[little blue]

please post below, step by step, your idiots' guide to
killing, hanging, plucking, preparing etc birds for the table.... including how long you hang for.

thanks in advance from a nervous first-timer , so expect questions!

[bamford6]

Preparing a Home Killed Bird for the Table
After killing, hanging and plucking your chicken, take your bird to the kitchen to dress it out.

Taking a sharp knife, 2 inches up from the body go round the neck skin, cutting through to release it. Now push that skin back to the body and using a pair of secateurs, chop off the neck as close to the body as possible.

Next slide the other side of the skin up to the head and remove the neck from the skin pocket cleanly and put the head and remains to one side.

Put the neck in a pot of water. Turn the skin back on the neck and look for any corn in the sack (crop) close to the breast, take it out and dump it with the head.

Now take your sharp knife and go to the legs, feel for the joint at the knee and cut down between this and separate the skin. Remove now completely and put with the head etc.

Take your knife and feel over the bird's stomach for the lower tip of the breast bone, where it comes to a point, and push the knife point in and cut the skin back down to the tail travelling down to about 1/2 inch from the anus. Cutting in a circle remove this.

NB: Do be careful cutting around the anus as you really don't want to allow the contents out if you can avoid it. If you do split the gut, take especial care when washing the bird

Put the knife down and force your fingers up inside the chicken as far as you can and using your fingers pull down gripping anything that is in the cavity pulling everything out.

Don't snap anything if you can help it. But don't worry if you do.

Push your hand in now completely and force it right to the top of the chest feeling for any little lumps (the heart) remove it and now go back to the top of the bird (the neck end)

Push your fingers through the cavity that you will feel at the top of the breastbones to feel for a pipe; this is the windpipe. Grip the windpipe using a tea towel and remove it.
This is your bird completed now except for washing out.

Now take the remains and take the livers and heart out and put them in water with the neck. These are the gravy making giblets that you get in a little bag with shop bought chickens.

Sort through the innards and feel for a hard lump of meat, this will have white membrane on both sides and is red. Take your sharp knife and holding the gizzard on edge like a shell cut down through the red meat to the centre. You will find that some small pieces of grit will appear; remove these and force the gap open like opening a clam and look for a yellow skin on the inside.

Peel this from the red meat part dump this in the bin in a small bag along with the remains of the giblets and head, put the gizzard in the water with the livers etc.

That is how I kill and prepare my birds.

[bamford6]

If you feel unable to do the job by hand then you can get a humane dispatcher from your seed and feed stockist. This should come with an instructional pamphlet showing you how to use it.

It's a good idea to practice first on some celery sticks, which will give you an idea of how much force is required and what it feels like. Always go for full closure with dispatchers.

If you have not killed a chicken before, it is a good idea to go to an experienced poultry keeper and learn rather than jump in. The idea is to cause as little distress to the bird and the rest of the flock as possible.
If you keep chickens for meat or if you need to cull a chicken you obviously want to do it in the most humane way possible. There are sites offering advice that I think are, quite frankly, rubbish so this is how I handle killing a chicken.

I was ten years old when I killed my first bird and this is how I do mine. To do this task properly you have to be settled in your mind that you are able to carry it out, safe in the knowledge that how you apply the task is the proper and quickest way

First take the bird quietly in the dark with a red lamp so as not to alarm the rest. Tuck the bird quietly under your arm as you are talking to the rest and close the door quietly. This calmness must be continued all the way through so it's best that you do this with no audience at all . Go into the coop quietly whistling softly or even talking this way the birds know its you and don't all scream about flapping and upsetting everything.

Take the bird by the legs from the perch and pull it into your side by placing a hand around its body and cup its head in your hand. Walk out quietly and away from the coop up to the house so as not to cause any more disturbance to the rest of the birds and the household
Take your right hand and slide it under the birds butt and grasp its legs with the hand closed take the legs with the thumb pointing away from the body as this is a stronger grip

Placing the fingers and thumb of the left had over the chickens neck just above the head. The first 2 fingers ie index and second fingers, close over the head with the neck in between like a V. The thumb then comes over the head closing it into the palm taking a half twist as it closes
Now bring the bird into your chest holding its legs tight into the body and taking a firm but gentle grip on its neck extend and put the weight of the top part of the body onto the neck forcing the head down in one clean movement
The head will part from the body as the neck is broken and your hand will follow on down and away from the bird. As the pressure you applied is released the bird will start to flap uncontrollably at this point the chicken is dead.

T his action is only nervous reaction and it will stop in about 30 seconds. Allow the bird to flap as much as it wants as this action forces any blood to go down to the neck and coagulate there.

You can hang it for a day or two if you so wish, or you can carry straight onto the plucking.


 

[little blue]

cheers Gary.
I have a humane dispatcher (hand held) and am "mentally ready"  though the boys aren't big enough yet!

?best method for plucking?
how long should a hot dip be for?  and how hot?!