Step 1
Getting Ready To Butcher


UPDATE
August 2017

After ten years this web site developed significant technical issues and had to be reconfigured at a new web location.

To Visit The New Web Site

Thank you,
Herrick Kimball

47 comments:

chickenwelder said...

Great job, I couldn't understand most sites. pictures were bad ,not enough info. Yours shows me I did everything wrong, wrong end to enter, green dye everywhere,etc. I got it now. I built your plucker several years ago, great, handled big turkey last weekend, plucked about a hundred turkeys, thanks.ken Wondering about vaccum sealer brands? which do you use?

chickenwelder said...

oops hundred chickens, looking at trying to make your scalder , thanks, ken

craig said...

Excellent- one question
Are you using drinking-water safe hoses? All garden hoses I have looked at over the past few years had 'cancer warnings-not drinking water safe' on the packaging. I have seen drinking-water safe hoses at RV centers

Aurea said...

Thanks for the useful info and the clear pictures.
Occasionally we let our chickens hatch, and, of course, more than 50 percent of the chicks will be roosters. So from now on we won't have to ask the neighbour to do the butchering. We've tried it ourselves, with succes.

Unknown said...

Where is "1.1 How to kill the chicken" or do you cut the feet off so they can't run away? :)

Rocko said...

Thank You Mr. Kimball for this site. I am a first time chicken farmer and like you, enjoy the idea of raising and processing our own food. We have six egg-layers, six broilers and one 'Rocky' the rooster. This week is the week for the killing and butchering of the broilers and I have not looked forward to it. Your blogsite has helped allot. I am set-up and ready to go tomorrow. My husband and I Thank You for sharing your knowledge and helping our little family.

HSC said...

This is by far the best "how to butcher a chicken" tutorial on the net! GREAT WORK!!

Rocko said...

The first one went well. Slow but well. I've decided to skin the birds so plucking is not a problem, but still no fun and I do need to practice, I'm afraid I was a little nervous and unsure of myself. Thanks Again.

bearbottomhoney said...

I love your site and I've purchased your books. I've heard that if one is raising cockerels they are turned into capons thru a process known as caponization. Do I need to concern myself with this if I intend to raise a cornish cross breed? Are the testes removed when gutting the bird or do I need to add an extra step to what your pictures show?

Herrick Kimball said...

bearbottomhoney—

The testes come out when gutting the chicken. After you have identified them and processed a few chickens (or a few hundred) and observed closely, you will know better how the chicken's anatomy is assembled and this will be a big help if you decide to try caponizing someday.

Best wishes.

Adoption Gift Of Love said...

I think I am missing a step here? I see the Step 1 Getting ready to butcher, then Step 2 I see that the chicken is already dead and de-feathered. Where is the step in between? I'm dreading this. We have a 4-H project that got out of hand, almost all our baby chicks turned out to be roosters and they are attacking each other, so sadly we think it's time to clear them out and keep the hens. :O(
Moe
A city girl living in the country

Herrick Kimball said...

Hi Adoption Mom-

At the top right corner of this page you will see a picture of my son holding up two just-plucked chickens. It is titled, "Before You Butcher....How To Kill, Scald & Pluck Chickens." Click the picture.

Good luck with your project,

Herrick Kimball

Adoption Gift Of Love said...

Thank you! That was just what I was looking for. Saturday at 3pm is our big day. A friend is coming over with kids, we are using this as a homeschool learning tool, the friend is an RN and plans to disect some chicken organs and stuff like that when we are done.

Herrick Kimball said...

What a great homeschool lesson.

I can't imagine that any government school in the land would ever teach kids how to butcher chickens. Yet, such a skill is far more practical and good to know than most everything else they want kids to learn.

Which is all the more reason that people should homeschool.

Kudos to you Adoption Mom!

Karen B in northern Idaho said...

This whole tutorial is EXCELLENT in both descriptions and photos. When I was learning, I printed it out and put it all in a small ring binder with the pages encased in plastic page protectors so I could turn pages without getting them gunky :-)

Herrick Kimball said...

Karen B. in Northern Idaho-

Good idea. You are not the first person to tell me this. It warms my heart to know you put the information on this web site to good use.

Best wishes,

Herrick Kimball

The Glover Farm said...

