Chicken Cull: Part 1

Last weekend I attempted to cull my first couple of roosters. If I didn't do so soon the meat would get too tough for the frying pan and have to become chicken-noodle meat instead. My tools included a turkey stock pot for boiling water to singe the feathers for plucking, knives (that had to be sharpened because they were way too dull to cut where I wanted), ice water, freezer bags, and some wire to hang the chickens upside down.

I piled some wood in a concrete bunker and set up my stock pot for boiling. I figured I could kill the chickens and then start the fire so I fetched two roosters, one of which had a bad foot and was not eating and growing like he should because he couldn't stand to eat. I hung the chickens, stunned them, and then proceeded to cut the jugular of each chicken. Word of advice: buy "killing cones" as it holds the chickens in place; wire around the legs does not. Each chicken flopped out at some point and I had to re-hang them.

The fire had trouble starting and the breeze didn't help. I then had a wild-ish barn cat show up and start sniffin' around. I couldn't get the fire to start for some time and when it did finally start, the wind blew the heat away from the stock pot. Two dead chickens and an hour later, I had failed!

I packed up operations and headed to my house where my wife put the stock pot on the stove while I set everything else up outside. Forty minutes later the water was finally hot enough. Dunking and plucking took about an hour...for 1 bird! Trying to figure out how to clean it took another hour because I had no idea what I was doing and I was being way too careful. I put one chicken in the ice once it was fully dressed and took its remains and the chicken that had not grown too well to an area 1/4 of a mile from my house and dumped. It was all now coyote food.

Yesterday, Thanksgiving day, I met up with my father-in-law in the barn. We'd decided to skin the chickens instead of pluck them. And my father-in-law was not as cautious as I had been. He started cutting the skin and yanking on it to pull the feathers. He was breaking the bones where needed and once I carefully made the cuts to gain access to the chickens internal organs and my dad reached in and just had at it! He tugged and pulled and in a matter of 20 minutes or so, Dad had skinned and dressed the chicken. An hour-and-a-half later we had cleaned 3 chickens. Obviously this will be the game plan for the remaining chickens.