It was funny the other day because I was talking to someone who was going to visit their grandmother and kill chickens. They had no idea how they were going to do that and no idea on how to catch them. So I had the pleasure of grossing them out and splainen (explaining) how the process works.
Well here goes. The first thing you have to figure out is where are you going to catch them because if they are on the loose in the barn yard area you will have a heck of a time rounding them up. If you have ever heard, "it is kind of like herding chickens" they are saying that it is next to impossible. You see when you try to heard chickens they go in every direction. They do not tend to gather together like cattle or hogs or horses. Now if you are smart and your chickens roost in a chicken house where they are locked up at night it gets a lot easier. Now if you do not lock them up at night you absolutely will NOT have the same number of chickens every morning as the bobcats and coyotes will get one for dinner fairly often.
The second thing you have to do once you figure out how you are going to corner them is figure out how you will handle them or catch each one. Some folks will wear gloves and just grab at their feet at which point the chicken will try to jump so you can't catch them. If you do get a hold of a leg or even two then chicken will immediately start crawling up your arm and try to scratch you with the extra leg or peck you with its beak.
And by the way for you silly folks that are lead to believe that chickens have lips, they don't. I have many times over the years told city folks that we like to eat chicken lips that are friend. They always give you that look, "are you kidding me" and of course I give them the look "well of course". They get hooked every time and I love to walk away and never tell them the truth. I am sure some of my past friends hate me because they tell that story believing me and then they are told how naive and stupid they are at which time I fall off their friend list.
The other way to catch the chicken is to have a long piece of very stiff wire with a hook on it. Then you reach into the heard of chickens and hook it on the leg. Once you do that you have to move fast and still ultimately grab the chicken by the legs and feet. If the chicken gives you too hard of time you can start swinging it to get the blood down to its head and it will stop trying to peck you. Of course at that point you now have a couple of choices which are gross by most folks standards.
Choice 1: You can put your foot on the head and neck and pull the head off. Choice 2: You can grab the chicken by the neck and start spinning the chicken in a circle which is called wringing its neck. If you are really good you can snap it quickly and the head will relieve itself of the body of the chicken. Choice 3: Is you can take an ax or hatchet and chop the head off. You pick?
Once you have done this it is very important that you allow the body (without the head) flop around and bleed off. It is really amazing because if you are fast and there are only a few people involved you can have a lot of chickens flopping all over the place. Did I mention that while this is all going on there is a pot of water with a fire going to make the water boil? Well OK, so what you do then is grab the dead chicken and dip it into the boiling water and start plucking off the feathers. It stinks and is messy but once you have completed this part of the task you gut them (remove the inside). Now a lot of folks like to keep the heart and liver but for me that was fish bait which I did keep but for that purpose alone. Some folks like to keep the gizzard (go look it up) and clean it to freeze for winter (fried gizzards which my dad would say is "good eaten".
Well after you get them all cleaned up we would wrap them in plastic or freezer paper and put them in the freezer for winter. The best part was that we would generally have fresh fried chicken that day and it gets no better than that especially when you make white gravy from the grease and crackles.
Now that you understand the process let me tell you that each year we must have killed about 200 chickens for freezing. One thing I recall was Suzie Hobbs was amazing in that she would go out and kill a few chickens, make pies, green beans and potatoes and make lunch for all the workers in about two hours. She was an incredible cook and fast.
Some time I will tell you a few more chicken stories.
What did you learn from the Osage?
Well here goes. The first thing you have to figure out is where are you going to catch them because if they are on the loose in the barn yard area you will have a heck of a time rounding them up. If you have ever heard, "it is kind of like herding chickens" they are saying that it is next to impossible. You see when you try to heard chickens they go in every direction. They do not tend to gather together like cattle or hogs or horses. Now if you are smart and your chickens roost in a chicken house where they are locked up at night it gets a lot easier. Now if you do not lock them up at night you absolutely will NOT have the same number of chickens every morning as the bobcats and coyotes will get one for dinner fairly often.
The second thing you have to do once you figure out how you are going to corner them is figure out how you will handle them or catch each one. Some folks will wear gloves and just grab at their feet at which point the chicken will try to jump so you can't catch them. If you do get a hold of a leg or even two then chicken will immediately start crawling up your arm and try to scratch you with the extra leg or peck you with its beak.
And by the way for you silly folks that are lead to believe that chickens have lips, they don't. I have many times over the years told city folks that we like to eat chicken lips that are friend. They always give you that look, "are you kidding me" and of course I give them the look "well of course". They get hooked every time and I love to walk away and never tell them the truth. I am sure some of my past friends hate me because they tell that story believing me and then they are told how naive and stupid they are at which time I fall off their friend list.
The other way to catch the chicken is to have a long piece of very stiff wire with a hook on it. Then you reach into the heard of chickens and hook it on the leg. Once you do that you have to move fast and still ultimately grab the chicken by the legs and feet. If the chicken gives you too hard of time you can start swinging it to get the blood down to its head and it will stop trying to peck you. Of course at that point you now have a couple of choices which are gross by most folks standards.
Choice 1: You can put your foot on the head and neck and pull the head off. Choice 2: You can grab the chicken by the neck and start spinning the chicken in a circle which is called wringing its neck. If you are really good you can snap it quickly and the head will relieve itself of the body of the chicken. Choice 3: Is you can take an ax or hatchet and chop the head off. You pick?
Once you have done this it is very important that you allow the body (without the head) flop around and bleed off. It is really amazing because if you are fast and there are only a few people involved you can have a lot of chickens flopping all over the place. Did I mention that while this is all going on there is a pot of water with a fire going to make the water boil? Well OK, so what you do then is grab the dead chicken and dip it into the boiling water and start plucking off the feathers. It stinks and is messy but once you have completed this part of the task you gut them (remove the inside). Now a lot of folks like to keep the heart and liver but for me that was fish bait which I did keep but for that purpose alone. Some folks like to keep the gizzard (go look it up) and clean it to freeze for winter (fried gizzards which my dad would say is "good eaten".
Well after you get them all cleaned up we would wrap them in plastic or freezer paper and put them in the freezer for winter. The best part was that we would generally have fresh fried chicken that day and it gets no better than that especially when you make white gravy from the grease and crackles.
Now that you understand the process let me tell you that each year we must have killed about 200 chickens for freezing. One thing I recall was Suzie Hobbs was amazing in that she would go out and kill a few chickens, make pies, green beans and potatoes and make lunch for all the workers in about two hours. She was an incredible cook and fast.
Some time I will tell you a few more chicken stories.
What did you learn from the Osage?
- chickens don't have lips
- if you drop your juicy fruit in the chicken house be careful when you pick it back up and put it in your mouth
- Chickens are like folks, they come in lots of colors and styles but on the inside they are all the same
Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com
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