Good for you for taking this next step...I think that once you've done it the first time, it'll be easier for you.

We always used the hatchet method, then hung the birds upside down to bleed for a bit. So I can't help you with pointers on your method, other than to suggest that you search the 'Net a bit for more info. I don't think they'll flap after a neck pop though...? I thought they just did that sometimes after the hatchet.

Whatever method you use, I'd make a point to hold the birds beforehand for a moment, pet them, speak soothingly to them and thank them for providing for your family. A calm animal at slaughter is supposed to taste better. You'll feel better too, I think, if you put this 'cycle of life' in perspective in your own mind. There are also those that suggest putting the killed, cleaned and processed bird in the frig for three (I think) days to kind of 'tenderize' before freezing it. If you search the Farm Forum there have been discussions on processing chickens before that might help you.

Don't name the broilers, and try to remember that they are food. When I was a kid we had three types of farm poultry: Pets that also laid eggs, egg layers that could double as meat, and meat. Also remember that broilers, if left to grow up, often suffer terribly from leg and heart problems, and end up have a rather horrible life. So NOT culling them is doing them no favors. We are to blame for this since we have bred for quick weight gain and a short lifespan, of course.

I think you'll do fine, and will look forward to your own home-raised chicken dinner! :)

Velvet ~:>

Good for you Amiz! I do not have any direct experience with culling or the pull method however I believe Maggie and Old McDonald do, maybe they could share their experience?

-Sheila

Hi Audrey, I'd have posted sooner but we had the loveliest weather today (above freezing, sunny and NO WIND) so I've been outdoors a fair bit, playing with my geese and giving Marilla (our cat) an airing.

First my congrats on being ready to take the plunge. I was pretty sure you'd get there soon and I was right! Pat yourself on the back, first for undertaking it and second for being concerned to do it well. I have every confidence that you will do fine.

A few questions... How many broilers do you have? Will you have any help or support for the killing and cleaning or are you entirely on your own? Do you know anyone with experience who can help you out with the first batch?

And now a few comments on my own experiences. My friend and partner, Brian, who shares this venture with me, is actually the one who pulls the birds' necks to kill them. My hands are small and I am not confident I could do it efficiently. If you use the broomstick method, strength is less of an issue.

Do you have Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow? There is a good chapter on different methods of "doing the deed." I quote: "If you have trouble snapping a chicken's neck by hand, as I do, use your feet. Grasp the bird by the shanks and lay its neck on the ground. Place a broom or rake handle across the neck. With one foot on either side of the neck, stand on the handle and firmly pull the bird upward. After the neck has snapped, hang the bird by its legs with a piece of twin, cut the neck on both sides and let it bleed."

A killing cone is an excellent idea... it will keep the bird from flapping when the neck is cut. The bird is already dead but the reflex action of the nerves can be very unsettling, especially at first. The cone will prevent this. Cut the neck on both sides just behind the head... the more it bleeds the better.

When I was in France, the year before I started with chickens, my sister and I stayed overnight with a good friend of hers who has a "ferme auberge" (upscale guest-house with supporting farm) in a mini-chateau. She routinely culls hens for the table... rabbits too. One was needed for the kitchen that day, so she allowed us to be present at the killing, since I wanted to determine if I would have the stomach for it BEFORE I got chickens. The proprietor caught a hen, took it into the processing shed and put it in the cone. She applied an electric current to the cone to stun the bird - it went instantly limp - and then cut the bird's throat. No struggling or sign of distress... and the whole thing over in less than half a minute.

This would be my preferred method if I had very many birds to process. All we have are the year's cockerels and any old or nasty hens. Never more than a dozen birds for the season. So Brian pulls their necks and bleeds them out and I skin, eviscerate and cut up the carcasses. Personally, I don't like to do more than three in a morning, since I get a back-ache from too much standing.

You might want to consider a "practice session" where you do only two or three. Nothing worse than having a dozen birds dead and not enough energy to get them cleaned. You will find, of course, that as you get accustomed to the job you will be able to do more, in less time; but there is a learning curve.

