I did it :) Today I helped my friend slaughter her backyard flock. 5 chickens, 4 hours, 2 fussy babies & 2 rockin' mamas! It was not as bad as I thought it might be. The first bird suffered for our complete city slicker ignorance as we didn't get the throat cut in the most effective way, but after that it went pretty smoothly. It was a lot of labor, that's for sure! And I am glad we did it on a cold day so we didn't need to worry too much about bacteria growth. Anyway, earlier I posted on how domestic I felt. Now I feel like some sort of macho urban pioneer or something (although any real pioneer would have laughed their heads off at how stupid we were bungling that first kill. Or plucking. Or how we never could quite figure out how to eviscerate the bird without splitting the breast.)
Maybe I can do this whole urban homesteading thing ;)
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2 comments:
You're my hero!
Especially since I plant to never, ever kill a chicken. I'll just have you do it!
LOL...you don't have to cut their throats! Next time, grab the chicken by the head only, pick it up and give it a good strong flip/twirl and snap your wrist. It will QUICKLY and painlessly break the hens neck and kill her. Yeah, she'll still twitch a bit, but honestly, she's dead. THEN you whack the heads off with a little hand axe or sturdy cleaver(easier than a knife!), hang to drain and you're good to go. Plucking is a PITA. I always wondered if they could somehow be shaved. OR...since we don't eat the skin anyway, couldn't we just leave the pins in and just remove the skin?
Oh...to get the insides out, you go in through the bottom, beneath the stomach and breast area. Again, easy peasy, and it will be easier the next time you try.
angelapea
former farm girl
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