| Author | Message | ||
     Buellkowski |
I had my first experience with this chore yesterday when I helped a friend thin his flock. We dispatched eight of his hens by exsanguination, then skinned them rather than plucked them. The hens cooperated and didn't fuss much (thankfully). We both took turns with each step and the extra pair of hands made us more efficient. Engaging in some friendly chatting & jokes helped take the edge off, too. Neither of us lost our nerve (or our lunch). Not bad for city boys. We did this in the suburbs, where recent code changes allow small flocks with no roosters. I grew up in the country and we had a chicken coop when I was a kid, but our hens were more like pets than "animals" to us. They never died by our hands, only whenever a weasel or some other predator managed to find a way into the coop. If you've never been exposed to the process required to bring your meat to your table, you are missing an important connection. Most of us take for granted the work farm folk do for us. I didn't truly "enjoy" myself yesterday, but I was thankful for the opportunity to learn and think about my own consumption. | ||
| Skinstains |
Who hasn't ? | ||
| Hootowl |
I am a food hypocrite, and I like it that way. I'd have to be pretty damn hungry to kill an animal, but I'm perfectly happy eating them once they're dead. What good is civilization if I can't be isolated from the death my survival depends on? | ||
| Wheelybueller |
Never had to kill a chicken.Choke.. well.....nevermind  Deer and other small game yes. Fresh is good,so is the satisfaction of knowing how to supply food if things took a turn for the worse. | ||
| Roadcouch98 |
What good is civilization if I can't be isolated from the death my survival depends on? That's Funny. | ||
| Barker |
I grew up on a mountain farm in Southwestern VA. We raised or hunted a lot of our food. exsanguination... hmmm. That sounds like a big city word.  I had to look that up. Chickens are easy. Hogs,,,, that is another story. I was elected to be the one to jump into the pen, run in and jump on the hog to slit its throat. Then the scalding process, butchering and then clean out some organs. We consumed just about every part of the hog except what was inside some of the digestive organs. Salt cured hams/bacon, fresh sausage, we made "cheese" from the head, ears make great sandwiches, chitlins, sweet breads, mountain oysters, may favorite was the feet, and there is nothing like fresh fried pork skins. We hunted alot of deer and turkey. We always had wild turkey for Thanksgiving. Stalking, killing and field dressing a deer is an unique experience. | ||
| Strokizator |
So after you spent all that time getting 8 chickens ready for the table, did you sit back and figure out how much your time was worth? Even if you spent just a few hours and you only paid yourselves minimum wage, the cost of those "farm fresh" birds was about twice what it costs at the local Costco. I've raised yard birds for eggs but a couple of seasons of duck and pheasant hunting cured me of ever wanting to raise them for meat. | ||
| Blk_uly |
I get hungry watching live chickens just walking around peckin and stuff I don't think Id'e have a problem killing them but never had the chance , sounds like fun though. | ||
| Slowride |
Stalking, killing and field dressing a deer is an unique experience. It truly is... It also translates well when you're in country hunting baddies! | ||
| Fast1075 |
We always shot the hog between the eyes with a .22 before we bled it out. Seems to calm it's nerves a lot We bought a few lot-raised hogs, but we usually caught 'em live and fed 'em out for 6 weeks before we butchered 'em (gets rid of the tannic acid they get from eating acorns)..we didn't throw much of anything away either... My favorite was quail...we used to have some big ones around here before the developers paved the woods...you could find coveys of 80 to 100 birds... | ||
| Not_purple_s2 |
Grew up on a farm. Help bring them in to the world (help birth calves) and taken them out of the world. The ones we got attached to ended up becoming pet-like and never were sold or slaughtered. Mine was a dairy cow named Daisy. When my dad got chicken houses I helped walk through and thin out the sick. Nasty job but it had to be done. Phil used a length of pvc pipe, surprisingly effective at caving in chicken heads. I used a very sharp machete to cut off their heads, which is one of the humane methods requested by PETA when they protested Sanderson Farms for videos of farmers bashing chickens against walls and such. | ||
| Bluzm2 |
I did the chicken thing when I was a kid on my Grandpa's farm. We dispatched them with a hatchet. It was funny for us kids to watch them run around with no head. That IS where the term came from ya know.. The damn things seemed like they were chasing you! Scared the hell out of my sisters. It was messy as you can imagine. After that was the hard part. The plucking, singing of pin feathers, gutting, etc. I always hated the singing part, stunk like hell. I can still smell it if I think about it. But when it was all done, they were the best tasting chickens I've ever had. | ||
| Just_ziptab |
Sunday chicken dinner was a treat......back in the 60's.We had a stump on the farm with two nails sticking up about 2 inches. Put the chickens head between the nails and wacked the heads of with a hatchet. Mom wouldn't let me do the deed till I was probably around ten,but let me catch the chosen chickens with a wire hook chicken catcher that snagged a leg. Seems like we did a dozen or so old laying hens at a time and once in a while,a rooster. Grandmother was there to help out. Boil and pluck. To this day,I can not stand the smell of raw chicken.Ditto rabbits and squirrels. Hogs,not so bad. We used to butcher cripples and the gun of the day was chosen. Usually a big bore pistol with a shot behind the ear. Dropped them "right now". Skinned out,washed out and hung to cure for a day. Nothing quite like cutting slabs of meat off and going right on to the grille. Deer are easy,compared to small game.....only problem,I don't care for deer meat or cleaning small game.......so I don't go hunting any more....but will know what to do if I'm starving and there is nothing else to eat. | ||
| Court |
