# Tried to butcher a roaster today. I failed.



## biobacon

Man I did such a crappie job. I've butchetd other animals but always with help and never something I've raised and cared about. My knife wasn't sharp enough, my cut wasn't deep enough, blood went every where, I hold to hold him down. In the end I just couldn't eat him. I'm leaving this butchering business to those of you are good at it because I just wasted a good chicken.


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## Tweto

Instead o trying to cut their necks, I would just twist their heads a couple of turns. No blood. This is how I was trained on the farm.


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## weedygarden

Some people who do this fairly frequently, have a stump or chopping place, and use a hatchet. It is quick and easy. No matter where you do it, there is blood that squirts out. My grandmothers used to raise 100 spring fryers each year, and after they got their heads chopped off, they would run around for a little bit, and blood would squirt out. Sometimes, it would seem as though they were chasing someone.

I think, like many things, having someone show you how or doing it with you the first time helps. I cleaned many of those birds as a child.

BTW, roosters are generally tough eating. They also have a strong taste. When one of my grandmothers would cook a rooster, or another older bird, they would be put in a stew pot and cooked on low for a while. Today, I would cook one in a crock pot on low all day with lots of onion, celery, carrots and some garlic. 

We had a circular drive on our small farm, that was graveled. We played there when I was a young child, except when a rooster held us hostage. I still remember the glee we had the day Mom told us we were having that old rooster for dinner, along with some dumplings.artydance:


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## CrackbottomLouis

I never get something right the first time I do something. My gun belt I'm making is a prime example. You should have seen the first deer butchered when I was a kid. Looked like a scene from house of a thousand corpses. I'm much better at it now. Don't give up. By your 10th one you'll be teaching others. Proper butchering is not only a skill for you but maybe even a barterable skill later.


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## Starcreek

A really sharp knife is the most important investment in any butchering you do. Second to that is experience.

I've never killed older chickens, but we always butcher any young roosters we don't need, and they're really tasty!

We keep a stump with 2 nails about an inch apart. First thing we do is tie the feet together, with a little slack between. Make sure you've got a board nailed between 2 trees, with a row of nails on it, sticking out.

Slide the bird's neck between the 2 nails on the stump, pull gently on his feet to stretch the neck, then chop with the knife. Usually, if the knife is sharp, it only takes one time.

Immediately hang by the feet on the board between 2 trees. Let him bleed out, then pull the skin off. Carry to the kitchen sink to finish butchering.

Two tips: I wore white tennis shoes for this one time, and got blood all over them! Wear old tennies or boots. Also, never butcher a chicken in front of other chickens that are going to be left alive. I had a rooster that never let me forget that he saw me massacre chickens! He hated my guts, after he saw that!


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## terri9630

I found it really hard to eat meat when we started butchering our own. The carnivore in me won out. No way this girl could survive being a veggie eater.

We hold them upside down until they calm down and hang them under our "butchering" tree. Hanging upside down, we remove the whole head with one quick HARD slice and let them flap their wings until they are done. We use a heavy buck knife and cut from behind the head to sever the spine/nerves so even if we don't get all the way through the bird is dead. We tried just slitting their throats but had more problems that way. The hatchet is faster but the birds don't want to have their head stretched out and fight. Makes it more dangerous for you.

You could always do what we do with our rabbits. We built a wire cage with a small hole in the top. We use a pellet gun or rats shot in the 22 to the back of the head. The knife is free but the gun is easier.


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## cowboyhermit

If you try it again. I recommend;
Hang the bird upside down by it's feet. A cone works well, especially for a newb. Either use a sharp heavy cleaver (or a sharp hatchet) and chop into a wooden block, or, with any sharp knife take the head clean off by pulling slightly and cutting through the neck. Wear a pair of really thick gloves, at least with the hand holding the head in place.


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## HardCider

Don't kick yourself. Butchering stock you have personally raised is never "easy". Nor should it be. There is a serious and solemn obligation and desire to do it as humanely as possible as we can tell from your post. Correct and improve how you approach it next time and realize that self-sufficiency takes time and effort. You'll be great


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## jnrdesertrats

http://s7d9.scene7.com/is/image/murdochs/Little-Giant-287765-173360-main?$product-zoom$ 

Plus one on the killing cone. We also made a wiz bang chicken plucker and am so glad we did.


