Killed and ate

[darin]

Yesterday I had a 'first'. At the age of 41 I killed and ate for the first time. I suppose I might have eaten a fish I caught - but it wasn't like yesterday.

My kids helped me corral one of our roosters; I swung the hatchet down on the rooster's neck instantly severing the blood supply to its brain. The body wiggled and tossed a little bit, but nothing crazy. I removed the rest of the head as the body drained hanging over by our wood pile. While I waited for my water to heat to 145 degrees (scalding the bird greatly helps feather-removal) I sorta just looked around at the kids. I must have looked a little off because my daughter hugged me and said "it's okay, Daddy".

As I was plucking my son approached and asked to help. He and I plucked the bird clean(ish) - he carried the bird back up to the kitchen where my daughter prepared the area for cleaning.

First off were the feet - one of my pups LOVED the foot - and she ate the whole thing. Goofy dog.

Very gross part - cutting an opening in the lower body and sticking my hands up to sort of 'rake' out the innards. My daughter assisted; reading from a 'how to' blog, while my Son picked through the innards trying to identify the parts.

I ended up frying both sides of the breast in butter - with salt and pepper. Meat was a little tough, but me and the kids enjoyed it. As I placed the breast in the man I made sure my daughter realized how small the breast was compared to what we get at Costco - this bird lived its life between my dirt-floor barn, the outside grass area, and a small coop with attached pen. This bird wasn't grown to eat - it grew naturally.

Anywho - So -the rest of the bird made it into a chicken soup/thing? I made. Lots of noodles; few veggies.

Am I 'better' for having done it? No. My daughter summed it up, however - "Well Dad, at least we know we can do it if we have to. At least I think I could get through it now, having done it"

No pics. I have a couple, but I feel posting pics would be a little disrespectful to the bird - whose life I took to feed my family.

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

Yesterday I had a 'first'. At the age of 41 I killed and ate for the first time. I suppose I might have eaten a fish I caught - but it wasn't like yesterday.

My kids helped me corral one of our roosters; I swung the hatchet down on the rooster's neck instantly severing the blood supply to its brain. The body wiggled and tossed a little bit, but nothing crazy. I removed the rest of the head as the body drained hanging over by our wood pile. While I waited for my water to heat to 145 degrees (scalding the bird greatly helps feather-removal) I sorta just looked around at the kids. I must have looked a little off because my daughter hugged me and said "it's okay, Daddy".

As I was plucking my son approached and asked to help. He and I plucked the bird clean(ish) - he carried the bird back up to the kitchen where my daughter prepared the area for cleaning.

First off were the feet - one of my pups LOVED the foot - and she ate the whole thing. Goofy dog.

Very gross part - cutting an opening in the lower body and sticking my hands up to sort of 'rake' out the innards. My daughter assisted; reading from a 'how to' blog, while my Son picked through the innards trying to identify the parts.

I ended up frying both sides of the breast in butter - with salt and pepper. Meat was a little tough, but me and the kids enjoyed it. As I placed the breast in the man I made sure my daughter realized how small the breast was compared to what we get at Costco - this bird lived its life between my dirt-floor barn, the outside grass area, and a small coop with attached pen. This bird wasn't grown to eat - it grew naturally.

Anywho - So -the rest of the bird made it into a chicken soup/thing? I made. Lots of noodles; few veggies.

Am I 'better' for having done it? No. My daughter summed it up, however - "Well Dad, at least we know we can do it if we have to. At least I think I could get through it now, having done it"

No pics. I have a couple, but I feel posting pics would be a little disrespectful to the bird - whose life I took to feed my family.

Bravo and well done. I was taught how to do that at 6 years old but we were raised on a farm back when most of what a farm family ate was gown there and raised there. Still reading your description brought back many old and enjoyable memories for my dad chose my older brother and I to be his helpers in preparing the chickens when we were having that for lunch and supper. A family of thirteen needs at least 5 chickens but 6 is better ... My mom could cook chicken any way known to man and make it taste deliciously wonderful. And with the fresh vegetables coming out of out large garden we ate mighty fine.

