*** Warning: this post includes some graphic photographs of the chicken butchering process. No photos of the actual slaughtering are included, but there’s plenty of feathers and meat involved. Please use your own judgement on whether this is a good post for you to read or not. ***
A friend pointed out that this photo makes the hen look like "a pot of gold" with the rainbow coming from "her bum". too funny.
Since we feed Pocket raw meaty bones, we’re always looking for new sources of cheap or free meat. We’re also (as young new wannabe farmers with little butchering experience) always looking for a way to practice new homesteading skills. So, when my friend asked if we’d be interested in culling a few of her older hens, i jumped at the opportunity. We still have about 4 or 5 more hens, a rooster and an angora rabbit to be culled, and at the rate we were going today – it will take us a while. We were able to slaughter, butcher and pack up 2 hens and froze over 6 pounds of meaty bones for Pocket and meat for us, including the feet to be boiled down to stock.
Hens held upside down are actually very relaxed: thus this is an excellent position for her to be in before slaughter.
We need more practice, which is good since we’ll be getting plenty of it with the other animals. We chose to skin the hens instead of plucking them, and I’m glad we did because the second hen was literally FULL of fat. A ton of fat. Thick, yellow, intestine-crowding fat. And eggs. The eggs were pretty cool, actually.
Our novice process: We tied the hens to a post away from the other chickens (so that the blood wouldn’t attract predators) and slaughtered them using a VERY SHARP filet knife, cutting each of their two arteries at the base of the head. Note: it is very important that you use a very sharp blade, and cut with confidence to ensure a quick, painless, humane death. Either hold the hens still, in a killing cone or with your hands securing wing tips against body, OR allow the chickens to jerk during their death spasms. The blood will drain out either way, and the chickens will relax: the method is personal preference and the hen should die within a few minutes. Once the hens were dead, we cut off their feet (to be boiled down) and then skinned from neck to cloaca. Navigating around the crop, cloaca and wings wasn’t easy, but we were able to get all the skin and feathers off, scoop out the intestines, and save all the “good parts” after rinsing to freezer paper parcels in 1 pound increments for Pocket. We also saved the breasts and thighs off the first hen for ourselves: it will be interesting to see how they taste!
Our friend loves raising livestock, but doesn’t like having to end their lives. So, we got free meat and invaluable experience, and she didn’t have to bloody her hands. Give, take, lend a hand and be a good neighbor: isn’t that what rural friendship is all about?
Have you ever slaughtered/butchered a chicken? Were you squeamish, or did you find the process fascinating?
My husband and I butcher on a pretty regular basis. We do a little co-oping with my parents. We currently live in a suberb with an HOA. No farm animals here. But my parents live outside of the city limits on 5 acres. Every three to four months they order fryer chicks from McMurray Hatchery and 6 weeks later we have a butchering “party”. We pay may parents $5 per chicken to cover the hatchery order cost and six weeks worth of feed. We butcher 10 chickens for ourselves each time (my parents typically do an additional 10-20 for themselves and friends) and their meat lasts us three to four months until the next “party.” My father and husband do the beheading (with a machete on a wood block) and the plucking, my mom guts and I cut up and package. I wouldn’t say I am fascinated by the process. It can get pretty exhausting. Nor would I saw that I am squeamish. Although I am doing the cleanest part of the whole process, so I may have a different opinion if I was outside “with the boys” doing the dirty work or taking the place of my mom at the kitchen sink with her hand almost up to her elbow inside a chicken carcass
haha.. Thanks for your comment, Janise.
And i do second that: it is exhausting! We only did the two hens and i was sore all the next day. I quite enjoy the gutting and the hacking (oddly enough) but cannot STAND wet feathers. The smell and texture of wet feathers completely nauseates me: another reason we skinned instead of plucked.
We also plan on raising fryers as a separate meat flock once we get our property. I think we’ll probably follow a similar pattern as you and your folks do. I just hope we can get a few friends to help us out!
Sounds like a success! I think that holding them upside down before the process is essential! They become so docile and then you can focus on cutting quickly and thoroughly. Those eggs are amazing! I have never seen that and can’t believe there were 4! They look nice and yellow too. I was very squeamish when I helped to cull some chicken and although it made me uneasy I was so glad to have the opportunity and hope it will one day be a bigger part of my life. I find I am more put off by people who call the process atrocious yet eat meat. That doesn’t add for me personally. I bet pocket is one happy boy!
Love those eggs, I’ve watching a video where the lady butchering gobbled those up right away while she was butchering. Did Pocket get those or did you eat them?
I haven’t actually butchered anything yet, though I do buy my chickens whole and cut them up. Mr Chiots is a hunter and thus is well learned in slaughtering via rifle and gutting/skinning/butchering game. I usually let him take care of that part and I cook them up in the kitchen.
haha. That’s kinda nasty, i gotta say. 😉
Pocket wasn’t with us since she is still recovering from her surgery BUT i threw them in with the rest of the chicken that we froze for her, so she’ll get ’em eventually.
I felt bad that we culled this hen since she’s obviously still laying. But my friend grabbed her off the nest and put her with the rest of them: her call!
We have laying hens and needed to cull our rooster. My 20 year old daughter, fresh off an internship on a vegetarian farm, did the slaughter, she was a bit nervous . We had a friend who’s slaughtered before come and ‘calm’ the chicken, I’m pretty sure it was hypnotized! He laid him on a baord and pulled the legs and feet out long, petted his feathers, steadied the head out long and flat and the rooster did NOT move a muscle! Sofia chopped his head off, then we dipped in boiling water and plucked and gutted. I think I’d skin it next time, not all the pin feathers came out. That big bossy nasty rooster was all of 1.5 lbs!
Isn’t it amazing how much less they weigh in meat? That second chicken was a ‘for sure keeper’ until we opened her up and discovered all that weight was in sheets of fat!
We just did 10 roosters last week. Not our first butcher and we skinned them also. I like them plucked but I’m not very fast. We double team and my husband slaughters and skins and I finish. It goes much more quickly that way. I really want a chicken plucker. Hubby says we can make one. I may just have to blog about it if we do!
Please do – and comment with the link!
Wow! So dumb of me, but even though we have chickens, I never knew the eggs hung around inside like that! I was like “why the heck did she crack eggs inside that chicken??” So interesting!
haha! They actually form inside an ‘ovaduct’ which they apparently slid out of during this process. Too funny 😉
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It was fun reading another newbies experience. The difference was that I was helping someone who was experienced. It sounds like you were both green. Good for you! I think I would have been too timid to do it on my own.
Kristel from Healthy Frugalista recently posted…DIY Fruit Flavored Vinegar
Thanks, Kristel – yep, total newbies but i learned A TON. And i must admit – dispatching and butchering the rabbits on Thursday was so.much.easier. I do love chicken, but the rabbit even tastes like chicken without hte grease! Anyhoo – was great to read your post, and thanks for reading mine!
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Wow, I’m very impressed that you are able to do that.
I grew up on a small farm in Europe, but came to the states when I was almost 7. We have chickens now, but I’m lucky that my hubby does this…I’m certain that I could if I needed to, but nice to have him do it so I don’t have to..LOL
Funny story about home grown eggs. When we first started having eggs, we were all excited and wanted to share them with my BIL and SIL…she wouldn’t take the eggs because she thought it was gross cause they weren’t from the store. Go figure!! LOL
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ha – go figure, indeed!
We just got our chickens this weekend. If any of them end up being roosters I’ll give you a call! I really don’t think I could ever do it.
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Good luck, Melissa!
What breeds did you go with? I’d be happy to come down and help you out. 😉
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