First processing…

Some of the chickens I purchased last year were referred to as straight run (indicating you do not know the sex). Some breeds are especially hard to tell until they either lay eggs or crow. Because of this we had an excessive amount of roosters, which tend to fight for dominance and do not give the hens a break. I have even had a couple that decided they would be aggressive toward people. I devised a plan to fix this problem….hmmmmm…yep, you guessed it the plan is dinner.

The four roosters ranged about 5 months to 1 year old, a little too old to make good fried chicken but not to old for Mrs. Jones to use make chicken salad and real chicken broth for soups. The boiling of the chickens will allow the meat to be tenderized.

I am not your typical southern boy and did not grow up hunting, so slaughtering and processing animals is new to me. Last Thanksgiving was the first time I had ever processed turkeys. As with anything I do not know how to do, I did my research thanks to www.backyardchickens.com and I also found a mentor who had previously worked in a chicken processing plant (during her college days); Connie Watkins, my mother-in-law. We also had assistance from Kenzie-Grace with some of the processing; I could not believe how much of this she was willing to participate in. Just as with the turkeys, we processed the 4 chickens.

Here are the steps of the process we used (sorry maybe next time we can have pictures):

As they came out of the cage I tied their legs together with a string.

They were hung by their legs on a shepherds hook. They will calm down in just a couple of minutes.

Next I held the head in my hand and gently slid a sharp knife across the jugular vein. They will flop a little but by hanging on the shepherds hook they do not bruise their meat by flopping on the ground.

After about 5 minutes they should be through draining.

Scald them briefly, to loosen the feathers or skin (we elected to skin these).

Then cut off the feet and head.

Pluck as clean as possible, there may still be tiny pin feathers (almost looks like hair on the wings).

Cut out the vent and remove the insides (save if you like fresh chicken livers and gizzards or dog food).

If you are going to skin them now is the time.

After you have them cleaned well, take a piece of paper lit like a torch and singe off all the tiny hair like feathers.

Then wash thoroughly in cool water, dry and package in freezer paper.

Mark with a processing date.

FYI, if they had name do not write the names on the outside of the package; it may gross out the rest of the family.