[pepsi100]

Dont read any further if you are upset or sqeamish about culling/killing hens







Does anyone here, kill, cull, gut and eat their hens/cockerels ?

Could you please PM if you dont wish to post here

Just after some information, please 

[Casey76]

Yes, have done in the past. Don't actually have any chickens at the moment.

[pepsi100]

Thanks, I have no problems culling or killing them, its the gutting and plucking I dont know about, can you help/advise on the best way to do both ?

[hen addict]

A few tips
The broomstick methord is the most humane way to cull a bird. Vidios of the technique can be found on you tube. You can hang the bird by the feet and dry pluck, or dip the bird into hot but not boiling water for a minute or two this helps loosen the tail and wing feathers so they come out easily. Wet plucking is much easier than dry plucking where the skin can tear easily.
Some people hang the bird or rest in a fridge for three days before gutting as the insides shrink and are easier to remove with less risk of cutting into the intestines and contaminating the meat, this is also to let the meat relax so it is tender when cooked. If you cull and cook and roast on the same day the meat can sometimes be tough and chewey.

For your first time it is best to watch a few videos or get someone to show you first hand how it's done. Good luck

[pepsi100]

I do use the broomstick method

That is what I was hoping for, someone to show me, there was a lady that used to run a Sunday thing, but she has now moved to Sth Africa (she demonstrated the broom stick method to me, but she had sold her farm and that was all she was able to show me)

I like it demonstrated before I even attempt it 

I mean a chicken/hen has given up their life for me, I dont want it to be for nothing 

[hen addict]

I totally agree nothing should go to waste! When I first started to keep hens they were pets! That attitude soon changed when I realised what it took for the hen to produce just 1 egg, I have a very heathy respect now for eggs which in turn has  moved on to the bird it's self. After a faithfully laying for me durring it's life no way would I just through it away. the hybrids feed the dog, the meat birds go in the oven.

In regards to not being personally shown, I would watch as many vidios as possible. There is also lots of chicken books about  that explain the process very clearly.
You will make mistakes the first few times anyway, practice makes perfect. Don't be put off by how long it takes to pluck in the beginning it gets better as you go along.

[pepsi100]

Yes there are lots of videos out there, but you cant beat a real hands on thing, and being shown there wont be any mistakes

I was just hoping there would be someone out there willing to show me

I was shown how they do it inIndia, (but its completely different there than in the UK)

We use the broomstick method, they use the chopper/hatchet method (I know which I prefer)

I dont mind travelling (within reason )

[joyfull]

I cull - I have a neck breaker attached to my gate post (I find this quicker and less stressfull than the broomstick method), but I only now cull hens who are too ill to recover and dont respond to treatment. I used to hatch and then cull the cockerels that were surplus but my other half wont eat anything he has spoken too so any bird had to be done when he wasn't around but being just light breeds there was very little meat on them.

[pepsi100]

I thought that was funny, he wont eat anything he has spoken to, I assume he never followed in Prince Charles foot steps in talking to the veg then ? 

I have culled hens that are ill, but I wouldnt eat them anyway, even though the chance of passing/catching  anything is rare, I just bury or burn them

As for surplus cockerels, they usually go for auction, but I was thinking I could use them, myself, rather than selling them

[joyfull]

Oh I agree Pepsi, waste not want not so mine usually ended up in a casserole or curry (he would see me take a bag of chopped chicken from the freezer but used to think I had bought it from the butchers lol). When we get pheasants and rabbits he would have to go out and then I would have to prepare and freeze them for a while until he had forgotten about them.
He always said he hated rabbit until I cooked it with pasta, tomatoes, onions and Madeira, after he had some he said he loved it and could he have seconds until I stupidly said I thought you didn't like rabbit and all of a sudden he didn't want seconds 
He's a great big softee at heart unlike me 

[pepsi100]

I used to keep rabbits when the kids were younger, but never ate them (couldnt really there werent much meat on them anyway) but it has been years since I have seen rabbit meat for sale (even then it was Chinese rabbit)

There used to be a bloke who bought in rabbits he had killed in the civil engineer pub, but that has now gone

Havent even seen rabbit in the supermarkets, farmers markets, anywhere in fact for a long time

I thought there was a rabbit population, but it seems not any more

[joyfull]

our works is in a building on a farm so they have to keep the rabbit population down by law - hence why I get them. Also I live surrounded by fields and they have regular culls.
We also used to breed and show rabbits when I was a child and my dad couldn't kill them when they were no good for showing so he used to have to take a couple to his mates to be culled - one for us and the other for his mate.
You need to find a good butchers that usually have game hanging up in their shops 

[pepsi100]

I wish I could find a decent butchers, all ours are Halal now  or in a supermarket

How I envy you, I always thought that the rabbits were culled on farms, but what do they do with them ? There is a market for them, but were do they sell them

We used to have the Hillingdondon show, people took their hens, cockerels, rabbits, cats, dogs, goats to show off, but that has now stopped (along with a lot of the County shows)

The kids dont know what they are missing now these shows have stopped

They used to show how to keep, cull and dress food at the Hillingdon show, but the last one was steam engines and horses, the police display unit and a LOT of stalls

Sometimes we find a village show, but even they are getting rarer around this way

[Casey76]

Is it more instruction on how to pluck and dress a chicken rather than the slaughter then?

I learned from books.

If I'm preparing a bird for roasting I prefer to wet pluck as the wings and tail are easier to pluck if the bird has been scalded first.  If I'm just taking the breast and legs I'll either dry pluck, or just skin the bird.  Skinning takes much less time, and once you are proficient, you have go from live bird to breast fillets and leg joints in about 30 mins.

If I'm not roasting I never bother with the wings, I just clip them off with secateurs, they are a whole bunch of hassle to pluck correctly, for very little in return (apart from presentation).

My cats get the neck, rib cage and any offal (to eat on the terrace - NOT in the house )

[joyfull]

my butchers now skin pheasants rather than plucking, but if I want a whole bird I pluck. Dry plucking is best if you want to keep the bird but if you are eating straight away then wet plucking is fine.