The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: franksolich on June 10, 2011, 04:14:52 AM
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x4631
Oh my.
Denninmi (823 posts) Tue May-17-11 12:21 PM
Original message
Trying to talk myself into raising some meat birds.
I've processed birds others have killed before, that job I can handle. But, I've never actually done the killing myself.
I'm really seriously debating trying to raise a batch of Cornish Cross chickens and a few broadbreasted turkeys. I try to be food self-sufficient as much as possible. Raising meat birds would be a logical extension of keeping birds for eggs, which I do now.
LiberalLoner (1000+ posts) Tue May-17-11 12:58 PM
Response to Original message
3. I've never wrung a hen's neck before but I think that first time would be pretty hard, especially since you raised them yourself. I know when I've seen people do it, they always just kind of stare off and don't look at the bird and they just do it. Just like opening a jar.
I guess you just make yourself do it that first time and then maybe it's easier the next time.
I think it's a really smart idea that you are raising chickens and turkeys and the eggs.
It's a smart idea to be self-sufficient in food I think. I've been jittery ever since the bank bailouts and hearing that story about the Congressman who told his wife to go use the ATM because the whole system was crashing and no one could withdraw money soon. If the whole system does collapse, the people who have some food to eat are going to be very lucky indeed. There might be a problem of other people trying to take your food away from you, but that's a whole different issue.
That's why one shouldn't hoard food in anticipation of civil disorder, but rather, firearms and ammunition.
[disclosure: franksolich does not own a firearm, but does have a handy 1-3/8" S/K adjustable wrench)
It's really amusing, watching the primitives talk about hoarding this or that, as if in the case of civil disorder, their stash is going to be safe. The primitives obviously know nothing about what happens in case of mass civil disorder, breakdown of law and order, insurrection, rebellion, revolution, war, chaos and confusion.
Stupid primitives.
creeker (141 posts) Fri May-20-11 06:49 PM
Response to Reply #3
10. wring their necks? chop off the head, more humane
I grew up watching adults "wring their necks", sometimes tearing off the head. get the bird drunk, chop off the head.
Booster (1000+ posts) Tue May-17-11 01:06 PM
Response to Original message
4. If I had to kill what I eat I'd be a vegan in a nanosecond.
kestrel91316 (1000+ posts) Tue May-17-11 01:09 PM
Response to Original message
5. Some day when I have a farmette and chickens, I want silver-laced Wyandottes - they are good layers AND good meat birds, not champeens of either, mind you. But good multipurpose birds. Buff Orps are good, too.
Gonna grow your own feed corn, too?
newfie11 (1000+ posts) Wed May-18-11 10:00 AM
Response to Original message
6. My husband just uses a swift chop with a hatchet on the neck.
Many years ago when we first moved to the country (early 70's) my mom was going to come out and show us how to wring a chickens neck. We had 25 to put in the freezer. Mom was raised on a ranch and had done this many times as a young woman. Well facing 25 chickens in her older years she "chickened out".
My husband saved the day by putting the neck of the chicken on a stump and one chop for a very sharp axe.
pscot (1000+ posts) Thu May-19-11 07:39 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. If you do that and let go the headless bird will fly 10 0r 15 yards. Drives the dogs crazy.
fasttense (1000+ posts) Sun May-22-11 06:50 AM
Response to Reply #6
11. It helps if you put two nails on the block just far apart enough to get the chicken's head on one side and a nicely laid out neck on the other.
Here in east TN there is no one who will process chickens in a USDA certified slaughter house. If there was, I would be raising chickens for meat sales. So, we only raise enough for us to eat.
It's a difficult job to slaughter a chicken, especially if you pluck them and don't just skin them. I like the skin so between my husband and I we can slaughter, puck and clean 4 chickens in an hour.
A Mennonite friend of ours has one of those chicken pluckers which rally reduces their cleaning time.
Kali (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-05-11 05:12 PM
Response to Original message
12. killing is a hell of a lot easier than cleaning!
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Good for them for raising their own food. I kind of wish more people would be involved at some point in their lives with how meat gets from the farm or ranch to their table.
What's up with the "creeker's" suggestion of getting the bird drunk? He needs to have a warning label on him.
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Geez, frank. Every Saturday afternoon, my Mom would send two of us brothers out to "butcher four roosters", if there were any left. Pullets if the roosters were all gone. For Sunday dinner.
