Yesterday, I did my first chicken. Actually it was my roo who stopped taking care of my hens and started beating them up instead. I have about 20 cockerels that i'm going to butcher in the fall, so i needed practice. certain aspects of it were good, some went wrong. The killing was the part that went less than satisfactory. I had a heavy cleaver that my gf's dad used for butchering years ago... I sharpened and honed it and thought it would do the trick. It didn't. The first whack did enough damage, but it didn't chop the head off. so lucky me. I had to chop once more to finish the thing. I decided to skin the bird like i would do a quail (i didn't bother with scalding... for one bird). I'm an avid bird hunter, so this was the part that went well. does anyone else skin chickens instead of plucking? and is there any advice to facilitate killing better? I heard of the cone method, any other ways? thoughts? thanks.
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