Ready to take out my first bird. Questions.

[chickintexas]

I have a rooster that needs to be dinner pretty dang soon. He's young so I'm not too worried about tough meat. But, his presence makes the pullets more aggressive towards my younger birds.

Number one-do I need to worm him before I slaughter him?

Number two-I watched the "how-to" video on here and it shows that I need to cut out the glands on the tail so it doesn't spoil the meat. Is that right? I have never purchased a store bought chicken that had the tail cut out to prevent an odd taste to the meat so I was just wondering.

Thanks!!!

 

[crperdue]

I've never wormed any of my birds before slaughter.
I just cut the whole tail off.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

If you worm then you have a waiting period for the medication to leave them bird, I don't worm butcher birds.
The place where I have mine butchered very carefully cuts the tail off, if I were doing my own I would do the same, the thought of gland oil + meat = gross.

 

[Winsor Woods]

You're going to be throwing out the digestive tract (intestines, etc) and that's where the worms would be if there are any. Don't waste the time time and medication.

Speaking of time, it's just easier to cut off the whole tail than to cut out the gland. If you don't know where the gland is under the skin, then you might cut into the gland trying to remove it. I've done that a few times. Just de-tail the bird and be done with it.

Dan

 

[Milliemay]

Look at the sticky at the top of the meat page, it will help with any questions. We printed the pages off and had them with us when we butchered for our first time. The tail is easy, and we did cut the gland out of a few because my father loves the tail, it was easy! Worming, don't bother.