If you want details of how I skin and eviscerate, please let me know. This particular post is already too long... but I hope some of it, at least, is helpful.

Hi Maggie,

Thanks so much for your support. In answer to your questions, I have 7 broilers, and I will have some help but not from anyone that has ever done this before - she's just someone I work with that expressed interest. I have read several books including Gail Damerow's and I'm with you in that I wouldn't feel comfortable snapping their neck with my hands. Not only just having to "feel" that but also afraid that I wouldn't have the strength. The "stunning them inside the cone" method sounds wonderful. I wonder what type of stunner she used - i.e. something from the pawn shop for self-defense or was it specifically geared towards poultry.

Anyway, I do plan on skinning them so if you could pass along the details I would appreciate that too. This whole thing won't be for another few weeks but I'm trying to prepare myself mentally for it all. Sort of like the first time I worked at an animal shelter - they gave me 6 weeks of reprieve to get myself together before I had to euthanize my first dog or cat. It was really awful at first but at some point you have to turn yourself off or it will eat you up. I realize that this is different and for different reasons but I need it to be just as humane all the same.

BTW, thank you Velvet for your kind words. I was reading a post somewhere on CATC and somebody was talking about an essay that they had read in a homesteading magazine about culling your own poultry. This particular sentence really hit home.... "The anonymity of packaged chicken parts bought at the grocery store and thrown into the cart with the kitchen cleanser and Lucky Charms, separates the life of the bird from the food it becomes and so dehumanizes us and removes us from the ability to see the glory of nature, the cycles and richness of life and death , and an understanding of true worth and value."

As far as I could tell - my French is so-so and I could not ask too many questions - she simply applied electricity from an outlet... maybe not the safest thing to do. With only seven to do, I'd stick with the broom stick right now. I will try to get my sister to get more details about the electric-stunning -- it was really effective.

Okay, what I do first is remove the head, feet and wings at the first joint. I lose a little wing meat, but those feathers are really hard to pull and skinning the wing tips is difficult too. Then, starting at the neck, I slit the skin down the breast, being careful not to cut into the body cavity. I pull off the skin... sometimes it comes off easily, sometimes in pieces. It tends to stick tight on the back and has to be loosened with the knife. When I get to the tail, I remove the whole thing: "parson's nose", oil gland and feathers.

Once the skin is gone, I remove the neck close to the body. Have a container of cold water - iced is best - and drop the parts into it as they are removed. After the neck, remove the wings, drumsticks and thighs. Filet off the white meat to use for breading, stir fries etc. Now you are essentially left with a carcass with most of the meat removed.

Carefully open the body cavity, keeping the knife blade up so as not to cut any of the innards. Open it as widely as you can. Use your hand to loosen the innards from the body cavity... just work your hand under them until they loosen. Don't worry if you don't get them all in the first go, but pay particular attention to the liver. The heart and gizzard are fairly easy to remove, but when removing the liver, watch for a dark greenish-black organ imbedded in a fold of the liver. This is the gall bladder and is full of very bitter greenish liquid. I always cut it free taking a bit of the liver with it, feeling it is better to lose a mouthful than have the gall bladder burst. If it does, anything it touches will be inedible due to the bitterness. (This is an additional reason for removing the meat first and then opening the cavity.) Once the giblets are safe, cut around the vent and discard all the intestines etc. Make sure you remove the kidneys which are partially embedded in the bones of the back. Wash and chill all the parts, including the denuded carcass.

I package the meat as follows, usually 3 - 4 birds at a go:
- giblets, drumsticks, wings and neck for chicken pie
- carcasses for soup (Enough meat is left on the bones for a good soup.)
- white meat for stir fires, breading etc.
-thighs for oven roasting in a sauce.

Seeing as you are using young broilers, all the meat should be tender. After a whole summer of free ranging, the drumsticks and thighs of our cockerels tend to be a bit tough and lend themselves best to slow, moist cooking. If you want my method for chicken and giblet pie, I would be glad to post it. A bit time-consuming, but we vote it worth it.

