The rooster we processed was one we raised ourselves. We had incubated eggs and raised ten chicks for eight months. Too many roosters meant it was time to take care of a few. We had never done this before. We used the book "Basic Butchering of Livestock and Game" by John J. Mettler Jr., DVM, as well as advice from people who had done it before.
The book described how to basically slit the chicken's throat and then stab it inside the mouth into the brain. That's just too much for me. We used the old fashioned method of a chopping block and a sharp axe.
I held the bird and Sean chopped. It did flop around a lot, and made a few noises. I didn't lose my shit though. At one point it did a forward flip and I accidentally let out a guffaw.
After the bird was done dancing, it was time to scald it for easier feather removal.
We dipped the bird in a large pot of 140 degree F water for a count of 30 seconds. We then put it on an open trash bag on the table. Plucking commenced. It was much, much easier than I expected. The feathers pulled right out. The bird also had some hairs on it that we singed off.
Then it was time to remove the feet.
After removing the feet, we then gutted the bird. We made a cut just under the rear end of the breastbone down to the tail and anus. (I said anus...huh, huh, huh) Sean took care of the removal of the guts. He has processed pheasant before as a youth so he knew what he was doing. I won't describe it regardless. It was gross. Not unnervingly gross, but...yeah. We also removed the tail, which apparently contains an oil sack, which you can remove by itself if you want.
Then we put the carcass in a large pot of cold water and allowed it to cool to about 40 degrees. The instructions said this was essential.
After it was cooled, I put it in the sink and let it drain. Then I dried the outside well and put it inside of a freezer zip-top bag, and put that bag inside another bag. Then the rooster was placed in our freezer.
We did it! With no drama! The husband and I high fived each other for a job well done. Now to just tell the girls that one of the chickens they helped raise from a chick was just dispatched. They knew all along we would be getting rid of the roosters. I just don't think they thought we would actually do it.
Our chickens are raised on organic local feed and are allowed to free range almost daily.
A couple of tips...
If you are able, "starve" the bird for at least 24 hours before processing. It makes gutting them much easier and cleaner. We don't really have a place to quarantine a bird for that long alone so we didn't do that.
Also, let the bird really drip dry before freezing. I don't think I let enough of the water drip out. I checked the bird in the freezer and there is quite a bit of frozen "water" in the bag.
So...what do you think? Did we do a good job? Any other tips for this chore for later? We have three more roosters and five hens to get done soon. Anything you would have done differently?
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