>>>>We always shot the hog between the eyes with a .22 before we bled it out. HINT: If you are preparing for a hog roast and are preparing to shoot the hog with a .357 in the back of the pickup . . . and have been drinking . . do NOT turn your head to look away. I can see a way that, say if you has something like a old Chevy pickup with the fuel tank behind the seat, that the hog could turn sideways and you could shoot the hog in the side, puncture the fuel tank and end up with a flaming pickup with a hog squirting blood out one new hole and hog poo out a pre-existing hole. In theory the hog should be deceased before the roasting starts. Booze almost never helps anything involving handguns. Just a wild guess on my part . . . (Baldwin, KS - 1969) | ||
| Bluzm2 |
My Gawd Court, that is one of the funniest things I've heard in a LONG time! Scary part is I can see some of my old friends doing the same thing.... | ||
| Blk_uly |
I've got a friend who hooked a 4ft shark in the gulf. he pulled it up into his boat and just to be a show off he went into the cabin to retrieve his 357 to deal with the flailing shark. He fired two shots into the sharks head and right through the bottom of his boat! true story.  | ||
| 86129squids |
I had a wild turkey kill itself on my ZTL rotor whilst hauling A down the Foothills Parkway a few years back... All I did was pluck a few feathers to remember the bird- wonder how it might've tasted...  | ||
| Ourdee |
Dad would tell me to go get a green chicken for supper. If you saw a chicken eating eggs you were to paint it green. There was always a rattle can just inside the door to the barn. So the painted chickens were first to go. Never cut the head off, just cracked the whip. Grab them by the neck and snap it like a whip. Neck made a good handle as it was a 100 yards back to the house from the barn.  | ||
| Whisperstealth |
I can see a way that, say if you has something like a old Chevy pickup with the fuel tank behind the seat, that the hog could turn sideways and you could shoot the hog in the side, puncture the fuel tank and end up with a flaming pickup with a hog squirting blood out one new hole and hog poo out a pre-existing hole.  | ||
| Whisperstealth |
I once shot an old rooster 10 times with a pellet/bb gun before the tough bastard finally dropped. And this was over a period of a week or so. I'd hit the thing, it would go inside the chicken house. Next day, same thing. My brother hit it a time or two as well. Tough Bird. At the same time I hunted a rabbit with pointed pellets out of the same air rifle and dropped it with one shot. - Go figure. | ||
| Rotzaruck |
My five year old Grandson just got his first little BB gun. He was target shooting and couldn't understand why his Mom wouldn't let him shoot a bird. She explained that if he shot one, he would have to clean it, cook it, and eat it. He said "I think I'll just wait and shoot a chicken". I took my 12 year old squirrel hunting for the first time last weekend. He got a gray squirrel and a fox squirrel. He's still excited and has been working on tanning the hides. His Mom is kind of distressed about the whole thing(but working hard at being supportive), especially eating the poor little critters. She thinks meat just comes from the grocery store and doesn't want to think any farther than that. She's wanting chickens,and I plan on getting some. She thinks chickens only make eggs. The ones you eat come from the store. I see some learning experience coming. The squirrels are hanging out in the refrigerator, I think I know who is going to have to cook them. The way I see it, they are about to exercise the only God given right they have, right in that pot with the potatoes and onions. | ||
| Geforce |
During Robin Sage training we just did the ole "boot heel" method. Ended up doing over a dozen that day. Good chicken! | ||
| Cyclonemick |
I once saw a show on tv where a guy grabbed a chicken by the neck then started spinning it around and around and around in front a bunch of little kids! After he did this about 10 or 12 times he then stopped, grabbed the Head and ripped it off! the kids were just laughing and giggiling! It was actually kind of disturbing! I believe it was in Mexico! I don't think I would have a big problem killing a chicken for consumption, But not in that Dramatic Fashion!  | ||
| Road_thing |
Booze almost never helps anything involving handguns. You're doing it wrong... rt | ||
| Pwnzor |
Chickens, hogs, bulls, sheep and goats.... as a kid I helped my uncles butcher meat for the whole island. It was fun, and I learned a lot. Animals are meant to be eaten. If they weren't, then how come God covered them with tasty meat? | ||
| Stirz007 |
I was taught 'if you kill it, you eat it' when I was young, too. Lots of squirrel, rabbit, deer and fowl - mmmm mmmm good. .22 is better, I think, for the bigger critters... less chance of coming out the other side. Just kinda goes in and rattles around. Years ago, some buds and I were tooling around Mexico in a Toyota camper. Seems 'roscoe' had hit a coyote the night before when we were sleeping in the back. Sucker was wedged into the bumper. Every time we went through a town, the locals would point and start laughing (hard). Took us a day or so to figure out what was so funny. We decided to leave it for a the next few days - it made breaking the ice easy and had pure entertainment value (till it started to fester). Who says guns and liquor don't go together?  | ||
| Kyrocket |
My friends step-dad was a Ky. State Trooper who raised hogs on the side. I got to help slaughter about seven one God-awful cold January day. We were about 16 at the time and I got to be trigger guy on one. I shot exactly where he told me to and the hog's head just flinched but it never fell. When he slit the throat, that's when it started to squeal. I'll never forget that sound. A high pitched squeal until the blood started to get into the throat then it just gurgled. (Hey man, this crap happens when you slaughter your own food) He grabbed the gun and put another slug into it which dropped it. That's when we would put them on a pallet to bleed out. The pallet was on a hydraulic lift on the back of a tractor which aided in getting it to the scalding water which was a 55 gallon drum, cut in half with a fire under it. So to catch up, we have a hog, two bullets in it's head, a slit throat and bled out for at least 20 minutes. When it came time, we rolled it into the water and the bastard got it's two front hooves out of the barrel. Needless to say it left an impression on me but that was the best bacon and sausage I've ever had. | ||
| Jaimec |
Never killed a chicken, but I've choked mine a few times... | ||
| Reindog |
Set yer chickens free. | ||
| Cowboy |
just dont choke your chicken |