This tutorial was excellent!! I read it twice and went out and did it. It was awesome!! Fresh eggs, Fresh pork, and now Fresh chicken!!! I love my life!!!!!

Homeless said...

Thank you so much for the very informative website. I plan on putting this information to use soon.

Right now, I would love some advice. I am visiting friends who just purchased a whole mess of chickens today. Unfortunately, one of them died during transport. I haven't seen it yet, but they say that it got its head stuck and broke its neck. They also said rigor mortis set in. The chicken was not butchered and was placed in a refrigerator. They plan on burying it or burning it in a fire. I plan on butchering it tomorrow and feeding it to the dogs raw. Am I crazy? Should I let them bury/burn it? At the very least, I figure that it will be a learning experience that I shouldn't pass up.

Thanks in advance,
Jenn

Herrick Kimball said...

Jenn,

If the chicken wasn't sick and it's only a day or two old, that is no problem. It can still be butchered and used for animal food. Some people object to feeding dogs raw chicken, thinking it will create a desire in them to kill live chickens. And then there is the issue of sharp bones in the throat. I'd be more inclined to cook the bird the easiest way possible (boil it) and cut off the meat and mix it with the dog's food. Others may have a different opinion.

Along these lines, I will say that when my sons hunt deer and bring one home, we take what meat we want and every other piece of meat on the animal is cut off the bones and packed into plastic bags and put in the freezer. Then we feed it a little at a time (raw) cut in little pieces mixed in with the dog's dry food. We also cut the bones into short lengths, then wrap and freeze and dole those out to the dog. It's a beagle. She's not very smart as dogs go, but she is well fed.

Waste not, want not.

Homeless said...

Thanks for the super quick reply!. It took me forever, but I did it. One strange thing that happened was that the carcass filled up with water while I was scalding it. And while the bird did not appear the be in rigor mortis, the meat was VERY tough.

It was quite the learning experience. I am anxious to try it again with a fresh bird.

And yes, the dogs loved it... even if it was tough. I imagine it was even more fun for them because it was tough.

Unknown said...

Hi Herrick,
Thank You Sir, I find your articles very important to some of the questions that borders my mind in recent time.
I am a university graduate (Bsc, Chemistry) due to high unemployement rate in my country I had been thinking (with the little money I was able to save) to go into poultry production; chicken processing, rearing, marketing and sales, and poultry feed production and other poultry related services.
Apart from not having enough fund, information on the above mention services is scarce in my country, I want to seize the opportunity from the govt new policy on agriculture to develop my self in this area, I will sincerely appreciate, if in anyway you think you can be of help to me to achieve my goal.
I am from a very large family and was fortunate to be the only one who have attain this level of education, and for that all eyes on me to help (quickly) the family. The tought of that had been giving problem, sometimes I wish I had not gone to school, I had lost the count of the number of places I had submited application for a job.
I know with poultry I will make it big, I have passion for this and a little skill in rearing it for the family.
Sir , how will I make it big? I had try to get enough space in recent time but could not due to high cost on land in my country. I will sincerely appreciate your help in which ever way it will come.
Thank You.

Derrick said...

I Cant find this knife sharpener anywhere, I have a knife sharpener, but it doesnt get them razor sharp, this seems a great tool

Herrick Kimball said...

Derrick,

Other people have told me that they can't find the sharpener too. I posted a review of it on Amazon, but shortly thereafter it was no longer available. Maybe I'll contact the company and see what the deal is. They were once very common.

Herrick

Unknown said...

When my family butchers our chickens, we set up a work area on the back ... chicagocutleryset.blogspot.com

Edmund said...

When my family butchers our chickens, we set up a work area on the back ... professionalcutlerysets.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

When my family butchers our chickens, we set up a work area on the back ... 2knifeset.blogspot.com

Peter said...

That knife in the bottom of the picture is a boning knife made by Chicago Cutlery. It has a 5” blade. I have tried other knives for butchering, but ... chicagocutlery.blogspot.com

Emil said...

That knife in the bottom of the picture is a boning knife made by Chicago Cutlery. It has a 5” blade. I have tried other knives for butchering, but ... 2chicagocutleryknives.blogspot.com

Angel Andrewson said...

Exactly mindyk!!! lol...

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