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## AmishHeart

I like the Whiz Bang stuff. Bought a book of home ideas he did, and he even autographed it and then a follow up email to see that it arrived ok. 
The first year we raised and butchered turkeys, I had a hard time eating them. This last year went smoother...the butchering and the eating. My son takes any old hens or extra roosters we don't want.


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## mosquitomountainman

It gets easier to butcher them. I use a chopping block and a hatchet. Used nails to hold their head in place but took too much time. They'll usually stick their neck out when you hold them upside down. I chop the head off and toss them away to let them flap around a bit. I usually kill three or four then skin them. I don't like plucking them because it's faster and no smell of wet feathers from scalding them.

I understand on killing critters you've raised. Our turkeys were well past the best age to butcher when we finally did it. Rabbits can be hard too. Never had a problem killing hogs though. They always seemed to have caused enough problems that I look forward to meeting out justice (or at least revenge!).

When we get chickens we get only hens for layers. I get kind of attached to mine. The last batch followed me around like the dog. I finally put them down because they were so old they couldn't keep warm anymore. I felt sorry for them even though they'd already quit laying long before. If we want chickens for meat we get meat chickens. Last time we got 84. I was sure tired of butchering chickens for awhile.


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## cqp33

First off kudos for trying! Just like when we were youngsters I am sure you fell off your bicycle a few times. Everything is harder the first time! I am no butcher by no means, especially of chickens (I don't have any) but I have now butchered my first hogs this year. I have a Amish friend that does it for the Amish community here, of course I paid him but I also was with him helping through the whole process. I am sure I could do it if I had to, I wouldn't do near as good of a job as he did but with practice in time I am sure I could master the art! I will continue having him do it because he enjoys teaching while doing it, he also going to butcher our cows in the same manner.
now the one thing I can't get him to come off of is his recipe for his brine for curing bacon and hams. boy is that bacon yummy.
we raised 3 pigs this year, netter near 650 lbs of meat, 86 pounds of bacon! One of the downfalls is the Amish fella doesn't have a vacuum sealer so the wife and I spent the better part of 2 days vacuum sealing 650 lbs of meat pretty much by the pound! yeah ouch! but the freezers are full of some fantastic pork though!


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## musketjim

I'm terrible at the homegrown bird, but I'm ok with grouse and ptarmigan. Need to take care of my turkey this summer sometime, he's like a pet dog almost. I'd be a terrible farmer.


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## Cotton

Home raised roosters are tough, break out the crockpot, 4 hrs at least. Chickens aren’t the easiest critters to slaughter and process.

I remember as a kid, we had an assembly line set up to process a few dozen chickens. Mom and Me-Ma’s were there, my sister and I were little, we did the plucking.

A chicken that had it’s neck wrung and was plucked by me got put on the pile for cutting. It suddenly woke up (neck not broken) an ran off… I’ll never forget all of us chasing a ne-kid chicken around the barn, (over and over). It was too funny at the time. 

You'll get the hang of it. The last batch of roosters I had to process I took over to my neighbor. We used his chicken plucker, best thing since sliced bread. They work great, takes only a couple of minutes.


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## CrackbottomLouis

In a survival situation would you really skin rather than pluck? Seems you would be missing a lot of calories that way.


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## TheLazyL

Wife refuses to eat any animal that she has seen when it was alive.


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## AmishHeart

Our son raises rabbits and his girlfriend is the same way. She never looks at them or the babies.


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## biobacon

Thanks yall for the kind words and advice.


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## crabapple

I never used this metal "flower vase" looking thingy, but it may work for you.
Two as shown on this link could keep you with another one to pluck.


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## terri9630

crabapple said:


> I never used this metal "flower vase" looking thingy, but it may work for you.
> Two as shown on this link could keep you with another one to pluck.


That's the "killing" cone someone else mentioned. You can use small traffic cones to if you enlarge the small hole a bit.


