Butchering Chickens

[Grumpy Old Man]

Turkeys were handled much different when butchering...
I was watching "alaska the last frontier" (about homesteaders in alaska) and the one guy uses a machette and walks up behind them and just lops off the head.

i saw that and it looked like a good way to git er done !:drink:

 

[Egon]

i saw that and it looked like a good way to git er done !:drink:

Looks good but makes getting the feathers off much harder.

 

[Frank Surber]

When I was a kid every spring we had 3000 baby chicks delivered. Back then the postman brought them to us always hated to see March roll around because 6 to 8 weeks later it was time to pluck chickens.
Each Saturday for 3 weeks it was heat water in a 2 bushel wash tub outside on the fire pit. Grandpa most always used a hoe handle or sometimes to show us kids how strong his hands were he could thumb and 2 finger their necks to break their neck then just give a toss while holding onto the head. there were times when as many as 20 friars would be running around with their heads off.
I'm not a big fan of chicken to this day but if it is fried up like grandma did them I could probably eat my weight in fried chicken as long as some chicken eating preacher is not coming to Sunday dinner

 

[KYErik]

I use a hatchet and chopping block to remove the head, but I first whack them in the head with a light stick of wood to stun them (something like a bare hammer handle that I can swing quickly and accurately), then I grab the head with my left hand and my wife grabs the feet and we sort of stretch the neck out for a second over the wood block, then I chop the head with the hatchet which is in my right hand. Then they go off to the scalding pot and into the motorized whizzbang chicken plucker...

I figure that whacking them in the head is instant and humane- they will either go limp or they will flop/shiver much they do when their head comes off- but just not as violently/forcefully. Once they are whacked, they are easier to manage/hold on the chopping block.

PS- Does whacking chickens make me eligible for joining the Amish mafia?

 

[MossRoad]

PS- Does whacking chickens make me eligible for joining the Amish mafia?

Only if the chicken owed you money.

 

[MossRoad]

I saw someone that had two nails sticking out of the cut end of a piece of log standing upright on the ground. One was straight and the other was about an inch and a half away and bent at a 90 degree angle. He would put the chicken's neck between the two nails, then twist the bent nail until it was over the neck and against the other nail. That locked the chicken down to the wood. He held the body with one hand and then he chopped its head off with a hatchet.

 

[sseelhoff]

Only if the chicken owed you money.

Or the chicken was a "rat"

 

[sjerden]

and into the motorized whizzbang chicken plucker...

Can you post a picture of your "motorized whizzbang chicken plucker" ?

 

[dmccarty]

Can you post a picture of your "motorized whizzbang chicken plucker" ?

Here is one I found with a quick google., Poultry Pluckers - Counter Top Poultry Plucker Drum Style | Poultry Pluckers | Chicks and Game Birds from Stromberg's | I have seen others that were much cheaper but that is one I got with a quick search.

There were plenty of links to pages and videos on how to build your own.

Later,
Dan

 

[J35]

father in law would put knife thru roof of chickens mouth , chicken would not flop at all and would bleed thru mouth
odd nobody mentioned this way, seemed an easy way to do the task..

If done right, your father in law's way is supposed to make plucking feather's easy.

I prefer to just pull the head off and then stuff into a cone to keep from bruising the meat flopping on the ground.

I am right handed so I just grab the birds feet in my left hand and straddle the back of the neck with my right index and middle finger slide them down till they reach the skull close my hand and stretch the bird out while rolling my right wrist forward and down,at this point you will feel the neck vertebra separate just continue stretching until you have a head in your right hand and a headless chicken in your left, stuff in a cone and grab the next bird. If I had someone to hand me the birds I could have done 10 in the time it took me to type this.

Have fun--J