# New to killing our chickens



## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

So far we have only beheaded one rooster. However we have so many roosters we will have to cull this year. I remember my dad killing many when I was a kid, however personally I never saw how they gutted them out, and everything else. When we did bully I did the old trick of dunking him headless into boiling water so feathers came off quicker but still it was getting the guts out that I found hard to do. Not sure if it was because he was so young, or what but it was hard to reach up inside and pull everything out.

The problem we had with bully was that he looked huge, however once we got all the feathers off him, the body was tiny. He was 9 months when we culled him

Any suggestions on that??

Also how old should my cockerels be before I cull them?? I have 3 that are 5 months old. And another 9 that are only 3 months old, I know my youngest ones are way to small but what about the bigger boys??

With me having a hatchery I try and keep only the best roosters for breeding and lately I have very few that I would use for that purpose. So I might as well use them for food.


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## Apyl (Jun 20, 2012)

When to butcher depends on your needs/wants and the breed. Butchering traditional breeds at around 28 weeks result in tender meat but not the most meat. Traditional breeds don't usually fatten up until after a year old but waiting to butcher that long can result it less tender meat. Cooking in the crock pot helps with this though. When I have extra roo's I butcher at 28 weeks and accept that they are not going to be extra meaty like a meat bird would be. As for getting the insides out, I just stick my hand up there and pull it out.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

Thanks for that. I will keep track then and end up doing it when they are about 6 months old or so. I don't need to many roosters. At least I know now that pulling the inards out is the same for me as it is with everyone else.

With our last hatching we ended up with 10 little cockerels so I wasn't to happy I figure 2 will be kept for breeding and the rest will all be culled. However we all ways expect 50% cockerels, but this year it was around 70% with our last batch.

My kids however have to start learning that chickens especially roosters are for meat not pets.  They assume that I will keep all of them, which I can't do.


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

There is a thread in the meat section called Gettin' 'er Done that shows a couple of videos of processing that may help you. 

I would do them at 5-6 mo....I prefer 6 as they seem more filled out in the breast at that age.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

Thanks Bee I will give it a good look, who knows maybe I will learn something new. I figured I would try doing it when these boys get to be 6 months old. I have way to many and I normally just keep certain ones for breeding, when I see agression, they are gone as well, however this time they are going on my table.


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## TheChickenGuy (Jan 29, 2014)

I too had problem with butchering, but I learned from my mom. Actually, it is quit easy if you know how and if the knife is sharp. I hope that by now you must have learned it.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

TheChickenGuy said:


> I too had problem with butchering, but I learned from my mom. Actually, it is quit easy if you know how and if the knife is sharp. I hope that by now you must have learned it.


We culled all of our boys that we didn't need, and we had some great meat in the freezer it wasn't hard to do. However the kids don't like helping to pluck all the feathers out.


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## piglett (Jun 21, 2012)

hildar said:


> We culled all of our boys that we didn't need, and we had some great meat in the freezer it wasn't hard to do. However the kids don't like helping to pluck all the feathers out.


 we skin em unless we are looking for roasted chicken

skinning takes less than 5 min per bird

less work & the meat is just as good

piglett


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## hellofromtexas (Feb 16, 2014)

For feather removal, machine is easiest, skinning is the second easiest and the hardest is manual removal of feathers


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

I skin my boys for the dog dish, manually pluck my birds. Takes me roughly the same amount of time to skin as to pluck, as I skin the wings out, so about 5 minutes a bird. If I just disjoint the wings and take them off takes about 3 minutes. If I had a plucker I could do 3 birds in about 1 minute. Substantial time savings when you are doing as many birds as I do!

My husband won't kill, he won't gut, and he sucks at plucking. So I'm left to do the whole lot by myself. When I do the pig he basically waits for the gunshot,then pulls it up on the hoist for me, then is gone again until I need him to help me split it. He's not a farm boy and offers very little help with these things. He doesn't mind eating them though, he can do that just fine lol.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

piglett said:


> we skin em unless we are looking for roasted chicken
> 
> skinning takes less than 5 min per bird
> 
> ...


I did that with the last 6 that we had. I skinned them all out, gutted them and washed it up good. Left them sitting for a day in the fridge then boiled them and removed the meat to put in soup and tamales. Worked out great to. I made over 100 tamales last week with 3 pounds of chicken meat. Enough to feed the family for about 4 days.

What gets left on the bones, usually goes to the cat now, we don't have a dog for now. However I plan on later on getting another one, but it will start out here as a tiny puppy. That last dog I got, almost made me break my back trying to catch it. Wasn't good at all when my back went out on me and I was laying on the ground for almost 2 hours.


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## ladycat (Aug 6, 2012)

piglett said:


> we skin em unless we are looking for roasted chicken
> 
> skinning takes less than 5 min per bird
> 
> ...


That's what I do. I hate plucking.


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## piglett (Jun 21, 2012)

ladycat said:


> That's what I do. I hate plucking.


i don't eat the skin anyhow

so why keep it?


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

piglett said:


> i don't eat the skin anyhow
> 
> so why keep it?


Oh but it is so good! Nothing finer than a crisp, butter basted piece of skin.


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