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## terri9630

I love my chicken plucker. It's the best thing ever.


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## BillM

*Try to say this real fast!*



terri9630 said:


> I love my chicken plucker. It's the best thing ever.


I'm not a chicken plucker

or a chicken plucker's son

but I can pluck a chicken,

till the chicken pluckin's done ! artydance:


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## biobacon

Ok so funny thing is I was pretty bummed out about how bad it went but I'm feeling a bit better about it now. This is going to sound nuts to some of you but I've never done a fish ether. I've caught hundreds and hundreds of fish, he'll I've been fishing since I was 4 and some summers I went out multiple times a day, but I've never taken one home. My grandma who I lived with for most of my life grew up eating fish because she had 14 brothers and sistets and was pretty poor. She swore when she got married she wasn't going to eat fish any more (like me and cubed steaks, been married 10 years, never been cooked in my house) so we never cooked fish. So I'm going to learn to fillet a fish this year as well. A friend has invited me over to help him butcher a cow, in the past he taught me how to dress squirrels. I'm just not a natural at this stuff but I know I need to learn it. If I'm honest I don't really want to, but if I don't I will know I lack a skill I need to take care of my family. I've been out turkey hunting but haven't yet got one. I called a hen in once but you can't shoot females in the spring in Ohio, probly the same elsewhere. I know people who max out 4 to 5 deer a year and rocks it all their selves. I don't think that will ever be me. But I need to try.


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## AmishHeart

Most people don't do these things unless it's necessary or they have the opportunity. I cleaned my first fish in my 30's. Husband showed me how. I don't like to eat fish, so I don't usually clean them. Showed my grandson when he was 9, and I thought he was going to lose it. Took a class where we butchered a pig. The next year a goat. Then another goat. Then goats were too easy and I wanted to butcher another pig. Then we raised turkeys... It sounds like you'll be intentionally learning to do new animals, and you'll be good at it in no time.


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## crabapple

You can skin a bird too.
It will not hurt the meat, even if you freeze it.
Most of us pluck, but you can skin much quicker.


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## RedBeard

I run a mobile poultry killing business with a mobile trailer i made. I have found that the standard way of a kill cone and the cutting of the main arteries in the neck is the best way to do it. Chopping the head or breaking the neck will lead to a poor bleed.


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## bbqjoe

I don't mind the killing so much, and the gutting is a bit gruesome.
But whether it be a fish, or a chicken, I do best to do the work, and then put it away in the fridge or freezer for a few days.
After that, it feels more like your preparing something store bought.

Maybe it's just me, but it works.


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## terri9630

bbqjoe said:


> I don't mind the killing so much, and the gutting is a bit gruesome.
> But whether it be a fish, or a chicken, I do best to do the work, and then put it away in the fridge or freezer for a few days.
> After that, it feels more like your preparing something store bought.
> 
> Maybe it's just me, but it works.


We usually order pizza on poultry butchering day. I never want to cook after that. Especially if I get flogged by a turkey. Wings attached to a 50lb turkey hurt.


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## AmishHeart

Yep and the gut smells stay with you a little while.
Last year we butchered a bunch of double breasted white turkeys at the end of October. Froze them all. 
I was fine about them at Thanksgiving


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## RedBeard

bbqjoe said:


> I don't mind the killing so much, and the gutting is a bit gruesome.
> But whether it be a fish, or a chicken, I do best to do the work, and then put it away in the fridge or freezer for a few days.
> After that, it feels more like your preparing something store bought.
> 
> Maybe it's just me, but it works.


Oh god grocery store meat makes my guts turn. Thought of all those things in it..... Vomit. I've been doing this so long i can spend all day killing birds and get home to the wife pulling chicken from the oven and i can't wait to eat! Guess there is something to be said about desensitizing.


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## RedBeard

50 lb turkey! That's a giant. Had to have been a broad breasted bronze.? Biggest I've ever butchered was 47lbs, and exactly thode wings hurt!


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## terri9630

RedBeard said:


> 50 lb turkey! That's a giant. Had to have been a broad breasted bronze.? Biggest I've ever butchered was 47lbs, and exactly thode wings hurt!


