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

[paridisefarm2009]

where would one get traffic cones such as those in the pic? (Other than off the highway

)

I knew some city works that use them and well it only cost me a chicken when I was all done , thats all ya gotta do is ask can't hurt right . or yea grab a few in the dark

Oh did I say that outloud

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Am so happy to hear there is a yummy ending!
Sally, you crack me up.

 

[chiques chicks]

Sally, I know you stressed about this. Congratulations! I'm sure it want as bad as you convinced yourself it would be, and now you know how worthwhile it is, in taste and quality.
I'm proud of you, girl. You stepped up to the challenge and your fears and did it. You are awesome!

 

[mphsgal]

Great comments folks. For me it starts when I buy the chicks/eggs. I look at my meat bird chicks and imagine what a dressed bird looks like and how wonderfully tasty they're going to be. I do this with my layers too when they get close to aging out. (Although I do name the layers.) When I look at the layers I try to see the money from the egg sales, not the birds themselves.

Another thing to do is desensitize yourself to words like "processing", "slaughter", and "butcher". Learn how it's done and if you can manage it, slaughter one yourself. Then when you send them for processing you can think, "Wow, I just saved myself from a really messy job by sending them out!"

I grew up on a farm so I don't have much trouble with this although I do get somewhat attached to the layers. I think about how good their lives were because of me (as opposed to life in a commercial chicken factory with no air or bugs or growing green things to eat), and I think about the circle of life. That makes sending them off to chicken heaven a little bit easier.

Good luck!

 

[suzeqf]

i grew up on a farm so I knew most of the calves that I help bottle feed would become food and I was ok with it, When I have to cull a chick or a egg layer my daughter has to bury them because they have been "pets" but if have to cull a rooster depending on his age determines where he ends up, I hav 30 at the moment that are growing and will be ready for processing around memorial day, I call them the meaty boys and have practiced my "skills" with a few roosters that we've culled that were to tough to eat, I had to put a banty hen down that I had raised from a chick and she was my first broody and my first mother and it was a very hard thing to do but i had to be done.

 

[chirpingcricket]

I just slaughtered my first chicken yesterday, a Cornish X Rock I received from TSC. The work involved was much easier than people make it out to be but the emotional side seems to have destroyed me. I was going to eat it for dinner last night but I lost my appetite for chicken. Its in the freezer.

They say not to name the birds but I named my 2 Cornish X Rocks anyways... Their names are Lunch and Dinner. It helped actually. My biggest mistake was to not have all my tools at the site when I did this. Due to the flies that just swarmed me right after the blood was drawn I had to carry this fresh kill where ever I went. I thought this was something I can handle, and I did but just barely. I still have one more to slaughter but its getting another week of life as I need to recover from the first one. Hopefully after the next one I will have been desensitized to this process.

anyways I need to thank BYC for giving me a place to post this because no one I know wants to hear about it.

For sure, you have come to the right place. I'll have to do the same thing within next 4 to 6 months with some extra roos. Hoping I, we (DH) and I can manage this part of raising chickens and being self sustaining.

This is a valuable site and teaching tool!

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

I still get emotional when it is butcher time. I bring mine to a butcher... But I have learned how to do the deed with my dad.... Worst lesson ever! Even harder when hubby was doing it as he had never done it before and I was imagining they were suffering with his inexperience.


My poor butcher has to deal with me every time. I end up talking to my birds and praising them for their live with me and thanking them for being food. They then rest in my freezer until I can forget who they were (this is easier with more than 10 or so birds). And after three or four years I still cry.

 

[Elke Beck]

Okay, I am going to make a confession here. I am going to trust you people with my deepest, darkest secret. <taking a deep breath> So here it is, I keep feeling up my meat birds to see if they have a lot of meat on them. I am so ashamed! The poor things are walking along, thinking of nothing but their next meal, and suddenly they are whisked into the air and have hands groping their breasts and legs. It is true, I am a chicken molester!

 

[Mingming]

Okay, I am going to make a confession here. I am going to trust you people with my deepest, darkest secret. <taking a deep breath> So here it is, I keep feeling up my meat birds to see if they have a lot of meat on them. I am so ashamed! The poor things are walking along, thinking of nothing but their next meal, and suddenly they are whisked into the air and have hands groping their breasts and legs. It is true, I am a chicken molester!

Sometimes I feel like I'm like the witch in Hansel and Gretel.... "Eat, eat! You're all skin and bones!! "

 

[Shoshannah1993]

To me, feeding good food to the dogs isn't wasteful. I'd rather see them eat it than have it go into the garbage. They need good food too!

And they helped me with the quail - they cleaned up every piece of meat that would have been trashed including the head, skin (with feathers!) and insides.