If you can find someone to show you how, I'd recommend "sticking" the bird over decapitating it or even cutting it's throat. Remember, decapitating the chicken is merely amputating the head; what really kills the bird is the drop in blood pressure from bleeding out. The bird is flopping around because blood gets into the tracea and it's nervous system reacts with a struggle to escape. If the veins and arteries are sealed by the initial blow, the bird can actually live for a while without it's head, in the same way it could still live if you amputated it's wing.

Simply cutting the throat causes excessive wing flapping (and meat bruising, and occasionally broken bones) because again, blood gets into the trachea, only this time the bird is conscious of the fact that it can't get air, and is in a panicked struggle to breathe.

The best way (from the bird's POV) is to:
1) hang the bird upside down from leg shackles. If you don't hurry, the bird will not panic and will not flap.
2) open the bird's mouth, and using a long, thin, sharp knife, stick the tip of the knife through the roof of the mouth into the head and give a slight twist. The bird shudders, and goes completely limp because you have just destroyed what little brain it had. It doesn't feel a thing. (A bonus is that the feathers relax, and are easier to pluck) Then you can cut off the head, and gravity drains excess the blood without the bizzare wing flapping and splattering most people are used to.

wow, I've never heard of that way to kill a chicken!

I use the stick method and most of the time, as long as the chicken isn't too old, the head comes right off when I pull up on the legs. I don't use a cone... I just sort-of grab the bird for a minute or so to prevent the worst of the flapping (upside down so it bleeds out) and then after it settles down a bit I let it flap its way out on the ground before continuing. I think this is a VERY easy way to do it. I killed/butchered my first chicken about 18 months ago- it gets very easy. We also have been doing rabbits which are TECHNICALLY easier (you can do a whole rabbit in about 5 minutes, whereas a chicken takes at least 20-30 mins) but emotionally the rabbits are pretty rough. The chickens are easy. Especially big mean roosters who run after your 2-year-old.

Kristen

Littledog, you raise some good points. We have used the method you describe and it is humane... but although the bird shudders and goes completely limp, just as you describe, it still flaps during the bleeding out. So I recommend using a killing cone for bleeding out, whatever the actual method of dispatch may be.

(BTW, There is no need to sever either the spinal cord or the trachea in order to cut its throat... the cuts should be made at the sides where the veins and arteries are located. I always find the trachea intact when I clean the bird.)

Audrey, each person has to find the method that works best for him or her. Don't let yourself be confused or put off by the discussion... there is never only ONE right way. There are a number of humane methods.

Littledog's method does kill the bird quickly, but you may find the broomstick method easier to handle, especially at first. It is also a humane method and you need have no worries that the bird feels anything once its neck is dislocated.

Whatever the method, make sure your knife blades are very sharp -- it makes the whole job much easier.

Thank you so much everyone for your input and Maggie, thanks for your skinning details! I'm glad I found out ahead of the time that the head may pop off so I don't freak! OK, I think I'm ready now. And if by chance Maggie you do get some more info on the electrical stunning method I would love to hear about it.

Thanks again,
Audrey

Well Audrey,

I am with you. A novice farmer, I have my first batch of little 'uns, 14 from a straight run, 7 of each. I have 3 grown hens and one roo that I intend to keep (still less than a yr) and these are their babies. I want to eat the 7 roos, and I think I will have help from an old timer who might show me how to do it properly.

My question is...how old are they usually before you cull them? Reds, by the way.

Hi Safariman,
I'm going to answer your question despite the fact that I'm probably not qualified to do so! Hopefully someone will chime in and correct me if I'm wrong. From the information I've gathered over the years, it seems that most folks are waiting until the heavy breeds (i.e. non broiler breeds) are between 4 and 6 months of age before culling because it takes them a lot longer to put on weight. Of course you can wait as long as you'd like but the older they get, the tougher they are.

Yes yes you can do it. a picture is worth a thousand words check this link.. aren't these folks nice to us? photos and all..
Another option is to check local processors I was able to find a poultry farm that will gladly do up my birds for a buck or two a piece. Can't beat that, so I rarely do my own anymore, now I just load a bunch up and drive them there.

Here is a link that might be useful: home processing of chickens