Around the same time we purchased our 10 laying hens A bought 50 Cornish Rock chicks to slaughter. Our hens grew up with them and I helped take care of them because of that. Fast forward now almost four months later and here we are. Its time for the slaughtering of the chickens. We have been slowly taking down about 10 a day about twice a week. I became certified to slaughter chickens to sell last year but haven’t had an opportunity to actually slaughter any until now. These wont be sold but I still got some great practice in, and i’m now super excited to slaughter mine in another 4 months. Which i figured out wont be until November or December, which isn’t ideal but its better than nothing. Next year I’ll have to order them earlier in the year. I’ll also order 50 next time (if I like them).
I think the hardest part for me is actually killing the chickens. She doesn’t have a stunner (which knocks them out before you kill them). I think I’m going to have C buy me one before November so I’m not as squeamish about it. I really don’t like the idea of killing something while it’s conscious. We first put the chickens in some sort of a cone. She uses old detergent bottles that have been completely cleaned. know a lot of people use traffic cones. You stick the birds in upside down, then shock them and slit their throats. Once they have bled out you either skin them or scald them in boiling water for a few seconds to loosen the feathers and pluck their feathers. Once that is done the other person takes over and takes out their insides. A keeps the heart and gizzards while we take the livers. C really likes some fried liver. I haven’t had any yet. We will fry some up soon though. Then we throw them in a cooler of ice water until we are done and can take them back to the house to put in the fridge for a day or two before finishing the processing and vacuum seal them and throw them in the freezer. A is giving us a few for helping her process them all. She also has another 50 to do in another 4 months.
She does hers very differently than we do ours but they are still better than what we get at the grocery store, and a lot cheaper. Ours are pasture raised. We are putting together our run in the next few days so I’ll post pictures of that once we get it up. The way it works is you move it once a day to the next section of pasture so they aren’t in their own feces for longer than a day and they get fresh bugs and grass every day. I like this method better than any other.
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