Glad to see you had the foresight to include your kids in the process, a very necessary learning event that was my friend. Not just for you but for your kids too. A thoughtful father teaches by example and you surely did that. I know people that have never killed or dressed an animal to prepare to eat as their own meal.. Do that about a dozen times and it becomes like riding a bike, same goes for field dressing animals shot on a hunt. I can field dress a rabbit using just my fingers. An old man showed me how to skin a squirrel the easiest and fastest way.

I know this, chickens freshly killed and put into the frying pan like that taste so much better than store bought etc. I havent had that myself in about a dozen years.

I hope your kids learned much and appreciate you including them in the process!!-Tyr

[darin]

Thank you so much. I feel a little bit more real. I feel like it's a process that shows ultimate respect for what it means to be a meat eater. I feel - and this may be overly dramatic and all that - I feel connected a bit. Not to the rooster, really, but when I see a lion eating a whatever, or any of that, I feel attachment to the animal being eaten. Feels real. Buying from the store removes that personal connection. I'm not doing a good job of explaining it, but I do feel richer and the meat feels better during consumption. I get it now. That make ANY sense?

[jimnyc]

Poor little feller never saw it coming. Now he's rooster soup! :)

But hell, I give you props for the way you did it and the concern you are showing for doing so, by making sure you did it the right way and quickly and such AND doing so for food.

No little pet piggies for you!! :poke: :beer:

[darin]

Ha...cock-soup. ew.


:-)

[jimnyc]

Ha...cock-soup. ew.


:-)

I will never eat any type of bird soup, ever again. In fact, now even if I even have some damn tomato soup, I will be reminded of this, and probably end up cracking up and spitting it on my wife! LOL

[NightTrain]

Good job, Darin. Especially including your kids in on that... it's not pretty or fun, but it is life.

Back when I was a kid living out in the sticks, one Spring my Dad got the idea that he needed to buy 200 chickens, 10 turkeys, 10 pheasants and 5 ducks to raise over the summer and slaughter them in the Fall.

We constructed a large yard enclosed by chicken wire for them, probably 200' by 200' and a chicken coop to roost in at night or during bad weather. They really contributed to the killing of mosquitos and other bugs, which was a very nice benefit that didn't occur to us beforehand.

The pheasant chicks promptly escaped - they're extremely smart. We never saw them again.

The ducks turned into pets and were allowed to roam around where they pleased.

But the chickens and turkeys all met their fate one week in the fall, the ones that hadn't been nabbed by the Eagles that nested out next to the River and passing hawks, falcons and owls... we began the slaughter and it sucked.

We quickly learned that if you hold the chicken upside down by it's feet, it will be passive. Then we used a soup can to place over the bird's head so it didn't see the hatchet coming... but the smell of blood was in the air and they know their time was up. Still, we tried to be as humane as we could with the whole thing.

We didn't just use hot water, we had it boiling (or very close to it) to loosen the feathers... dunked them in the water for a few seconds and hung them to cool before plucking them.

For us kids, that was the worst part of it, the plucking. We plucked chickens for over a week, and it wasn't easy to get the feathers and especially the pin feathers out. I absolutely hated it, it was smelly, gross and very unpleasant. It took me about 15 years after that before I'd eat chicken skin after that, no matter if it was KFC or any other kind.

I guess there's a plucking machine that you can buy, it's a rotating drum with rubber fingers on it that spins at high speed and it quickly strips the feathers off for you - but of course, we didn't have that.

But we got through it, and that was the best chicken & turkey that I've ever eaten.

All except one old Rooster that we'd had for a few years, naturally named "Foggy" (Foghorn Leghorn)... he was probably 5 or 6 years old, maybe older. Dad had decided all the birds except the Ducks were getting slaughtered so Foggy got the axe as well. He was impossible to pluck, so he ended up being skinned. So Mom boiled him for a couple of days, assuring us kids that it was the only way he'd be edible because an old rooster was going to be extremely tough, and a rooster was really only good for chicken soup.

