Ok so we did it. Yesterday the kids and I did three birds. I did the actual killing of the 1st one and my 13yr old son who has never done anything like this before did the other two. I am proud of him... My daughter helped gut the last one (without prompting.. she was bugging me to do it so I am proud of her too.) The first one we ended up skinning because for some reason the bird had sliced it's stomach open on something inside the coop. Then after dispatching it dunked it in the water to get the feathers and started to cook the breast a bit so that's what you see in the photo (I know not smart but it slicing itself open wasn't fitting w/ my "plans"). You can also tell this was our first bird by the poor hack job. The other two we plucked etc and I think we did an OK job. Plucking is a LOT harder than I thought. The featers at the very tip of the wing were pretty much impossible so I cheated and hacked part of the wings off. The first one went ok with plucking but the 2nd one I was there with tweazers for over an hour... We were going to do two more yesterday but I was exhausted after three so we have two more to do today. These ones are "Cornish Game Hens". They dressed out around 2lbs each. The ones in the store are 1lb each so I waited a bit longer than normal. These chickens were 6 weeks old. (They are females so according to McMurray they will take 1-2 weeks longer to get as big as the males.) Anyway, all in all it wasn't bad. I thought the actual killing part would be the worse but it turns out that the plucking is. Everything else was fine but the smell when you gut them is not all that pleasant either. Here's a picture of our finished ones: Ok.. Here's the link to our video during the cleaning process... It's quite funny to watch a stressed out mom and way too overly excited children... my favorite quote of the video "stop stop stop... just don't talk to me right now"... It really isn't for little ears because I think I said sh*t & h*ll once or twice... www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrN0IkrODp4# I wouldn't recommend it for anyone trying to actually learn anything since I think I did many things wrong...
Good job! We are getting ready to do our five Cornish X roos this week. They are 7 weeks old on thursday and at 6 weeks weighed in at a whooping 6.5 lbs !!! I can hardly contain myself waiting to try one. I will weigh each before and after to see what the actual loss is. I am thinking it will be about a pound or pound in a half of difference? The hens are a little smaller so we will wait an extra week or two. I will need a break from plucking anyway! Be sure to let us know how they taste! Jane
Great job. I'm glad the kids helped. It gives them a greater understanding about life. I know it did with my sons and now my granddaughter. Keep at [/img]
You give me hope I can learn how to butcher...maybe. But I won't video my first one or two because I'll probably up-chuck till I learn how to "murder" without a lot of emotional backlash. Connie
That was great!!! Thanks for sharing. I love how excited your kids were about it. I hope my girls feel the same way when they are older