I HATE DELAWARES-THEY KILLED ELSA
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baymule
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I need a couple of clear days with nothing else to interfere. Today it rained all day...... Every day I tell them they are going to be packed in a jar.
HmooseK
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AMKuska
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I'd help you if I could baymule. I don't like to do the killing itself (unless you have a way to kill them without blood spraying everywhere!) but I can get the legs and guts out pretty quickly.
ducks4you
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Two ways. stretch out the neck and use a hatchet OR hang upside down and slice the jugular. I do the latter and I use a painfully sharp knife and gloves that won't slice through. Bird is gone in a couple of minutes.
When you consider that they don't really live very long and when chickens get sick they are goners, anyway, it is a kindness.
I watched a video years ago on BYC with some big guy who said that if he can get his hand inside a chicken's cavity to eviscerate it, anybody can. I can usually break the membranes and pull everything else out in one swipe. Everybody does their own thing. I prefer to skin my birds, after I cut off the heads, then cut off their legs at the joint, then do the rest in my kitchen. I throw away the guts, but the organs go to the dog and cats except the liver, which I use to make gravy.
When you consider that they don't really live very long and when chickens get sick they are goners, anyway, it is a kindness.
I watched a video years ago on BYC with some big guy who said that if he can get his hand inside a chicken's cavity to eviscerate it, anybody can. I can usually break the membranes and pull everything else out in one swipe. Everybody does their own thing. I prefer to skin my birds, after I cut off the heads, then cut off their legs at the joint, then do the rest in my kitchen. I throw away the guts, but the organs go to the dog and cats except the liver, which I use to make gravy.
Nyboy
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The problem I have is not the blood and mess but the actual taking of a life. Mary I would have done the same
ducks4you
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I cannot butcher rabbits bc I had them as a kid. I started off with one layer, who died eggbound. I decided that the next group would lay and then be eaten by us. I do not name my chickens, and I believe that they have a good life. Heck, I collected eggs late in the day yesterday and I collected 12 eggs from 12 hens. If they weren't happy and healthy THAT wouldn't happen.
They have to kill the chickens that you buy at the grocery store and eat in a restaurant, or lay the eggs that you buy. Many of those chickens live out their entire lives in a tiny cage. Mine have a large, safe, wooden coop with great shelter and great ventilation and a 12' x 30' run.
Only my dog lives better.
They have to kill the chickens that you buy at the grocery store and eat in a restaurant, or lay the eggs that you buy. Many of those chickens live out their entire lives in a tiny cage. Mine have a large, safe, wooden coop with great shelter and great ventilation and a 12' x 30' run.
Only my dog lives better.
flowerbug
Garden Master
i can do it if i absolutely have to, but i don't like it so much prefer others to do it for me. when i was fishing i would keep a few once in a while that were just over the size limit and clean them. i was more interested in being outside and walking the streams/rivers than going for the trophies.
if my life depended upon hunting and fishing i could do it. i would need more people around to be able to handle larger game or livestock.
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baymule
Garden Master
I have a cardboard/duct tape killing cone. I put them in upside down, pull their head through and slice the jugular. It's quick and the most humane way I found to slaughter a chicken. I gut them, keep the liver and gizzard, we love them fried. I toss guts to the dogs. I skin them too. But we raised a bunch of Cornish Cross and are in the middle of slaughter, we are picking feathers!
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baymule
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The Delaware Mean Girls are on ice. Joining them for the ice party are two extremely vicious Wellsummer roosters and 2 roosters belonging to a neighbor. It took us 4 hours, an hour to clean up, then we hit the shower. The ice chest is in the kitchen floor, I'll start canning tomorrow.
I love my animals and when I slaughter, I have a certain reverence for them. Not. This. Time.
I always say a prayer over them, thanking them for their lives and thanking them for feeding us. Not. This. Time.
I talk to them gently, apologizing and treating them with sympathy, like some kind of weirdo-talking to a dead chicken. Not. This. Time.
I trash talked these birds. I told every one of them, "You killed my Elsa, the only one in the coop that I liked. You killed her. This is for Elsa. I'm going to eat you. You pissed me off. You're a dead #itch now." And so on. My husband was laughing at me. I was nice to the neighbor's roosters. I razzed the mean Wellsummer roosters that hit the wire when I walked by. They were so mean that I couldn't go in their coop. Haha! You don't like me-I don't like you! Be mean to me-I'm mean right back at cha'.
There was a Silver Laced Delaware named Dottie in the coop that is 6 years old, she's a pet and still lives. There were two little black hens in there that are living examples of being at the bottom of the pecking order. They are practically naked. They still live. I turned them out to join RooRoo, a crippled rooster that the hens in another coop were about to kill when I rescued him from them. Somehow, he broke both legs and he flops around, but I just can't make myself slaughter him. They will roam at will and can live out their lives being yard chickens.
I love my animals and when I slaughter, I have a certain reverence for them. Not. This. Time.
I always say a prayer over them, thanking them for their lives and thanking them for feeding us. Not. This. Time.
I talk to them gently, apologizing and treating them with sympathy, like some kind of weirdo-talking to a dead chicken. Not. This. Time.
I trash talked these birds. I told every one of them, "You killed my Elsa, the only one in the coop that I liked. You killed her. This is for Elsa. I'm going to eat you. You pissed me off. You're a dead #itch now." And so on. My husband was laughing at me. I was nice to the neighbor's roosters. I razzed the mean Wellsummer roosters that hit the wire when I walked by. They were so mean that I couldn't go in their coop. Haha! You don't like me-I don't like you! Be mean to me-I'm mean right back at cha'.
There was a Silver Laced Delaware named Dottie in the coop that is 6 years old, she's a pet and still lives. There were two little black hens in there that are living examples of being at the bottom of the pecking order. They are practically naked. They still live. I turned them out to join RooRoo, a crippled rooster that the hens in another coop were about to kill when I rescued him from them. Somehow, he broke both legs and he flops around, but I just can't make myself slaughter him. They will roam at will and can live out their lives being yard chickens.
