Well I DID IT!! Pithing vs. Hatchet.... Graphic pics****

[bheila]

Mystery organs are.........testicles! My husband says you should fry those up for your husband.

 

[Opa]

Beautifully processed birds, great pictures, thanks for posting

 

[Half-a-dozen]

Quote:
Wow...Big for a chicken! Well Thank you! Now I can stop wondering..

Does not surprise me tho... out of all of the organs lying on the table my son had to play with those!! Figures...

LOL

 

[dancingbear]

Wow, good job! Great pics.

The unidentified organ is one of a pair. Those are some enormous cajonés. Also known as testes. That must have been a fully mature roo, the testes are tiny in the younger ones. Now you can see why they get so aggressive with the hens and each other.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Congratulations on a fine job!!! That's a great set-up you have shown. I especially like the plastic bleach-bottle cones with the hanging receptacles. Were the cones nailed to the tree? How did they work for you?

You might find plucking easier if you zip-tie the legs together and hang them at shoulder level. I use a discarded porch-swing frame and wire hooks, and can use both hands at once to pluck.

I like your sink set-up too, I've been asking on Freecycle for some kind of sink, a kitchen or laundry one. Did you have a bucket under the drain? You're right about having things set up high enough to avoid back strain, about elbow height seems best.

Perhaps next time you could put a trigger nozzle on the hose, then you could keep running water handy and have it shut off conveniently in a moment.

Those sure were big testicles on that roo, how old was he anyway? I toss those and all the other organs except the intestines to the living chicken spectators that hang out around the table.

I have a processing pal, a butchering buddy who comes over every time I have birds to do. She & I are continually devising better ways to do the job next time. I'm going to show her the photos of your plastic cones, we might try making those.

Congratulations again, and do enjoy the tasty meals those birds will provide!

 

[Half-a-dozen]

Quote:
Thanks Sunny_side_up

for all that fine advice! The bleach bottles are screwed to the tree.... using three screws. (DH says I tend to over do it with the drill when guestimating the weight of my chickens and using all of his screws!)- LOL LOL But I did not want it to tare off the tree so I placed the screws in a triangle pattern.
And the (the cones) worked like a charm!

That particular Roo was actually not that old .... around 5 months or so. His were huge compared to the other two Roos who were older. Dont have pics of them but I remember pulling them out and still wondering what the organ was- LOL and noting it was smaller that the first birds. I wonder why that would be?

 

[theOEGBman]

Quote:
Yep! I thought, "Wow, that chicken has some big uns'!" lol. Awesome pictures, the pithing just uhh, is so gruesome to me! I really congratulate you for being so brave,lol. I know its a good way to do it from what I've read, but sticking the knife in the live chicken's mouth just freaks me out. My grandma would do it, I'll leave it to her,lol. Awesome pictures though, you did really well. Congrats!

 

[Buster]

Congratulations! I am glad it all worked out for you. Thanks for all the pics!

 

[silkiechicken]

You can save the heart and clean out the gizzard (pull off the yellow inside) and use that for soup along with the feet once you "de sock" them.

And yep, those mystery organs say you got a very fertile roo!

 

[myke]

This past Friday I (for the first time) slaughtered some roos for meat. I searched all over the web for the most humane method. I really love animals and did not want the ones I raised to suffer, however I am still a meat eater and wanted to see if I could raise and kill my own.

This post was the most helpful one that I found. I really appreciate the photos and explanation. This is great work and (almost) put me at ease during our processing. I pithed two birds and while the first one did not work out as well as I had hoped the second one was very quick. Finding the brain was harder than I thought it would be and I completely agree that having a sharp knife and protective gloves really help smooth the process.

If anyone is interested video of the process just for documenting purposes. I will not be sharing the audio as I have a potty mouth but will probably dub over a tune suitable for the occasion. I will include photos as they become available (sister-in-love hasn't mailed them yet).

Thanks again for the post and comments!