Today I am going to give homeschooling families a family friendly overview of Chicken Butchering.
This makes one neat homeschool science class!
Note: If your chicken dies suddenlydo not eat it.The USDA also has a free disease-testing service.
We laid out plastic table cloths we had leftover from a birthday party.
My husband put some nails in a piece of wood and sharpened the axe.
We lined a bin with a heavy duty garbage bag for the leftover pieces.
How to Slaughter a Chicken
Slaughtering is the technical term for killing a chicken.
You arent going to want to slaughter a chicken that is too small or it just isnt worth it.
Once they have been upside down a while you swing them around in large circles until they pass out.
Dip the chicken in and swish it around for about 10-15 seconds.
In a downward motion pull out the feathers they should come out easily.
Although Goofy (8 years old) wanted to help with the slaughtering we werent comfortable with that yet.
But we did let him help with the butchering.
Use the candle to singe the remaining few hairs.
Its starting to look more like chicken dinner, isnt it?
It was actually a neat homeschool science lesson!
Although our hens arent laying yet, the ones we butchered at the farm were.
In a laying hen you will see the progression of eggs in the tract.
At that point you could eat them or freeze them.
Remember that the chicken sold in the store is only 45 days old and is therefore very tender.
Chickens that have lived a little longer have more flavor, but need to be cooked with more moisture.
The older the hen, the slower/moister you should cook them.
Here are greattips for cooking chickens like Grandma use to on the farm!
So did I totally gross you out?
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