Trying to find the Executioner

[spook]

Personally, the term Executioner is perfect. No need to apologize especially after others of us have stepped up and smiled at your wording. It does feel like that.
I am the one who processes my birds, DH & DM nor any of my friends will help me, lol. But one thing that I have told my SIL when she became upset that I could Execute, was that I know that the birds I have are raised with kindness, decent feed, shade, sun and moving room, and they die with dignity. How much better can you get. If you see a dark area on your meat, you know it was something that happened after death then prior to by some yahoo that doesn't care.
Sorry, the KFC thing and other issues horrify me to think that happen to birds, beef, pork, etc. I wish I had room or I would raise a beef critter. Dunno if my family could imagine that! LOL.
I like the suggestions that you guys have for finding a slaughter house. You can also find portable processors. Call the extension office, they would know!!!
Good luck!
Kel

 

[Miltonchix]

Quote:
Do you not handle meat you are preparing? Its just as dead.
Any one who is not a little sqeamish when taking a life is brain dead. But, we suck it up and do what needs to be done. It never gets easier taking a life. Just do it as quickly and humanely as possible. I think it makes us all the more thankful for what we have.

 

[CTChickenMom]

No...I don't need to suck up and just do it. I won't need to because I won't buy and raise the birds if I have to do the job myself. Am I squeamish, yup...do I want to see a creature I've raised going through the death throws as his life leaves his body...nope (however much they are bound up, it happens). I greatly admire people who can do it all. Its a mighty task. Maybe if I had practice by helping with someone else's birds I'd be okay.

The majority of our society has long since lost the ability to raise/hunt and hence process our own meats. It's all about going to the local Walmart or Stop & Shop where we are blissfully unaware of how the food actually got there or where it came from. Ain't convenience great? How many kids think milk comes from the supermarket. I had a kid ask me once, when I worked at a dairy farm, how the baby cow got out of its mother. I raised the cow's tail and pointed and the girl was mortified, "Ewww, gross!" Birth is life and it happens to be a bit dirty. Killing is too. I was in my teens before the conscience thought occurred to me that the chicken on my plate was a living thing at one time. I had never made the connection.

I am all for the humane dispatch of our feathered friends and would likely do it with great care to ensure a safe passage into the next world. I'd say a prayer, thank them for their lives and tell them that their life was not for naught, as reassurance to me as much as for them. I still couldn't draw the knife. I can't separate my emotional self from the kill. I can go to the market and get chicken, my ancestors couldn't. Today their isn't much need for people to slaughter their own; its been lost among the bigger-better-faster, gotta-have-it-now mentality of our modern day society.

So, when I find a method that leaves me out of the process, I'll gladly open my wallet and fill my freezer.

 

[CovenantCreek]

Quote:
Amen to that! Besides, hiring someone in the service sector to do the job for you is good for the economy.

 

[Sparky]

CTChickenMom, you are right on the mark. I have raised chickens and turkeys for twenty years and every time I head out with my boys to butcher the birds, my wife closes the blinds so she cannot see what is going on. Thirty minutes later we come in with 5 gallon buckets of chilled chickens and she goes right to work cleaning them up in the kitchen sink. She appreciates how humanely they are raised and slaughtered and the many advantages of home raised meat for our family, but wants no involvment in the killing part. Hang a note on the bulletin board at your farm store and someone should respond with information on a local that will do your deed.
Good luck!!

 

[CTChickenMom]

Thank you everyone...I like the idea of posting a note at our local Agway. It helps that a friend owns the store so he may even know who does that stuff. We have a local place called the Green Store in Lebanon, CT (not green as in economically but green as in its at the end of the town green, the longest in the state). Hubby says owner cleans and cuts up folks deer during hunting season. Maybe he'd do the birds. I bet he knows someone who could. Thanks for all the help and advice...I think I'll be getting some broilers in the spring!

 

[ILoveJoe]

We have a poultry farm not too far away and they will process birds on certain days of the week for a few dollars each. You may have something like that in your area.

One thing that may help you decide to be your own, judge, jury and yes executioner would be if one of the little darlings attacked you.

I vowed all my chickens were pets and I wouldn't kill one of them until one of the young roosters bit me in the face.

I did not do it when I was angry, but my heart was hard and a few weeks later I was able to process him on my own.
Not fun.

Check out the topic Meat Birds etc and there are some pretty informative posts.

Oh duh, we are in meat birds etc!

 

[AHappychick]

I dont know where you are in CT but I heard there is a very nice one in Tarrytown NY $2 a bird

I might even use them if I find that I am pressed for time, although I hope to be able to process my own. But with all my gardening and other activities there may be a time when I just dont have the time lol.

 

[CTChickenMom]

I am not local to CT myself but I'll ask my DH who is. It sounds familiar. Thanks for the tip.

 

[greyfields]

Phone your extension office. They get asked these questions on a weekly basis.

I produce broilers for sale at a farm market and I use a processor. I actually have to use a processer in order to sell them. It's cost effective for me, especially considering the hours I'd have to take off work to process myself.