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

[pipemum]

I butchered my 20-week old RIR roo yesterday. He seemed big, but only dressed out at just over 3lbs. The last bird I killed (a silkie roo) was really young but crowing his head off (literally, I guess), so he was butchered at only 13 weeks. I skinned him because plucking such a tiny thing didn't seem worth it. This RIR I scalded and plucked as was surprised at how easy it was. Everything went well. The postoffice has shoebox-type mailing boxes for free, and I had one around and used it as killing cone. Another thing that worked perfectly! I used a milk jug for the silkie, and it worked, but I had to hold him in during his death throes. No such problems with the tall, skinny mailing box.

This weekend I'm picking up 8 broiler chicks and starting on a meat bird adventure. I'd like some clarification on the killing process. I know the big posters here prefer slitting the throat first. I've only killed two chickens, and I've done it by killing cone and lopping the heads off with tree loppers. One swoop and the head is clean off. . It's instant death, a sure thing, and I don't have to get close and personal. Are there benefits to doing the throat slit that I'm missing?

 

[Triple Willow]

For some reason the difficulty some of us have in slaughtering our animals has brought something else to my mind. It is one of those politically incorrect things and I'm sure it will offend some but...

I don't think killing any animal should be easy for a person to do, especially when it is done up close and personal with our hands while looking into its eyes.

**edited by Staff**

 

[pipemum]

Are there any physical reasons throat slitting is better for the meat/bird/health than instant head lopping?

 

[Kassaundra]

Are there any physical reasons throat slitting is better for the meat/bird/health than instant head lopping?

No just preference some prefer slitting others lopping (chopping) others cervical dislocation, others shooting, whatever works for you as far as I have seen it is just that it be quick to keep the bird as calm as possible so adrenaline is not released.

 

[pipemum]

No just preference some prefer slitting others lopping (chopping) others cervical dislocation, others shooting, whatever works for you as far as I have seen it is just that it be quick to keep the bird as calm as possible so adrenaline is not released.

Thanks--

 

[off-grid hen]

I have been told its because the meat is supposedly better with a bleed out. I have no idea if it's true or not. People have been doing it for years without bleeding first and I'm sure things are fine? As long as a good bleed occurs I don't know if it much matters.

 

[Triple Willow]

I don't know if it's the case in all commercial processing plants but I know in some the birds are stunned with electricity immediately before bleeding out. The heart still beating forces the blood out of the body. If the bird isn't bled out good the muscle (meat) will have blood all in it and the taste will not be good at all.

 

[Elke Beck]

I don't know if it's the case in all commercial processing plants but I know in some the birds are stunned with electricity immediately before bleeding out. The heart still beating forces the blood out of the body. If the bird isn't bled out good the muscle (meat) will have blood all in it and the taste will not be good at all.

Triple Willow, whether having blood in the meat will impact quality is a matter of taste. Having eaten plenty of game, which usually cannot be completely bled out in the field, I don't think it makes as much of a difference as some would have you believe. My mother hates to see blood clots in the veins, so I try to bleed the birds as thoroughly as I can, but the ones that have not bled as well have always just tasted like chicken to me.

 

[Kassaundra]

I think bleeding is more a matter of culture / religion then anything else. Those raised in cultures w/ a Jewish background (including Christianity) tend to bleed out meat b/c of Jewish law prohibitions on eating blood. Other cultures it doesn't seem to be as important a thing.

 

[BirdbyGavin1103]

I think bleeding is more a matter of culture / religion then anything else. Those raised in cultures w/ a Jewish background (including Christianity) tend to bleed out meat b/c of Jewish law prohibitions on eating blood. Other cultures it doesn't seem to be as important a thing.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I found this interesting. My paternal grandfather's parents were strict Roman Catholics from Poland, and they used nearly everything, including the blood. Blood soup or blood sausage were special occasion meals. They usually used duck blood, but it was also made with the blood from other animals they butchered/processed depending on the meal.