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

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: Goat skin gross don't care, gross. I know the smell of a fresh skin and a stewing skin, they are disgusting! lol

 

[chicksooner]

Might I suggest plucking one? They cook up much tastier with the skin on and with one you will get a feel for plucking.

Forget what you have been told about fat being bad for you. We need fat and the fat on your home raised birds is so healthy and full of omega 3s.

does it still count as healthy if I slather it in batter and fry it up till it is crispy and golden.

Nothing better than some good ol' southern fried chicken... I never buy chicken with the skin on but when we process we are going to leave the skin on and I can't wait for some fried chicken.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:
Well I am sure you can find someone to make it for you, but OMG no no no!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: you fry your chicken without skin chicks? or am I reading this wrong?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: I have enough fat

 

[chicksooner]

you fry your chicken without skin chicks? or am I reading this wrong?

No I want the skin on so I can fry it. Fried chicken without skin would be gross and tough and not juicy.

 

[ronott1]

Quote: Yes, butter is healthy now! Crisco is not. It is the amount you eat that gets you. A lot of research is showing that it is not fat that clogs our arteries but sugar and simple carbs.

Switching our calorie intake percentages from fats to carbs has caused the spikes in Diabetes and etc. It is one of the reasons we have gotten so fat too. Simple carbs do not fill us up. Fat fills us up so we actually will eat less. It is not a huge number either. Decreasing fat calories by 10% and increasing carbs by 10% resulted in a 20% increase in weight of Americans over the last 40 years.

Eat the skin! And if you do not like it, take it off after cooking. The meat will be moister and tastier too!

 

[annabell254]

WOW Im glad this thread caught on

I know exactly what you are going through, I have gone back and forth with this myself, I know i NEED to and i WANT to, its just hard. I know it's cheaper to eat my extra roos then to give them away. I also know that part of me wanting to be a farmer also means living off the land, and that's what i want. I don't think the processing of the bird will bug me that much, its the killing part I have a hard time with

Same here.... already processed a bird a stray dog killed.... took me 5 min and I have never done it before

Give thanks to your diety, and thank the animal for giving you sustenance. I don't let animals that are to be food become pets. I treat them well, but keep my distance.
Honestly, a chicken will flap its wings and flop around, it is just a reaction, not pain. It is never eas, but the results are worth it.

I know I know, but I still want to let my hubby shoot it... all of mine come running when they here me and I keep thinking, one day you will be running to your death... NEED to get over that thought!... I have though about building a seperate coop way away from the house, and haveing as little contact as possible with thoses chickens, maybe that will help

I am not so sure I am strong enough with a big brahma roo and DH says No way is he doing it!
Heck he even threatened not to eat the darn things! woos man!

My hubby siad he was not eating the chicken the dog killed and I cleaned.... but he got hungry!

I can't bring myself to kill them either Sally. I make JJ do it, then I can process them. Once it's dead it doesn't bother me. The only thing I can process still alive is fish & that's because I've been doing it since I was 7 years old. The fish can be flopping & carrying on & I just crack it across the top of the head with the knife handle to stun it & go to work. Chickens are a different story. Guess it's the blood. Fish don't really bleed. Chickens do. Maybe eventually I'll get past it. I even managed to process a roo that had a name, but he was mean & ticked me off so I was glad to see him gone. I was tired of getting bit & flogged. I have about 22 broilers & 2 turkeys out in the pen right now that we'll be processing in a couple weeks (the broilers anyway, the turkeys still have some growing to do). Bring your boys over & let JJ do the killing & I'll help you process them.

Yep, I can clean some fish like no tomarrow, but not my aquarium fish, I even adopted them out to good homes when they got to big, and still would cry .... I think watching them grow and haveing that emotional investment is what is hard.... haveing to kill something that trusts you to keep it safe, it is like I am betraying them............

Sally, I think the only way is to set a date and not allow yourself to back down. If you need help, let us know the date you are sending the birds for processing and we will hold you accountable.

This is not supposed to be easy; taking a life is a solemn thing. For me I do not want to ever get so calloused that I do not feel sad about taking a life. I want my meat chickens to have a lot of good days and one bad day.

My brother, who is a scientist, has a theory of conservation of difficulty. The theory goes that in any situation there is a certain amount of difficulty. You can move the difficulty around, but you cannot eliminate it. For example, anyone who had a computer in the 80's knows how hard it was to use a computer. You had to learn a lot about programming in order to use simple programs. Now computers are pretty simple to use because the designers and programmers have taken the difficulty away from the user and hidden it behind the scenes. So today you can fire up your computer and go directly to your desktop instead of start from the C prompt. To bring this back to chickens, if you are going to eat meat, then there is a certain amount of difficulty in the situation. Factory farms have allowed people to ignore that difficulty by raising chickens in conditions that are horrible and that do not respect the nature of the chicken -- the difficulty has been shifted from the people eating them to the chickens. I see the sadness and discomfort I suffer from killing chickens that I have carefully raised as my taking some of the difficulty on myself.

Anyway, I hope that makes sense.

I agree, I should feel sad.... and better me feel sad and the chicken I eat have a good life than me be ignorant and the chicken suffer it entire life in a factory

Thank you! I can envision this method yes. Do they not flop and fly or is it because they remain head down feet tied?

I haven't seen a thread that shows how to skin a bird, have you seen any? We also dont eat the skin, only on a turkey
Do you have to skin it like a dear or squirl? or do you rip it like a dove or something?

Yep, like a squirl, the skin comes off like a shirt


And it did not get quoted but I LIKE the say a prayer and give thanks... that seems right, respectful of life

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: Yes, butter is healthy now! Crisco is not. It is the amount you eat that gets you. A lot of research is showing that it is not fat that clogs our arteries but sugar and simple carbs.

Switching our calorie intake percentages from fats to carbs has caused the spikes in Diabetes and etc. It is one of the reasons we have gotten so fat too. Simple carbs do not fill us up. Fat fills us up so we actually will eat less. It is not a huge number either. Decreasing fat calories by 10% and increasing carbs by 10% resulted in a 20% increase in weight of Americans over the last 40 years.

Eat the skin! And if you do not like it, take it off after cooking. The meat will be moister and tastier too!

Again, wealth of info from you! so glad I met you for sure!

Quote: that's what I was thinking and why I thought I was missing something!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

WOW Im glad this thread caught on

Quote:
But he got hungry! LOL smelt rightly good did it! HA!