Backyard Hoe: 1st chicken

He never saw spring or summer. He never flew more than a few feet. But compared to the factory birds he had a descent life. We didn't name him till the day before we were going to kill him, and it was with gallows humor Rob dubbed him : Rotisserie.

He was the black naked-neck chicken, the biggest of the three and one of the obvious roosters in the flock.

I am going to make a break here so that if you don't want to read or see the pictures of what happened you don't have to.

We kept him by himself in the garage overnight. The goats kept him company. He did fly out of the old brooder but all he did was wander around the back part of the garage until Rob put him away this morning. (He had to go in to work in the middle of the night).

I got the pot of hot water on the stove and set up the cone for him before I gathered him from the garage. He didn't get into a fuss even when I slipped him into the cut-out milk jug. I am not sure if I am sorry I didn't take a picture of him before I killed him. I kind of think it would be a nice way to honor him for being my first kill, yet at the same time I don't think he gives a damn.

I had no practice for killing a chicken but I wanted to make his death as quick and painless as possible. Being a naked-neck chicken made this easier as I could see the vein I was aiming for. I had watched several videos on how to do it. I swiped the razor blade as quick and deep as I dared and his neck slit open and blood poured out. He made a little surprised noise, that might have translated to "oww". Still he never fussed. I watched him as the blood ran out and saw him slowly close his eyes, like it was simply time for a nap. I liked that it seemed peaceful for him.

Then his nervous system kicked in and like the saying goes: He flopped around like a chicken with its head cut off. His body jerked the milk jug over and started flopping around on the ground so I had to grab him and hold him up while his nervous system went through its jerks.

Eventually that ended and I could put him back in the jug and went to get the hot water for the scalding. The hot water needed to be around 160, just enough to make the feathers come out easier.

It wasn't terribly difficult getting the feathers off. Although the bigger feathers have some sort of oil or mucus stuff with them. I hadn't expected that. They only thing I would change is having a string ready to hold him up so I didn't have to do the plucking one handed.

I brought him inside to finish the cleaning and gutting. I was worried about rupturing the intestines or the gallbladder and ruining the meat but it all came out surprisingly easy once I was able to break the trachea and esophagus free from his neck. Then everything pretty much just came out like the videos showed. I went back in to his testes and lungs. The lungs were right up against the ribs and I ended up poking my finger through them to pull them out. I will probably get better with that in time.