The Day of the Deed

Butchering chickens isn't fun and it is hard work, but a freezer full of healthy, well-cared for birds, is a great blessing.

Our day started at 8am with separating out all the White Plymouth Rock roosters into this little pen.  We were going to do 30, but we only found 27.  That was good enough.  In this small pen, some flew to the top to escape, so one daughter sat guard while we got ready.

The first step is the hardest.  This "killing cone" is behind the barn so the rest of the chickens can't see what we're doing.  My husband carried them over and put them in the cone head down.  The confinement calms the chickens and holds them still while they bleed out.

Our sixteen-year-old was ready to try her hand at killing.  It takes a lot of emotional strength, but only moderate physical strength.  It has to be done quickly so the chicken doesn't feel anything.  The first couple were rough, but then she got it figured out. 

After cutting off the head and dunking the bird in 140-150ºF water, they were ready to be plucked.  Dousing them in the hot water loosens the feathers so they pull out easily, but it still takes a while.  Three daughters worked the plucking and barely kept up.

I was at the end of the line doing the evicerating.  At first I couldn't remember how to do it, but it slowly came back to me.  First I cut off the feet.  Then I slice around the neck to remove the crop and skin.  All clean, I cut off the neck and save it.  Then I slice the skin inside each leg to open them up and slice just under the sternum.  The trick is to get the gut area opened up neatly without slicing into any of the intestines.

With it opened up, then I reach in and pull everything out in one package.  I cut around the tail bone and slice the tail off, removing the whole bundle.  We kept the heart, liver, and gizzard.

All finished, the birds went into a cooler filled with ice water and vinegar.  By lunchtime when we were done, the cooler was filled to the top.

A stray cat that has adopted us thought this was a great morning activity.  She watched with interest and was delighted when I threw her some guts.

After a quick lunch, we brought the chickens inside one at a time, rinsed them, cut the legs off and wrapped them in plastic bags (they don't fit in our bags very well if we leave the legs on).  I dipped the bag into a sink full of clean water to push the air out before giving it a final twist. 

With three of us working, one opening the door, one handing out twist ties, and another the birds away in the freezer, it went quickly.

They turned out pretty nice.  These chickens weighed 2.5-3 pounds.  I was hoping for bigger, but these are normal sized chickens for a century ago.  Today's chickens are almost exclusively Cornish Cross which grow very fast and have enormous breasts.  We raised a batch last year and the kids called them mutant chicks.  They were creepy. 

By the time we were finished at 2:30pm we were exhausted.  This was our third butcher day, so we knew what to expect, but it's still tough.  In the end, our freezer is full of 27 healthy, good looking chickens, that will feed us for the coming year.