 A gentle executioner, that's me! If I want to butcher the animals that I raise for meat then I want to do it as humanely as humanly possible. I want to be the executioner that my chickens would request to do the job if they had the option to choose. My friends laughed when I said that my goal was to be the gentle executioner, they thought I was joking. But no, there are good ways and bad ways to do it and I did my research on the various modes of operation. There is the chopping block (removing the head with an axe) hanging the chicken upside down from the feet (with wings flapping and chicken squawking fearfully) wringing its neck and, the method I preferred in the end, the use of the killing cone. |
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| A cooling tank with thermometer and a stainless steel cutting area with sink |
Death can't be easy for any one creature on this earth but I want to be skilled at bringing it on as quickly and painlessly possible as well as minimize fear and trauma. Wringing its neck is instantaneous death as long as you are skilled in doing so. The other drawback to this method is that the chicken is not bled out (the blood isn't drained from the carcass). The same goes for chopping off the head; you will have too much blood in the meat. So, it seems that the most humane and practical way to butcher a chicken is by using a killing cone. It snugly holds the the bird's body in an upside down position so that the chicken remains calm and still. Because the bird immobilized within the cone it does not flap around and injure its wings, which can result in bruise spots on the meat.
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| Killing cones attached to building, propane tank for scalding and chair for plucking AND a cat looking for chicken morsels! |
Things you'll need:
- traffic cones
- Sharpie magic marker
- screws and screwdriver
- Heavy duty scissors
- (optional) Two 5'-8' posts
- (optional) “Support board”: 8 feet long 2X4 plywood
- (optional) rope
*Purchase plastic traffic cones at Home Depot or Menards. These cones are usually bright orange made in a soft and pliable plastic. You want your birds to be comfortable and calm till the very end so, in this sense, plastic is better than the steel cones . Also, determine the number of cones you'll need according to the rule of “pluckin' & coolin'”; the number of birds that are ready for cooling down in ice water in one hour equals the number of cones you'll need.
*Cut 2”-3” off of the narrow end of a cone. Determine if this is the right width for your birds by placing one in the cone and gently pulling its head down through the opening. Make sure that its neck (the jugular area) is accessible. If the cone is still too narrow at the bottom make more cuts off of the cone until the opening is the right width for your chickens.
*Cut the remaining cones at the same width by drawing a line around each with the Sharpie marker. Are all of your birds the same size? If not, make some of your cones wider for the whopper sized birds. To butcher turkeys you might have to cut down the cone by half.
*Mount the cones on a support board with screws attached through the upper part of the inside of the cone. To make things easier pre-drill a hole through the support board. Make sure that the screw is long enough to go through both the cone and the board. In the photo above I attached the cones to the side of an old lean-to. The height of the support board is ideal at 4' off the ground. There is enough room under the cones to place a large bucket to catch the draining blood from the chickens.
* Now, I suppose, the next step is to prepare for butchering. I spent quite a lot of time watching Youtube videos and reading books on cutting the jugular vein in the right place. Here is a good site to visit to butcher a chicken.
This year we butchered only 12 chickens but hopefully by next year we'll have a chicken plucker and some more experience under our belts.
