Four roosters will meet their end today. It is uneconomical to feed them through the winter, besides the farm really only needs one rooster for the small amount of hens. They call them roosters for a reason, they lead the hens to a roost! A place to sleep is all. Roosters also crow at anything that might threaten the flock, sometimes will even fight off a threat. Fred has supplied a reference book which he himself uses to refresh his memory and even pick up a new procedure for the processing of chickens. The book titled something like "country living" suggested that the bird is flipped upside-down in a cone, such as a gallon jug with the top and bottom cut off, in our case a jug of what was vinegar. This is pretty standard practice, and commercially made metal cones are popular for this purpose, but are unnecessary especially for the low amount of birds we will be processing today. Once the bird is upside down, it says, hold open the birds beak and pierce the roof of it's mouth with an ice pick. I mention that this is quite a graphic description, Fred agrees but intends to use the method. Once the brain has been pierced you are to immediately proceed with cutting off the chickens head. After a sufficient amount of blood has drained you are to dunk the chicken in hot water at a temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. This helps to loosen the feathers, in our case we will be hand plucking.
It will be my job to dunk and rip the feathers off of the birds. I haven't been too personal with the birds, their free range status keeps them moving. I am not really watching the deaths as Fred dolls them out I am just getting ready to do the plucking as fast as possible. In some areas the feathers come off very easily. The wing and tail feathers need a sharp shuck but come out cleanly, the tip of the wing can be cut off to ease the process. We do two birds this way, then Fred decides we might as well just skin the last two, I am o.k. with this. Skinning them means that the skin will be removed with all the feathers on it. Clip off the feet and the wing tips, make an incision in the birds breast below the neck and start pulling.
The time comes for the fourth and final bird. Fred offers me the chance to finish the job. It is not my cup of tea to do this sort of thing but it had been a long time coming, I should take advantage of this opportunity. It is important to show reverence to the bird who's life you are about to take. Once the bird was in the cone flipped upside-down they all tend to calm down. Too much blood to the brain? I have its head in my hand and the ice pick in the other. I want to make this quick. Once I decide to do it I go all in. Slipping the prong through the birds mouth and between the eyes a pop into the brain. I can see the life immediately leave from the birds beady black eyes. Yet it thrashes in a last ditch effort, muscle spasm from oxygen derivation are unsettling. I take the shears directly after and attempt to decapitate the bird at the base of its skull. A sharp knife finishes the job.
Time to take the guts out! Procedure is to cut a keyhole around the butt-hole. Fred in a civilized manner calls it the vent. Then one must stick his hand in the bird to release connective tissue from the walls of the rib cage freeing the organs. This I find to be more difficult than the execution. The gross factor is raised a few bars. In any case I end up cleaning two of the birds in the basement sink. Running water is a necessity for keeping the process sterilized. afterwards they are put in zip-lock bags for storage in the freezer.
This has me thinking that all animals, including us, are just meat wrapped around vital organs. I like how the Native Americans did it, using all parts of the animal. How often do you eat a chicken heart. I bet it tastes alright.
It will be my job to dunk and rip the feathers off of the birds. I haven't been too personal with the birds, their free range status keeps them moving. I am not really watching the deaths as Fred dolls them out I am just getting ready to do the plucking as fast as possible. In some areas the feathers come off very easily. The wing and tail feathers need a sharp shuck but come out cleanly, the tip of the wing can be cut off to ease the process. We do two birds this way, then Fred decides we might as well just skin the last two, I am o.k. with this. Skinning them means that the skin will be removed with all the feathers on it. Clip off the feet and the wing tips, make an incision in the birds breast below the neck and start pulling.
The time comes for the fourth and final bird. Fred offers me the chance to finish the job. It is not my cup of tea to do this sort of thing but it had been a long time coming, I should take advantage of this opportunity. It is important to show reverence to the bird who's life you are about to take. Once the bird was in the cone flipped upside-down they all tend to calm down. Too much blood to the brain? I have its head in my hand and the ice pick in the other. I want to make this quick. Once I decide to do it I go all in. Slipping the prong through the birds mouth and between the eyes a pop into the brain. I can see the life immediately leave from the birds beady black eyes. Yet it thrashes in a last ditch effort, muscle spasm from oxygen derivation are unsettling. I take the shears directly after and attempt to decapitate the bird at the base of its skull. A sharp knife finishes the job.
Time to take the guts out! Procedure is to cut a keyhole around the butt-hole. Fred in a civilized manner calls it the vent. Then one must stick his hand in the bird to release connective tissue from the walls of the rib cage freeing the organs. This I find to be more difficult than the execution. The gross factor is raised a few bars. In any case I end up cleaning two of the birds in the basement sink. Running water is a necessity for keeping the process sterilized. afterwards they are put in zip-lock bags for storage in the freezer.
This has me thinking that all animals, including us, are just meat wrapped around vital organs. I like how the Native Americans did it, using all parts of the animal. How often do you eat a chicken heart. I bet it tastes alright.
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