After a couple of days simmering & boiling on the woodstove, Mom sampled it and it was like chewing on a tire. So she let him simmer for another couple of days - still rubber. We were all impressed at Foggy's toughness, and finally Mom gave it up and fed him to the Malemutes in a stew... they didn't complain. Maybe canning or pressure cooking the old rooster would have made a difference, but it really was like chewing on a piece of hard rubber. Foggy was one tough SOB.

[darin]

Thanks brother - my remaining rooster and hens were born in mid-july. I've noticed my hens are missing their feathers on their back where the Rooster grabs on to rape them. At least they will not get double-teamed anymore. Also, the roosters are MUCH larger - wondering if they are hoarding food? I dunno. I'm going to gear up to dispatch the other rooster in a week or two. I'm not going to like it - but I need to do it.

I found the plucking pretty easy - 150 degrees to not cook the bird at all - and about 4 or 5 dunks and wiggles. Then, during the process we'd dunk a time or two. Wasn't bad. Feathers were sticky though.

I couldn't NOT have my kids there, really. I want them to learn things before I did. Took me 35 years or so to really care about my food or think twice about its origins.

Funny/True: When driving around and hungry and I suggest McD's to my kids they always say "ew. Gross..."

Same kids who'd go ape-crap over a veggie tray with ranch dressing and IGNORE cookies, icecream, cake and pizza at birthday parties.

:)

[NightTrain]

Maybe we had to water too hot... it was definitely hard to pluck them.

How long did it take you from start to finish on plucking one?

[darin]

Maybe 10 minutes? We were going slow - my son asked a lot of questions. Here's a pic of the size of bird - Graphic Pic for some, although I cut out the part with blood, etc. My kids had named him Ducky - from NCIS. We have DiNozzo, Ziva, Gibbs, Abbey, and...that other guy remaining.


http://www.debatepolicy.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5950&stc=1

[jimnyc]

Looks like you're waterboarding the terrorist rooster! Wait till Noir sees this thread and that picture, he'll be mortified and give you an E ass kicking! :laugh:

[NightTrain]

Maybe 10 minutes? We were going slow - my son asked a lot of questions. Here's a pic of the size of bird

I'm pretty sure it took over 20 minutes per bird the way we did it. Must have been that the water was too hot!

That pic looks just like ol' Foggy! Did yours have a big red waddle on top of his head? Really wide and lumpy?

I remember his neck feathers would suddenly fluff out when he'd suddenly get horny out of the blue, and he'd start looking around for the nearest hen. The hens knew exactly what his 'horny look' looked like, and they'd all immediately start running like hell to get away from him... 40 hens frantically zig-zagging all over the yard at top speed and that damned rooster in hot pursuit with a fluffed up neck. It was pretty funny.

[Jeff]

Yesterday I had a 'first'. At the age of 41 I killed and ate for the first time. I suppose I might have eaten a fish I caught - but it wasn't like yesterday.

My kids helped me corral one of our roosters; I swung the hatchet down on the rooster's neck instantly severing the blood supply to its brain. The body wiggled and tossed a little bit, but nothing crazy. I removed the rest of the head as the body drained hanging over by our wood pile. While I waited for my water to heat to 145 degrees (scalding the bird greatly helps feather-removal) I sorta just looked around at the kids. I must have looked a little off because my daughter hugged me and said "it's okay, Daddy".

As I was plucking my son approached and asked to help. He and I plucked the bird clean(ish) - he carried the bird back up to the kitchen where my daughter prepared the area for cleaning.

First off were the feet - one of my pups LOVED the foot - and she ate the whole thing. Goofy dog.

Very gross part - cutting an opening in the lower body and sticking my hands up to sort of 'rake' out the innards. My daughter assisted; reading from a 'how to' blog, while my Son picked through the innards trying to identify the parts.

I ended up frying both sides of the breast in butter - with salt and pepper. Meat was a little tough, but me and the kids enjoyed it. As I placed the breast in the man I made sure my daughter realized how small the breast was compared to what we get at Costco - this bird lived its life between my dirt-floor barn, the outside grass area, and a small coop with attached pen. This bird wasn't grown to eat - it grew naturally.

