First off I want to thank Paul for the great humane butchering video he has on youtube. It was extremely helpful as this was our very first time butchering any animal for food.
Video 1
Video 2
We bought 5 Rhode Island Reds and 5 Isa Browns from our local chain farm supply store on March 19th. Four of the RIRs turned out to be roosters (which was fine we got a straight run and knew that would probably happen). We were going to leave one roo so that we could have chicks next year but they were all huge bullies to the 6 hens, so we made the choice to harvest all 4 of them. We did 2 at a time since there are 3 of us. I think we did a good job, although we did end up skinning 3 of them because we don't eat the skin.
Our setup outside. The tote bin was for all the feathers, blood and insides.
A finished chicken.
All the chickens. They were about 16 weeks old and weighed between 2 pounds 2 oz and 3 pounds 5 oz. Now that it's all said and down I can say it was easier than I thought it would be. And I am quite happy knowing what went into these chickens.
10 acres (9 wooded), 1 dog, 2 cats, 10 chickens, 3 humans.
Elevation: 955 ft, USDA Hardiness Zone: 4b, Mostly Sand "soil"
.png)
3