Broad breasted white. Our fair birds have to be 20 weeks for turkeys and 8 weeks for broilers. That puts the turkey toms between 45-55 lbs dressed weight and the roosters at 10-12lbs dressed weight. The turkey hens are usually around 30lbs and the broiler hens are around 8 lbs.


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## Pessimistic2

terri9630 said:


> Broad breasted white. Our fair birds have to be 20 weeks for turkeys and 8 weeks for broilers. That puts the turkey toms between 45-55 lbs dressed weight and the roosters at 10-12lbs dressed weight. The turkey hens are usually around 30lbs and the broiler hens are around 8 lbs.


OK, time for another question that exposes my utter ignorance! I bought some "chicken fingers" at the Exxon up the road...excellent taste, moist, and not a bad price...$3.00 for 6 pieces. But these things were *HUGE!* I'm talking like 5-6 inches long, and a good 2-3 inches wide. Are these chickens on steroids, or do *chickens* actually get that big, so as to be able to lop off "chicken fingers" that size? :scratch


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## terri9630

Pessimistic2 said:


> OK, time for another question that exposes my utter ignorance! I bought some "chicken fingers" at the Exxon up the road...excellent taste, moist, and not a bad price...$3.00 for 6 pieces. But these things were *HUGE!* I'm talking like 5-6 inches long, and a good 2-3 inches wide. Are these chickens on steroids, or do *chickens* actually get that big, so as to be able to lop off "chicken fingers" that size? :scratch


We can get 5-6 strips, or fingers, that size off of each breast on our birds. The whole birds you buy at the grocery store are about the size of our birds at 4 weeks old.


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## terri9630

Here are a couple of pictures of our fair birds. They may not be very clear, I had to zoom in to cut out other kids.


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## Pessimistic2

terri9630 said:


> We can get 5-6 strips, or fingers, that size off of each breast on our birds. The whole birds you buy at the grocery store are about the size of our birds at 4 weeks old.


Why are the "grocery store birds" so much smaller? Different breed, or do they just kill 'em younger? :dunno:


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## terri9630

Pessimistic2 said:


> Why are the "grocery store birds" so much smaller? Different breed, or do they just kill 'em younger? :dunno:


They butcher at 4-5 weeks old. Half the age of ours. A "cornish hen" is just a broiler butchered younger than the rest. They are all the same breed.


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## RedBeard

terri9630 said:


> They butcher at 4-5 weeks old. Half the age of ours. A "cornish hen" is just a broiler butchered younger than the rest. They are all the same breed.


Your birds look nice! Are yours cornish x's or straight white cornish? We stopped with the standard cornish x's for our own meat birds. I prefer the heritage flavor. We run Dominiques, dorkings(best tasting bird i have ever put in my face!), and the Indian game bird (dark cornish). I think they make a more flavorful cross, and people who have eaten my birds have said that to, but it could be all in our heads. Im currently working on my own homesteader cross.... We will see.


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## terri9630

RedBeard said:


> Your birds look nice! Are yours cornish x's or straight white cornish? We stopped with the standard cornish x's for our own meat birds. I prefer the heritage flavor. We run Dominiques, dorkings(best tasting bird i have ever put in my face!), and the Indian game bird (dark cornish). I think they make a more flavorful cross, and people who have eaten my birds have said that to, but it could be all in our heads. Im currently working on my own homesteader cross.... We will see.


Thanks. They are the cornish cross from Whelp hatchery. They look pretty because they had a bath. The Grand had some corn starch dusted on him to make him whiter for the sale ring. For a size reference my daughter is holding the basket was 15 and about 5'1. We have a picture of a turkey that made the sale but it's not on my phone. I'll try to find it tomorrow.

We had some Red Rangers that grew almost as fast and as large as the broilers but couldn't take our heat. We are going to try them again once we move up the mountain.