That would give us 8 drumsticks for the nine kids. I, apparently the oddball connisuer of fried chicken, wouldn't eat the dark meat portions, being a breast man rather than a leg man even in my extreme youth. I always had the honor of providing the wishbones for all, for after meal hi-jinks ("I wished that you had to do the milking by yourself.")
Chopping the heads off was high entertainment for us. Timing how long the chicken jumped around, chopping the heads off two birds at once to see which one could hop around the longest ("Mine's still twitching!"). Then there was the 'pouring of the sacred boiling water' to loosen the feathers for plucking and getting to the really fun part: gutting! After which came the reading of the chicken entrails to see if we could predict the future ("My guts and the liver say that you'll do the milking by yourself for a week, and the lungs and gizzard are all twisted up! That means I'll be sick then"). We weren't big on milking. But we were big on eating fried chicken.
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Geez, frank.
There was only one time in my life I ever saw chickens being beheaded, and then their bodies scrambling around like, like, well.....chickens with their heads cut off.
I was playing with someone, and his father was doing the job a little distance away.
I was too young, however--probably about four years old--to understand what was really going on; to me, it seemed something eminently reasonable and natural in the course of things, as if the father were washing the windows or mowing the lawn.
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That's why one shouldn't hoard food in anticipation of civil disorder, but rather, firearms and ammunition.
[disclosure: franksolich does not own a firearm, but does have a handy 1-3/8" S/K adjustable wrench)
It's really amusing, watching the primitives talk about hoarding this or that, as if in the case of civil disorder, their stash is going to be safe. The primitives obviously know nothing about what happens in case of mass civil disorder, breakdown of law and order, insurrection, rebellion, revolution, war, chaos and confusion.
Stupid primitives.
Coach, my wife and I have extra food (because there's some neighbors who haven't a clue about what's coming), firearms, ammunition, and the will to use the last two to defend the extra food and those we will be helping.
The whole idea, Coach, behind those firearms is that the primitive raiders won't get close enough to have to use the adjustable wrenches--or swords, or butcher knives, or whatever else is at hand at the time. Maybe you should consider a rifle or a shotgun--or both.
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My mother could wring a chickens head off in a second. I had to do the "before" catching and the "after" fetching.
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Long before I was born, my dad worked as a butcher. When I was young, I remember us going to a family friend's farm and my dad slaughtering chickens for them. You've never seen so many headless birds running around.
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Why the hell don't they just shoot them in the head? You can even do it with a pellet gun. Breaking (not ringing) their necks is very efficient and also not quick. But you have to put your thumb on their neck just under their beaks and pull up with quite a bit of force. Wringing is stupid when you think about how far a chicken can turn their necks. Cornish Crosses don't fully feather and are very easy to pluck. I buy them every year. Broad breasted turkeys, too. Both are so stupid and filthy you don't mind killing them. Besides you only have to raise the chickens for a couple of months so it's an excellent return on your investment. I just let mine free range (or free waddle) like my chickens and geese. Like fresh eggs, once you have fresh chicken and turkey the ones in the stores will never taste as good.
Cindie
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Why the hell don't they just shoot them in the head? You can even do it with a pellet gun.
Cindie
Last month, I head shot a wild turkey. He took a half-dozen #6s to the noggin and was instantly as dead as if killed by the freepers.
But he proceeded to flip, and flop, and flap, and roll, and kick until at least 100 yards down a ridiculously steep slope. Getting
down that slope, then retrieving a 20+ pound bird, was an ordeal. I've seen this many times before, but not over such a long
distance, resulting in such a grueling job. The energy expended by a dead critter was amazing.
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Last month, I head shot a wild turkey. He took a half-dozen #6s to the noggin and was instantly as dead as if killed by the freepers.
But he proceeded to flip, and flop, and flap, and roll, and kick until at least 100 yards down a ridiculously steep slope. Getting
down that slope, then retrieving a 20+ pound bird, was an ordeal. I've seen this many times before, but not over such a long
distance, resulting in such a grueling job. The energy expended by a dead critter was amazing.
That's my grandson's favorite part! He'll follow it halfway down the driveway laughing like crazy. He also likes abusing the dead (sorry about the size I have no idea how to make them smaller):
(http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/m613/HighMaintenanceFarmWife/048.jpg)