week 8. processed birds and made video

[trunkman]

Elke, you won't regret getting a plucker, I'll never process another chicken without it!

 

[coloradoalice]

I had just sharpened the knife, The chicken was large and I had a hard time feeling whether I had cut it properly, turned out I had over cut and almost severed the head , I am not that good at it yet, I need a bit more practice. Why I didn't cut the head off, well I read on this forum that it is better to just cut the artery rather than decapitate because it doesn't bleed out fully. I'm still learning.
I made the plucker, found a video on how to make one. I found that it takes about 3 minutes with a plucker rather than about 20 minutes by hand with 2 people plucking. I'll never do it without a plucker again.

Thanks for your reply! I'm only raising my first batch of meat birds right now and we plan to take them to a processor but watching you do it makes me think maybe we can do it ourselves. I haven't given much thought to how to kill them for meat. When we have culled our layers for whatever reason we just chop the head off but I know that clearing the body of blood is important when you want to eat the meat. Thanks for the video, it is very helpful.

 

[trunkman]

your welcome. It may have looked easy but after about 4 cullings and watching dozens of videos on you tube did it start to get a bit easier. I'd tell you to keep trying till it gets easy for you too. By easy I mean time wise, it's never easy to take a life.

 

[bugkiller]

I agree, it is the best way. My first food kill is probably going to be my 1 year old rooster. He attacked me for the second time a couple of days ago. His crowing is also driving my husband crazy. So I think the crock pot is probably the best thing for all involved. I am not sure yet how I am going to get the courage, he has been my favorite since day 1. I also have 6 chicks growing up and I believe 3 of them are roosters so they will need to be processed as well. Sometimes having chickens is not as much fun as I had intended!

You have a lot more respect for an animal after you kill it to eat. Sounds crazy but it is true. Can be tough to do the first time but it is rewarding in the end. You wont regret doing it.

 

[bj taylor]

darn. i'm agonizing over this. I want the death faster. I can handle everything that comes after. I've got a rooster I think I need to kill & I can't bear the creature living so long after his throat has been cut.

 

[Elke Beck]

BJ, if you can't stand to wait for the bird to die, then cut the head off. The bird will go from alive to dead in an instant. Yes, you may not get quite as good bleed out, but it will be good enough. People have been doing hatchet jobs on chickens for decades, so it is a tried and true method.

 

[Elke Beck]

Here are my mighty meaties. In the first photo I stole one of my dog's tennis balls for size comparison. Two of the Red Rangers are inspecting the ball like it is an alien life form that dropped into their midst. The second photo shows the smallest and the largest CX with one of the smaller RR's beside them (and my finger, oops!

). The disposable plastic pot is a 4 inch nursery pot for comparison. These birds are all 8 weeks old tomorrow. Sorry about all the mess, we've had high winds for the past few days, and everything has been blown around.

 

[srm220]

Great video...just a little advice. use a sharper knife. the throat cutting ought to be one quick slice not sawing back and forth

 

[missnu01]

Glad you posted it all.  I just watched part one.  Didn't realize it took them so long to die.  I'd planned on getting meat birds and thought I could do it.  I guess I'm not strong enough yet, which is really stupid of me because I'm just going to buy them in the store knowing they lived terrible lives and then died.  At least if I raised them I'd know they have a good life before they died.  I hate that I'm so selfish that I can know how bad they live because I'm too much of a pansy to do what needs to be done for me to eat one.  *sigh*  I sure wish there was a way to kill them instantly.  I know the only humane way for me to eat chicken is to raise it myself and process them myself.  Not happy with my weakness right now!!  But I'm so glad there are people out there as strong as you all are that can!

You can always use an ax abs just chop their head off... Then you know for sure it is dead... We've had some throat cutting issues... You cut it bleeds you wait it shudders you continue dressing it out, right? It's awful when you think they are dead but they aren't really, they were just faking...

 

[trunkman]

Srm, I had just sharpened the knife, we had processed 6 other birds before I made the video and I sharpen the knife after each chicken, like I mentioned in an earlier post I had almost severed the head and didn't know it. The bird was almost too large for the cone and I believe I was cutting through feathers. I agree though, it doesn't look like I had a sharp knife and seems pretty brutal.