Anywho - So -the rest of the bird made it into a chicken soup/thing? I made. Lots of noodles; few veggies.

Am I 'better' for having done it? No. My daughter summed it up, however - "Well Dad, at least we know we can do it if we have to. At least I think I could get through it now, having done it"

No pics. I have a couple, but I feel posting pics would be a little disrespectful to the bird - whose life I took to feed my family.


Darin I use to haul live birds to the processing plant and we did so when they where 18 weeks old, they said any older they would be tough. A friend of mine always gets what one of the chicken houses in the area has left after they pick the birds up ( some they wont take, if they are to small or have been feed in the last few hours) and he raises them for a while to fatten them up, but when he kills them he will do 50 or so at a time and he stews them ( because they will be tough due to there age ) he says they are fantastic that way and he fills the freezer while doing so.

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

Pluck the feathers off after dipping in boiling water. Then you can "singe" (burn) the pinfeathers off over an open flame--saves time. We always did ours that way only dad did the singeing because he did not want my brother or Ito burn our hands. One has to be careful when doing that.

And correct --the older birds we made chicken and dumplings with those using the younger birds for frying. I dearly hated all the plucking. After we moved off the farm I often remarked --no more damn plucking for me!!! My brother would reply-- "why tell me ,I dont give a pluck"!--:laugh:--Tyr

[jimnyc]

Forget the piglets, wouldn't want to see one of the little mini pigs knowing that one day he'll be a meal. But how about a regular 'ol disgusting 200lb pig? Maybe even get a grown one already? That would certainly make lots of good eating!! But I imagine that whether disgusting or not, it probably wouldn't be easy to take out even one of those fat bastards.

Do you have plans for anything outside of the birds?

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

Forget the piglets, wouldn't want to see one of the little mini pigs knowing that one day he'll be a meal. But how about a regular 'ol disgusting 200lb pig? Maybe even get a grown one already? That would certainly make lots of good eating!! But I imagine that whether disgusting or not, it probably wouldn't be easy to take out even one of those fat bastards.

Do you have plans for anything outside of the birds?
Jim often big hogs are killed with a 22 caliber rifle shot behind the ear or right between the eyes.
Now wild hogs, especially Arkansas razorbacks the really big ones are tough as hell and dangerous.
I'd not tackle killing them with anything less that a 12 gauge shotgun , 30'30 or 30'06..
Smaller ones are the better eating.. --Tyr

[jimnyc]

Jim often big hogs are killed with a 22 caliber rifle shot behind the ear or right between the eyes.
Now wild hogs, especially Arkansas razorbacks the really big ones are tough as hell and dangerous.
I'd not tackle killing them with anything less that a 12 gauge shotgun , 30'30 or 30'06..
Smaller ones are the better eating.. --Tyr

Couldn't you just give him a needle and let him painlessly fall asleep and pass, like at the vets office? :dunno:

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

Couldn't you just give him a needle and let him painlessly fall asleep and pass, like at the vets office? :dunno:

22 caliber bullet used to cost about 2 cents and it was fast and handy because most of us had such rifles. We had 4 in my family and 5 shotguns . Who cares about a split second of pain a hog may feel? Da thang never knew what hit it. The bad part was gutting it.

A deer is easy compared to gutting a hog. I can gut a deer with my eyes closed!! -Tyr

[Gaffer]

Couldn't you just give him a needle and let him painlessly fall asleep and pass, like at the vets office? :dunno:

The poison in the needle goes into the system of the animal. Do you really want to eat something that was poisoned?

Butchering animals is a lot of hard work. Which is why most of the population of this country would starve following a major national disaster.

[namvet]

http://global3.memecdn.com/evil-chicken_o_399078.jpg

[SassyLady]

Yesterday I had a 'first'. At the age of 41 I killed and ate for the first time. I suppose I might have eaten a fish I caught - but it wasn't like yesterday.

