ROOSTER to ROASTER


WARNING...The following blogging entry has photos of chicken processing. If you don't care for seeing how birds are butchered please close your eyes as you read.

The kids told me the other day they were having problems with our Aracana rooster. He was our bonus bird thrown in with the batch of broilers we processed back in June. We had never tried killing a bird the old fashioned way by chopping off the head...So we decided to let the kids give it a try. We have all heard stories of how the birds hop around and generally make a mess.

We took an chunk of a tree we had recently cut down as the chopping block and Joshua sharpened up his throwing axe.

The bird was none too happy about the event and was a bit uncooperative.

Well that bird lost his head over the whole matter and was soon hopping mad...Although seemingly without much direction. Reminds me a lot of the management around where I work. Oh well lets not dwell too much on that right now.



Well after a bit of excitement everything calmed down and it was time to hand the bird up and let him finish bleeding out before we started the plucking process.


Laura wasn't all that happy about where we hung him to drip, but that humming bird feeder hanger was mighty convenient.


Well after we hung the bird up we decided to salvage a few feathers off of him before he went into the scalding pot. And not being ones that like to waste much (the dog really likes our chickens-not in the best way for their health), I had Samuel give the head of the bird to our dog. She generally gets all of the organ meat and has a real liking for the feet, but this is the first we gave her of a head. It didn't take her too long to separate most of the hackle feathers and devour the head.



Next comes the scalding pot. This losens up the feathers and makes them come out relatively easy. The best way we have found to check the readiness of the bird is to try pulling on the pin feathers in the wing. When that comes out easy then it is ready for plucking. Don't leave it in there too long or that skin will come off with the feathers when you pluck it. This bird stayed 2 1/2 minutes in water at 140 degrees F.

This rooster plucked extremely easy. We had a few too many hands involved. It is really a one person job, but all three boys had a desire to participate. It works better when you have more birds. It was good to go back to the old way of doing things, if just for the experience. One can get a bit spoiled by the Bradshaw Bullet Bucket.

Next comes the gutting (if you want the $5 word its eviscerate). This type of bird has a much smaller body cavity, so I had to be a bit more careful make the cuts. Overall it went very smoothly. Didn't get one complaint out of that bird.

The bird dressed out at 2.5 lbs. A bit small but enough for a meal. I can't stress enough how much better these normal birds taste when compared to the standard broiler variety. It takes them a bit longer to grow, but then they don't eat near as much. The skin feels more like a latex, you need a sharp knife to cut it with. But it makes a delicious broth. Now tonight we are going to cook this bird up. He will be our gust of honor at dinner.

All things said, it is good to know where our food comes from and how it was raised and slaughtered. It gives me a better appreciation for life and death.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6