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## RedBeard

terri9630 said:


> Thanks. They are the cornish cross from Whelp hatchery. They look pretty because they had a bath. The Grand had some corn starch dusted on him to make him whiter for the sale ring. For a size reference my daughter is holding the basket was 15 and about 5'1. We have a picture of a turkey that made the sale but it's not on my phone. I'll try to find it tomorrow.
> 
> We had some Red Rangers that grew almost as fast and as large as the broilers but couldn't take our heat. We are going to try them again once we move up the mountain.


No kidding tricks of the trade! Look good though. It looks like you don't push them too hard on the feed. In the sense that they look healthy and mobile. I have been blown away with how big some that i have butchered at 5 weeks where. I mean everything from can't stand, broken legs, heart attacks. I can actually tell with pretty good accuracy how fast or slow they have been grown. Fast birds have enlarged fatty hearts slower birds have more average hearts. Butchered those reds once. Never eaten one but want to. Just from butcher stand point they have way more feathers, like a heritage bird. The fat on them is a grey color. But the build, structure, cuts of meat, basically it's just a european cornish x. The lady i processed them for is a (lovingly called) crazy chicken lady. She has all kinds of crazy ones. Bunch of those mini ones, Im talking like dont look real small. But she said the reds seemed to be a bit smarter than the x's and better flavor.


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## terri9630

The red Rangers were developed by TX A&M from heritage breeds. Ok layers, lots of meat, can't handle living in a convection oven. 

We keep the food and water at opposite ends of a 20x20 pen. It makes them walk around. They get unlimited food. We do have our share of birds with issues from the fast growth. They get butchered sooner if they are large enough. You need to make sure to use a high protein feed to keep up with the growth. We had more issues with lower protein feeds and now use a 30% turkey feed. 

Oh, we use cornstarch on the white goats and rabbits too. It makes them look brighter and is safe when they groom themselves.


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## RedBeard

That's a good plan on the food and water. I ran all wet feed when i did my x's. But they only got fed morning and night but had water 24/7 and they were on grass. Took me about 14 weeks to get them average 6 pound bird but i had zero health issues. With wet feed i found i got a tiny bit better feed to protein ratio but noticed zero difference in it if i grew them fast or slow. Wet feed also helped them poop a little bit more normal and less stinky. Very last batch of x's we did i fed them fermented in probiotics wet feed. I think that really helped the ratio but i never got exact numbers because i had bears stealing it on me. But raised fast or so that fermented feed was great! But i only raised a 100 birds at a time so it was pretty manageable.


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## terri9630

RedBeard said:


> That's a good plan on the food and water. I ran all wet feed when i did my x's. But they only got fed morning and night but had water 24/7 and they were on grass. Took me about 14 weeks to get them average 6 pound bird but i had zero health issues. With wet feed i found i got a tiny bit better feed to protein ratio but noticed zero difference in it if i grew them fast or slow. Wet feed also helped them poop a little bit more normal and less stinky. Very last batch of x's we did i fed them fermented in probiotics wet feed. I think that really helped the ratio but i never got exact numbers because i had bears stealing it on me. But raised fast or so that fermented feed was great! But i only raised a 100 birds at a time so it was pretty manageable.


We do 2 batches of 30 birds. Spring batch is just for the freezer and a summer batch for freezer and fair. We don't have a problem with smelly poo. A big pen and dry desert keeps it manageable. The desert dries it up and makes it easy to rake up and put in the compost pile.


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## RedBeard

terri9630 said:


> We do 2 batches of 30 birds. Spring batch is just for the freezer and a summer batch for freezer and fair. We don't have a problem with smelly poo. A big pen and dry desert keeps it manageable. The desert dries it up and makes it easy to rake up and put in the compost pile.


Ah your in the desert also i see. Thats great, do you guys process your own too? No matter how you raise them they taste way better than what the stores offer that's for sure!


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## terri9630

RedBeard said:


> Ah your in the desert also i see. Thats great, do you guys process your own too? No matter how you raise them they taste way better than what the stores offer that's for sure!


Yep, we are desert dwellers too. We raise and process most of our own food. We don't do the goats and pigs but we are going to learn. We are moving up to the central NM mountains in a couple of years away from the guy who does them for us. Our mountain is still considered desert, just a "high desert" though.


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