...it didn't work and the birds were still alive, looking at me, as brain tissue and blood poured out of their mouths. I scrambled every bit of brain they had in there and it didn't kill them, didn't make them pass out and didn't do anything but make me sick to my stomach. Never again will I try pithing. And, yes, I put the knife where it was supposed to go..the actual brains were coming out the mouths so I'm figuring I hit the brain and all it's various components as I scraped, cut, and cored out all discernible tissue in the skull.

I've always thought pithing sounded awful, and I could never bring myself to do it. Your experience just reinforced that feeling. I'm sorry you had to experience that.

 

[chiqita]

Im late to the party on all these but chiming in anyway!

they use local cream mixed into local whole grains and the birds are kept in dark no sunlight crates for 4-6weeks before that they soley free range and are given only very little food but are given ample pasture to free range on

I wonder about the little food free ranging. When you see the videos there is feeders and no grass where they keep the birds. And the sqf per bird made me think they would denuter the fields fast! So im guessing they run around but are not that grass fed.

I read somewhere that it helps in the cold if you teach the rooster to tuck his head under his wing like the Hens do. I have seen my hens doing this but not the roosters.

I hope this is helpful. We do not go below 25 in the winter here so frost damage is very rare.

That is interesting a lot of my boys do this already...

If you halve them, they will take up less space.  If whole, they will take up a lot more.  I have several dual purpose in the freezer (having one for dinner tonight), and they don't take up much space (whole) but it's not easy to stack them.

I cut in half sauce some and vaccume pack easy to cook and gtg immediately once they defrost.

*Finally* did the deed today (for the first time). It was awful. I processed two roosters. They had to go because we live in a suburb and their noise was threatening the existence of our whole flock. The first was actually not so bad but the second one was just a nightmare. They were naked-neck chickens so had super tough, sun-hardened necks.  I used the knife that came along with the killing cone I ordered on Amazon, which was not nearly sharp enough. The first one bled out pretty quick. The second one (my favorite) took time.

I gave them an exceptionally good life and wanted to give them a good death, and in that I failed miserably. 

I'm still feeling kind of in shock about the whole experience. The one silver lining is that I just finished gutting them (also looks much easier on YouTube but went OK!) and the fat on those chickens was the most orangey yellow I've ever seen – the same color as our hens' egg yolks – and the liver was the shiniest, vibrant, most beautiful thing, too. These were *healthy* birds and as someone who eats meat 2-3 times a day, thanks to our local farmers, but without ever thinking of how hard it is to get that meat on my plate, I am so grateful to have had the chance to do this. 

It's also got me reflecting on how fragile and temporary I am. I have all the same parts (well, except for a gizzard!) in my body: small & large intestine, gall bladder, liver, lungs, kidney, heart. And the difference between life and death is an instant (or in the case of my poor chickens, somewhat longer than that).

Next time, I'll try to find someone experienced to guide me in person. I want to be able to cull my own birds as I think it's an important skill when you keep layers. At the same time, I know there's a part of me that has to get just a little bit harder in order to have the decisiveness to cut into a living thing's neck and watch it bleed, and I'm not sure I want to.

/hugs. As many said it gets easier and they would rather live happy then die at one day.

I did some research on decapitation and it isn't instant death.  Decapitation is the preferred method for killing small lab animals.  Experimenters hooked up electrodes to the rats, I think it was rats, and checked the brain activity after decapitation.  There was brain activity for a full three seconds.  With humans, they did some experiments when France was busy cutting off an awful lot of heads by guillotine.  They would ask the decapitated heads to blink.  There is enough reports by doctors at the time to not think this is anything but true.  Twenty-seven seconds of consciousness after decapitation.  I think the time difference between rats and humans is simply the blood volume in a human head--it is oxygen that will allow the brain to continue to function.


So, I hate to say it but I don't think it is an instant death to dislocate the head from the neck.  Instant paralysis, certainly, but not instant death.

I've come to the conclusion that the only really instant death is a bullet to the brain or a heavy object crushing the brain.  Everything else takes time.  That said, I don't think bleeding an animal out is particularly painful.  I'm not sure of the stress, but my chickens have not been very stressed except right at the end.  Next time, I want to do two cuts to the carotid artery so there is no new oxygenated blood going to the brain as the animal bleeds out.

I read a uc davis article about the best way to process and they encouraged you to damage the area of the brain at the base of the spine. It causes immediate unconsciousness. Hypocampus??
I do that for quail now and I hope it works.

 

[ronott1]

I read a uc davis article about the best way to process and they encouraged you to damage the area of the brain at the base of the spine. It causes immediate unconsciousness. Hypocampus??
I do that for quail now and I hope it works.

The base of the brain\spine is where autonomic functions are--They stop breathing and will die quickly.

Still, cutting the arteries works very quickly too.

 

[LindaB220]

The base of the brain\spine is where autonomic functions are--They stop breathing and will die quickly.

Still, cutting the arteries works very quickly too.

Isn't it supposed to be both. Pithing at the base of the head and then immediately cutting arteries on both sides. At least, that's what I read in an old caponizing book from 100 years ago. No actual experience, just plans.

 

[ronott1]

Isn't it supposed to be both. Pithing at the base of the head and then immediately cutting arteries on both sides. At least, that's what I read in an old caponizing book from 100 years ago. No actual experience, just plans.

Yes, they have to hang to bleed out--caused blood spots in the meat if you do not bleed them.

I do not pith them.

When will you be ready to process? I will be processing the last two for a while tomorrow.

 

[LindaB220]

Yes, they have to hang to bleed out--caused blood spots in the meat if you do not bleed them.

I do not pith them.

When will you be ready to process? I will be processing the last two for a while tomorrow.

Not for months, my roos are still small. But later......

 

[Cluckysnap123]

Hey Cluchysnap, I noticed that you joined in Feb. so

. Another thing I've noticed is that on several, several threads you mentioned that you are Vegan and couldn't kill your chickens. And always ask if it's a rooster "What are you going to do?" "Don't kill it". Cluchysnap, this is the Meatbird ETC. thread. We cull, kill, process and eviscerate our roosters. That's what this thread is about. I don't want to hurt your feelings but your post shows that you are on the wrong thread. I'm not sorry that your neighbor killed his birds. I'm proud that he was able to do the deed and now has provided for his family.

I know, but my point was that I helped them out emotionally, so why argue? I purposely go on this area so I can at least use my right of free speech without being to annoying. Or at least trying not to be.

 

[LindaB220]

I know, but my point was that I helped them out emotionally, so why argue? I purposely go on this area so I can at least use my right of free speech without being to annoying. Or at least trying not to be.

But the purpose of this part of the forum is to learn about self sustainability and doing it on our own. In your kind way you are being judgmental to the rest of us for being happy to feed our family. On each thread I've read, it's all about being sad for the poor roosters. You have pets, we don't. Not trying to be mean, but let us do our thing our way. And you go love your chickens your way. Easy peasy.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I think it was very neighborly to help out.

I have a "friend' that is vegen or vegetarian, sorry I can't keep them straight, her husband teases her immensely as he is a vet but she sticks to her choices. We can discuss meat because she values that my birds are free range and are not kept in commercial prisons. We both have studies that support both ways of eating . . . so we agree to disagree, and she still buy my eggs anyways. lol