Update - we did it anyway (was: Debraining knife)

[Skcup]

Happy to report that we just bit the bullet and did it ourselves.

We rigged up a bleach bottle cone system with a bucket full of stall pellets below and cut throats. It was easy, efficient and way less worrisome than I thought it would be. The first ones didn't bleed out as fast as they should have and in retrospect, I feel bad because I was being too conservative with the cuts. Poor guys probably suffered more than they needed to, but overall, all of the rest seemed to go VERY quickly, quietly and without fuss so I look at it as a learning process.

I feel great and I'm so glad we just did it.

With three people and 5 hours, we made it through 25 or so birds. We could have used another person on the plucking station to speed things up but everything went so smoothly, I'm a little in shock!

Anyway, thanks for everyone who answered my questions. This place is an awesome resource.

 

[goldnchocolate]

Quote:
I'd be interested in looking at them. Are they posted in their own thread?

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Yay for you & your helpers too! Now you can show other people how it's done, and you won't need to demand that they purchase any special tools for the job!

Enjoy your well-earned chicken dinners!

 

[kcg]

This is the tool you're looking for: poultry sticker

 

[TexasLady]

I actually watched a person (expert) do this debraining method. It is the least cruel method I've ever seen. (I watched grandma chop off heads, watched others cut throats, watched every method I've read about except the gassing one), and I would highly recommend debraining IF you know what you're doing. I tried it, did it wrong, and it really made me miserable. I've not killed a chicken in several years (for that reason and because I hate it any way it is done).

When he debrained, the bird was hung up by the feet, the debraining was done as soon as the bird stopped flapping or sooner (it takes about 30 seconds for them to relax after being hung by the feet), and it stopped flapping within 15 to 25 seconds in every case. However, it continued to bleed to bleed out.

The bleeding is important because the meat was far better tasting than any I'd had--kind of had a lighter taste and not strong taste like many older chickens I've had. I have read that, once the head is chopped, the heart stops because severing the spinal cord stops the heart which causes the blood to stop flowing. Thus, you are left with blood in the bird, and this causes a much stronger taste especially in upcaponized roosters.

The biggest convenience of debraining is that the feathers literally just fall out of the chicken once you get the head off. It is the most amazing thing I've ever seen, and until you experienced the ease of cleaning feathers off with the debraining meethod, you won't believe the difference--far, far more work to get feathers off without debraining.

After having seen many of the other methods, I can tell you there is far less struggling with debraining. My guess is, with a deft hand, the debraining involves a second of pain. It may be that hypnotizing will take that away. However, it is far, far better than the other methods I've seen.

My problem was that I thought that a chicken's brain was in front of their eyes. So I wasn't killing them. The brain is located behind the eyes, and so you put the knife between the eyes and toward the back of the head where the head turns in a curve. I see this now as I realize what I did wrong. As soon as it is debrained, it begins to bleed through the mouth. This causes almost no blood to get on the feathers or body of the bird.

I will be doing some roosters (I have about 25 of mixed large breed roosters to do) in the next few months. I am not excited about butchering chickens, but I am going to try this method again to see if I can do it correctly.

I didn't know it, but you can caponize roosters up to five months. (I thought it had to be done by 2 weeks.) I think I am going to do that to at least some of them once I decide which roosters I am going to keep. My understanding is that it is fairly simple (looking at it from this site), doesn't involve much pain (if you hypnotize) and makes a huge difference on the meat.

I personallly don't much like doing anything to an animal without anesthesia, but not being a vet, I don't have much choice unless I just send them to market. In California where I live, sending to market is often sending the roosters to fight to the death (oftentimes with broken wings or legs if they are too good at it) while the cock who is being trained kills them. If the rooster does a good job staying alive, he might die being chopped to death with knives on the feet of the other bird. Some bleed to death through numerous cuts all over the body. I can't imagine whatever way I kill them could be as bad frankly.

 

[TexasLady]

Sorry--posted more than once. I don't know how to delete postings.

 

[TexasLady]

Sorry posting went twice.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Good job! Sending roasted and fried chicken thoughts your way..