Sitting in our living room this morning, my husband and I both heard a very strange noise. The dogs started looking through the house, trying to find the source of the noise. After a moment, David and I suddenly realized what it was: one of the chickens, trying to crow. I'm sure it wasn't loud enough to disturb the neighbors, but in a few short minutes, it seemed to be getting a pretty good grasp of crowing. So.... late this morning, we began the final step of the meat-bird experiment. To quote the Red Queen: "Off with their heads!!"
First, I will say: we did take some photos throughout the process; however, I have decided NOT to post them. I'm certain that someone would take offense and report it as a violation of terms of use. While I would like this to be a complete account of the experience, I have no desire to lose the entire blog over some photos. So, don't worry, no graphic photographic content here. A somewhat graphic description will be included; however, you will be warned before that begins.
Overall, the experience was not too terrible. I think it's safe to say that, assuming the quality of the meat proves to be superior to store-bought, we will most certainly make this a regular event. I was a little uncomfortable with the actual slaughter, but not as bad as I expected. I'm certain it would have been much easier on me if I had ever dissected anything. Until today, I had never, in my entire life, cut into an animal. It was a little..... unnerving, but tolerable.
From start to finish, the process took about 5 hours for all three birds. It probably would've taken considerably less time if we weren't learning while we worked; however, considering our complete lack of experience, it went very smoothly. There are only a few small points that we need to refine before the next batch. The chickens are currently residing in the refrigerator, to 'age' for a few days. I will then cut them up into fryer-pieces, and serve two of them as fried chicken for dinner on Thursday.
Do not continue past this paragraph if you have a 'weak disposition'; I am not responsible for loss of recent meals, nausea, distress, or revulsion. Continue at your own risk. I will elaborate on some parts of the process; others, not so much. If you want to know more specifics, I recommend reading "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens". We followed the steps detailed there almost to the letter.
In preparation for the day, we had discussed various methods of dispatching the birds. The most well-known method (an ax to the neck) also turns out to be the worst possible option; it severs the windpipe at the same time as the blood vessels, greatly increasing the risk of blood being sucked into the lungs and contaminating the meat. We opted for dislocating their necks, instead; a quick tug [until you hear the neck pop] and it's done. Quick and easy, right? Well, it turns out that this option is a very delicate one. We discovered this when the 'quick tug' decapitated the first one. However, as we later decided, it was still a good option. It was quick and painless to them, and removed the need to sever the blood vessels.
If you're wondering, yes, they did proceed to 'run around' like... well, like what they were. Much wing-flapping, and running around, for 15-30 seconds, then it was done.
We strung them up by their feet to drain the blood, then began the plucking process. A short dip into a pan of scalding water (to help relax the skin and loosen the feathers], followed by plucking out feathers by the handful. The first one took me 15 minutes (not bad, according to my research), the second [and largest] 10 minutes... and the last one took over an hour. For some reason, the scalding didn't seem to help much, and the feathers would break off, leaving the shaft still stuck in the skin. So I had to keep going over it with a pair of pliers to remove the pieces.
After plucking, we dunked the carcasses into a bucket of cold water to chill them before evisceration. At this point, we removed the feet; this meant a quick cut with sturdy poultry shears for each foot. The actual 'gutting' process only took about 10 minutes or so per bird, and turned out to be much less disturbing than expected. I'm sure this was mostly due to the heads and feet no longer being attached. It made it much easier to 'see' them as food, not animals; after cutting away the feet, they looked like any whole chicken you'd buy in the store.
The kids came home around this point in the process. Most of them wanted no part of it; however, the youngest was thrilled to watch me open up the last one, and remove its innards. She asked questions, identified the organs that she could (pretty much limited to "intestines"), and is still excited about eating them in a few days.
Also, a side note: it turns out that my husband and I were correct about the genders of all three chickens. As part of the evisceration, the testicles or 'mass of undeveloped eggs' must be removed as well. Both are inside the cavity, in the same location. The testicles look much like kidney beans, but white in color; the 'mass of eggs' looks like a sturdy, transparent bubble. The two bigger ones, with the large combs and long, dangling wattles were males; the smaller was a female. [This does not change anything; any meat-birds we raise will still be referred to as 'boys'!]
The necks, hearts, lungs, and livers were all set aside to make chicken stock. The gizzards are usable, too, but by this point, I was simply not up to taking the necessary steps to use them, so they were tossed into the 'offal' bag with the feathers and other unusable parts. [I re-used a large cat food bag for this; it worked great, so we will be saving feed bags for this purpose.] The newly-cleaned chickens were put into a fresh bucket of clean water, to lower the temperature further. After soaking in the water for about an hour, I transferred them to paper towels to dry. Each of them was then wrapped in an old dishtowel, and put in the refrigerator to 'age' for a few days.
Being ridiculously over-emotional, I fully expected to cry, or feel sick to my stomach. I'm happy to report that I did not cry, and didn't have any nausea whatsoever... until it was all over. I'd already scrubbed my hands 4 or 5 times, and was sitting down to relax for awhile. I brushed my hand across my face, and caught a whiff of something that my brain could only identify by saying, "Oh, nice. You smell like death." And enter, stage right, tears, nausea, and general disgust with myself. Hmph. Well, at least I wasn't trying to work through tears. It could've been worse.
And, that pretty much wraps it up. As I said, I'll cut them up into fryer pieces in a couple of days; one of them will go straight to the freezer, while the other two get prepped for cooking that evening.
As always, if you have any questions, comments, or would like me to elaborate further on anything, feel free to leave a comment below.
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