Chickens: The Final Chapter

This summer we raised 16 meat chickens in the large fenced yard which the sheep occupy during winter.  Over the summer I periodically brought the sheep into the enclosure to graze down the lush grass, and was surprised to see how well both flocks got along.

These chickens are not the conventional meat bird that is raised in industrial operations, the Cornish Cross, which has a huge breast and grows so fast that it can barely stand, and is typically slaughtered (after a short miserable life inside) at six weeks old.  That's the chicken you buy at the grocery store.  My chickens are Red Rangers, developed to grow well but also to be able to run about and forage freely.  The bottom line is that these chickens led a good life with lots of room, sunshine, grass, bugs to eat.  What follows may seem heartless and cruel to some of you, but I think it is important that we recognize where our food comes from.  

After this picture was taken, I lured the chickens inside the shed with a pail of corn so that I could catch them easily.

The sheep were hoping that the corn was for them and complained loudly, as they always do when I am carrying something.

The chicken is squawking in alarm, but this only lasted a very short time.

Putting a noose of bailing twine around the chicken's feet.

  

Chop and release.  The decapitated chicken beats its wings wildly.  If you held onto the chicken you would be splattered with blood.  If you let it fall on the ground it would bounce around and bruise the meat.

My solution was to suspend it above ground.  I was planning to use my homemade sheet metal killing cone, which you see in the background, but it was not the proper size.

I slaughtered four chickens at a time.

It was a cold morning and I had to put on long johns and my insulated boots.  We set up the scalding pot in the doorway of the garage to stay out of the wind.

To loosen the feathers for plucking, the chicken is immersed in a big pot of hot water.  The temperature of the scald water optimally is around 160-170 F, and you need to slosh the chicken up and down for 10-15 seconds so that the water penetrates to the skin.    If you do this too long or the water is too hot, the skin will be damaged in the plucker,  If the water isn't hot enough the feathers will not come off easily.

Into the plucker.

The plucker is filled with rubber fingers that catch the feathers as the bottom disk spins.

Once you turn on the plucker, you need to spray the chicken with a hose so that the feathers will wash out and fall to the ground.  I borrowed this plucker from a friend.  It was built by another friend who has since passed away.  Thank you, George, for building it.  I have used it many times and it sure beats plucking by hand.

After about 10 seconds of tumbling around, the chicken is mostly clean., and the few remaining feathers can be plucked out by hand easily.

Onto the butchering table.  My tablesaw is a comfortable height, so I cover it with thick plastic and use it as a work table.

The trickiest part is loosening the esophagus and crop.  These are fused to the neck skin with connective tissue.

This is the crop, the storage pouch where the food first goes.  This allows gallinaceous birds, such as pheasants, turkeys, grouse and chickens to forage rapidly and then retreat to  cover, away from the eyes of predators.

After that is loosened you open up the other end of the bird, stick your hand in and pull out all the entrails.   In case you're wondering, there are some distinctive aromas released throughout this operation, and you really don't feel like eating chicken for a few days afterward. There are people who do this all day long in  chicken processing plants where the temperature is kept in the 40's.  I take my hat off to those folks.  When you've butchered a few of your own chickens you learn to respect what some people must do to earn a living.

There's nothing pretty about this, but it is quick.

I don't enjoy killing animals, but I take some solace in the fact that in nature animals die in much harder ways.  Think of a goshawk sinking its talons into a partridge, or a fox pouncing on a pheasant.  As humans we have the ability to mitigate stress and suffering in the animals we raise to eat.

Chickens that are raised on pasture live a good life and can express their natural behaviors, unlike those that are raised in crowded confinement.  They grow slower, live longer and and taste so much better than anything you can buy from the store.