My kids helped me corral one of our roosters; I swung the hatchet down on the rooster's neck instantly severing the blood supply to its brain. The body wiggled and tossed a little bit, but nothing crazy. I removed the rest of the head as the body drained hanging over by our wood pile. While I waited for my water to heat to 145 degrees (scalding the bird greatly helps feather-removal) I sorta just looked around at the kids. I must have looked a little off because my daughter hugged me and said "it's okay, Daddy".

As I was plucking my son approached and asked to help. He and I plucked the bird clean(ish) - he carried the bird back up to the kitchen where my daughter prepared the area for cleaning.

First off were the feet - one of my pups LOVED the foot - and she ate the whole thing. Goofy dog.

Very gross part - cutting an opening in the lower body and sticking my hands up to sort of 'rake' out the innards. My daughter assisted; reading from a 'how to' blog, while my Son picked through the innards trying to identify the parts.

I ended up frying both sides of the breast in butter - with salt and pepper. Meat was a little tough, but me and the kids enjoyed it. As I placed the breast in the man I made sure my daughter realized how small the breast was compared to what we get at Costco - this bird lived its life between my dirt-floor barn, the outside grass area, and a small coop with attached pen. This bird wasn't grown to eat - it grew naturally.

Anywho - So -the rest of the bird made it into a chicken soup/thing? I made. Lots of noodles; few veggies.

Am I 'better' for having done it? No. My daughter summed it up, however - "Well Dad, at least we know we can do it if we have to. At least I think I could get through it now, having done it"

No pics. I have a couple, but I feel posting pics would be a little disrespectful to the bird - whose life I took to feed my family.

One of the reasons you don't eat rooster's. If you need to get rid of them and want to eat them, make chicken soup, chicken and dumplings or feed to the dogs.

When I was younger and living on the farm, we didn't kill them one at a time. We killed several and had an assembly line set up. It's quite a process and if you have to do it once, why not do several at a time. Hated the smell of the boiling water used for "dunking" before plucking.

Dogs loved all the by products and it's frowned upon today but the chickens still in the pen would eat the left over body parts.

Now, Darin, time to kill, gut and eat a rabbit. Making your way up the ladder so that you can provide for the family when the SHTF.

Nicely done.

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

One of the reasons you don't eat rooster's. If you need to get rid of them and want to eat them, make chicken soup, chicken and dumplings or feed to the dogs.

When I was younger and living on the farm, we didn't kill them one at a time. We killed several and had an assembly line set up. It's quite a process and if you have to do it once, why not do several at a time. Hated the smell of the boiling water used for "dunking" before plucking.

Dogs loved all the by products and it's frowned upon today but the chickens still in the pen would eat the left over body parts.

Now, Darin, time to kill, gut and eat a rabbit. Making your way up the ladder so that you can provide for the family when the SHTF.

Nicely done.

True we always cast the innards to the chickens to eat. All except the heart and liver. I love both and so did my two older brothers and one older sister which meant we had to almost fight for them at the table. :laugh:. Sometimes Mom would have us at the table eating while she was still cooking the chicken. Bring it right out of the skillet and put it on our plates. Great but we kids often got burnt tongues because of that. And cursed silently about it too. :laugh:

Good advice , Darin would love it if he chose to hunt , gut, bring home wild game to eat and share with his family.. I was doing that at 6 years old and know a bit about it . A satisfaction like none other in my opinion. I wish it upon all people so they can connect to nature. It brings a new measure to the soul of a man too.

And yes , would come in QUITE handy when the SHTF!! -Tyr

[darin]

I'm pretty sure it took over 20 minutes per bird the way we did it. Must have been that the water was too hot!

That pic looks just like ol' Foggy! Did yours have a big red waddle on top of his head? Really wide and lumpy?

I remember his neck feathers would suddenly fluff out when he'd suddenly get horny out of the blue, and he'd start looking around for the nearest hen. The hens knew exactly what his 'horny look' looked like, and they'd all immediately start running like hell to get away from him... 40 hens frantically zig-zagging all over the yard at top speed and that damned rooster in hot pursuit with a fluffed up neck. It was pretty funny.

