Comments on: If you don’t want to be a sheep, you may have to learn to kill a chicken.

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:05:14 +0000

Kathleen, if you need any other pointers, feel free to pop over to my blog and post your question in the comments for the latest post. Butchering rabbits *is* tough at first. It gets easier quickly, really.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:23:30 +0000

Thank you so much for posting this! I have been looking all over for this method as we just had our first litter of rabbits to cull. We’ve dispatched 4 so far, and it has not been pleasant; on the contrary, quite unnerving. Hopefully this will prove to be a far less stressful technique on both my husband and I, and the cute, fluffy, white bunnies that need to go into our freezer.

By: David

David — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:50:45 +0000

Cool!

By: Digger

Digger — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 08:33:12 +0000

Wow! Some actual useful information for the first time on 6MB!

By: average_guy

average_guy — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:58:56 +0000

Easter time is when all the feed stores have chicks available for sale. You don’t have to order them, they’re in stock now!

By: Redshirt

Redshirt — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:49:02 +0000

I have long contended that the decline of our civilization is attributable in part to the fact that we no longer kill our own chickens.

That is why the population, as a whole, has not the stomach to end a war by winning it.

Try talking a chicken onto the plate.

The Taliban may not seem to have more brains than a chicken – but…..

By: rg

rg — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:54:10 +0000

Judging by your picture of the offal, I’d say you have most of the makings of about five pounds of Jimmy Dean sausages there. Don’t let nobody fool ya, them’s good eatin’.

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:29:13 +0000

Nancy, your dad is 100% correct. I usually just whack the whole pope’s nose off — it’s been placed I’d rather not think about. The gland there is the oil the birds use to groom their feathers.

Once you’ve raised your own chickens, it’s awfully hard to eat commercial birds. There is one relatively local brand I can get that does a decent job of cleaning out the innerds, but even then I’ll find a bit of lung or windpipe in there. Yuck. Birds get washed thoroughly here, pope’s nose removed, unmentionables removed (if it’s a boy), all squishy red bits scraped out, and I pull out any remaining craw, too, as there is often a bit of the pink skin that goes around the sac still on the right breast. The meat itself can survive transportation and storage, but the innerds are more fragile and biologically, um, active so they don’t keep all that well. Just because it’s sealed in plastic doesn’t mean it’s smart to eat it…

Michele, how are your knife-sharpening skills? Good thing to know. And you might want to put in some target practice with a slingshot, and a crossbow while you’re at it. The Feds might regulate ammo but I doubt they’ll get around to slingshots and my dad (a Marine) has a big steel and rubber slingshot that has a really high degree of accuracy. Nifty thing. If you keep chickens, you’ll have predators, some of which taste good.

By: Preston Taylor Holmes

Preston Taylor Holmes — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:01:20 +0000

If you don’t quit yer whining, I’m going to have her whack your inner chicken as well.

By: Cranky

Cranky — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 02:50:25 +0000

Preston, this is NOT the “feminine touch” I expected Michele to bring to the site.

My inner-liberal is weeping for the chickens.