After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I was inspired to raise and butcher our own chicken. Raising them meant healthy chickens and cheaper than buying the local farm raised chickens. I already had chickens for eggs, had the space and a willing husband to assist in the butchering. I went with the Dark Cornish, a dual purpose bird, excellent foragers, they have been finding about half of their own food for the last 2 months and I want to keep some for breeding the next years batch. I also wanted chickens without the common health problems of the true meat birds.
I am new to this butchering of chickens. I have helped with the deer my husband hunts, but that is only after it has stopped looking like a deer. I package roasts to freeze and grind strips of meat, package and freeze. Hubbie pretty much does the really ick stuff and I assist, so why change what works with chickens? I have done all the work raising them up to this point so if he does a few more steps on the final day, I call it even.
There are some really good bloggers who already posted the butchering process
http://childreninthecorn.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-eviscerate-or-gutdress-chicken.html
I don't claim to know what I'm doing so you wont be reading any of that here.
What I do know is the little tidbits of info that will help out a newbie like me to make the processing a bit easier your first time.
meat chicken
If you are a softy, don't call the chickens anything but meat. Feed, water and give general care. Don't pick them up other than to check for pasty butt, don't hand feed snacks, I just toss scraps off the back deck so they don't even see me as the snack provider. "The sky is falling with snacks!"
This is Meaty (thanks Danni), he was injured, I have been taking good care of him, he is now safe from butchering. Yikes. I don't really need an injured roo but it's too late now. So not getting attached is easier said than done.
Now before you even start the butchering, read up as much as you can, look at good sites right before you butcher. I also put the August/September, 2006 issue of Backyard Poultry in a baggie (to keep clean) and took it out to have on hand for reference. You can even write out a shortened list in order of the steps just in case you don't have someone around to help read as you go.
Make a list of things you will need, add to the list each time you discover something that will make the job easier for the next time. It is a pain to stop what you are doing to run in the house for extra towels or kitchen shears.
I also recommend working with a partner if at all possible. For one you can share the work but it is also nice to have someone to chat with.
For the first time I recommend just one chicken, you can take your time, learn as you go and you won't feel overwhelmed. We were going to do 3 the first time but 2 escaped while grabbing the first one from the cage. Not funny at the time but it worked out for the best.
screen tent
We have a screen tent that we take camping to set over the picnic table and it is a great place to work during the processing. You need to set aside time for the butchering, sometimes the weather doesn't always cooperate with your schedule, like the remnants of Ike for instance. It is also nice to have the earth as your floor because you WILL make a mess. Did I mention grubby clothes?
table hose
Use a table that is easy to clean. We used a resin type camp table that was big enough for the plucking on one end and the evisceration on the other. A hose is also important to rinse when needed. This is another reason its nice to have an earth floor. I also recommend a nozzle that you can squeeze with one hand. The 2 handed twisty ones suck.
pot and gas
We purchased this gas burner to have the pot of hot water at constant temp and to have near by. When I first dunked the bird the water didn't soak in so I added a few drops of dish soap and had no problems after that. The thermometer came with the burner.
To hand pluck (my job) and eviscerate (hubbies job) 4 roosters look us well over 3 hours that was preparation and cleaning the area when done. That didn't count the final cleaning up of the skin.
Now if you have someone in your house that is a pimple popper, I'm not admitting to anything, the final clean up of the skin isn't that bad of a job. Needle nose pliers are handy too.
Just make sure ahead of time you have the proper baggies for the job. Discovering there are no bags in the pantry can cause spontaneous cussing. Luckily I scrounged and emptied dried goods into other containers and came up with the 4 bags needed. I also recommend the 2 gal size because some of those roos were a tight squeeze in the gallon size.
Now if you don't think you can do the job yourself, I am lucky that my husband goes along with most of my ideas, paying someone else to process is fine too. It does add to the cost per bird, but you are still getting healthy meat in the end.
I hope this helps any of you considering raising your own meat birds. It is a good feeling being able to have some self sufficiency with the food we eat.
hammy
Don't worry Hammy, we already named you.