Indeed - both the roosters did that; puffed WAY up when agitated. Or excited. :)



Darin I use to haul live birds to the processing plant and we did so when they where 18 weeks old, they said any older they would be tough. A friend of mine always gets what one of the chicken houses in the area has left after they pick the birds up ( some they wont take, if they are to small or have been feed in the last few hours) and he raises them for a while to fatten them up, but when he kills them he will do 50 or so at a time and he stews them ( because they will be tough due to there age ) he says they are fantastic that way and he fills the freezer while doing so.

That's a pretty good idea - maybe I should check with local chicken farms; if we have any. My neighbor takes his birds to a place; $2 and they come back dressed and wrapped and ready to go. I wanted to learn the hard way, however.


Pluck the feathers off after dipping in boiling water. Then you can "singe" (burn) the pinfeathers off over an open flame--saves time. We always did ours that way only dad did the singeing because he did not want my brother or Ito burn our hands. One has to be careful when doing that.

And correct --the older birds we made chicken and dumplings with those using the younger birds for frying. I dearly hated all the plucking. After we moved off the farm I often remarked --no more damn plucking for me!!! My brother would reply-- "why tell me ,I dont give a pluck"!----Tyr

Having the water boiling can cook the meat or the skin. We did it at about 140-150 degrees and the feathers came out perfect and the skin wasn't cooked at all. The worst thing was how sticky the feathers were :)


Forget the piglets, wouldn't want to see one of the little mini pigs knowing that one day he'll be a meal. But how about a regular 'ol disgusting 200lb pig? Maybe even get a grown one already? That would certainly make lots of good eating!! But I imagine that whether disgusting or not, it probably wouldn't be easy to take out even one of those fat bastards.

Do you have plans for anything outside of the birds?

I'm going to sell the place, Jim - at my next house I'd like pigs; but frankly, I'm full-in to the roving mode. At this place in my life, heck, I'd prefer to be a long-haul driver. If I settle down I'll get pigs for eating, and a cow or two.



Butchering animals is a lot of hard work. Which is why most of the population of this country would starve following a major national disaster.

...which might be a good thing. A cleansing. :)


One of the reasons you don't eat rooster's. If you need to get rid of them and want to eat them, make chicken soup, chicken and dumplings or feed to the dogs.

When I was younger and living on the farm, we didn't kill them one at a time. We killed several and had an assembly line set up. It's quite a process and if you have to do it once, why not do several at a time. Hated the smell of the boiling water used for "dunking" before plucking.

Dogs loved all the by products and it's frowned upon today but the chickens still in the pen would eat the left over body parts.

Now, Darin, time to kill, gut and eat a rabbit. Making your way up the ladder so that you can provide for the family when the SHTF.

Nicely done.

I have rabbits running around. Thought about taking one - still might. I fed them over the winter - salad scraps and whatnot.


True we always cast the innards to the chickens to eat. All except the heart and liver. I love both and so did my two older brothers and one older sister which meant we had to almost fight for them at the table. . Sometimes Mom would have us at the table eating while she was still cooking the chicken. Bring it right out of the skillet and put it on our plates. Great but we kids often got burnt tongues because of that. And cursed silently about it too.

Good advice , Darin would love it if he chose to hunt , gut, bring home wild game to eat and share with his family.. I was doing that at 6 years old and know a bit about it . A satisfaction like none other in my opinion. I wish it upon all people so they can connect to nature. It brings a new measure to the soul of a man too.

And yes , would come in QUITE handy when the SHTF!! -Tyr

I'd like hunting - I've done it, but not hit anything yet. :)

[Trigg]

good job Darin!!

I was raised on a small farm knowing that the animals we raised would soon be food so killing the rabbits and chickens was old hat by the time I was 12 or 13.

The thing I appreciate the most about farm raised meat is that I know where it came from and what it was fed. I know that it wasn't shot up with hormones and antibiotics. I can easily tell the difference between farm eggs and store eggs, they have better color and taste better.