(And a big gulchy welcome to our heroic protectors at the Department of Homeland Security…)
At Joel’s Gulch (poultry division) if you won’t lay eggs, you will eventually be guest of honor at a chicken dinner. But since our chicken operation is at something less than an industrial level, this isn’t something I do very often or very well. Got used to it the year before last, but that was a long time ago and now I’ve gotta psych myself up all over again.
And after the somewhat-botched Great Cornish Slaughter of 2014, I figured it was about time I made a proper killing cone. So I studied at the University of Internet for a while, and though most posted instructions involve big sheets of sheet metal flashing it turned out I had the proper raw material laying around already…
Old traffic cone! Cleaned some up in J&H’s horse pasture, former toys of my li’l buddy Comet. Then haven’t quite gotten a chance to haul them to the dump.
Cut the top off to a diameter of about 3 1/2″…
Then cut off the pedestal. Turns out a skilsaw isn’t the best possible tool for this…
But a utility knife is perfect.
I debated quite a lot where I was going to hang the thing. The best location was in full view of the Fortress of Attitude, and that didn’t seem quite right. Finally decided on an obscure side of the powershed, out of the wind (and sun, unfortunately…)
If anybody with more experience at this sort of thing has any suggestions for alteration, this would be a good time. Plan to choose and isolate a Brahma at random this evening.
I’ve processed a lot of chickens. Rabbits are easier, but I prefer chicken meat. Isn’t that the way it always goes?
I (city guy) just happened to visit a friend’s operation in the country just yesterday, and he has settled on a very similar design. Only improvement suggested over yours is to construct it out of some kind of hardy mesh, like a screen except with much bigger squares perhaps 1/4″ or so between each wire. He says the chicken being decapitated, well, it’s headless body that is, will grasp the mesh with its claws and squeeze the blood out of the carcass in just a few seconds or so.
“hardy mesh, like a screen except with much bigger squares perhaps 1/4″ or so between each wire.”
FYI, You just described 1/4″ hardware cloth.
And just for the record, I hope to never be (shudder) … “processed”.
This is how my mother did it. Place the head of one chicken under the heel of a foot; do the same on the other side (she killed 2 chickens at once). Now pull up quickly popping the heads off both chickens. She then tossed the decapitated chickens in a clean trash can with the lid on until they quit flopping. She could process chickens like nobody’s business.
Some people might use a post or a tree to mount that on – a bit away from your ‘yard’. That way you’re not getting blood on the side of a building and aren’t attracting things (flies, mice – predators) that might otherwise be drawn in.
In my observations on smaller wild animals – fresh blood and open wounds will bring in the predators quickly even if the wound wouldn’t otherwise be fatal. The things that go bump in the night key right into a blood scent – best to keep it away from the house.
I have to agree with you, PNO… Joel, even if you’re only going to kill one chicken at a time, that blood is going to fly all over the place and you don’t have a garden hose with a pressure nozzle to wash it off. Chop the head off, and toss it into a clean garbage can. Great idea… wish I’d thought of that. Would have saved lots of water and prevented attracting so many flies.
The “stomp on the head, pull on the hind legs” treatment also works well on a just-shot rabbit to “drain” the carcass.
And yes, I’d move the operation away from the house yard. Perhaps hang the cone on a single steel post driven in several yards away?
Or maybe do it at the water trough?
}:-]
Unless you plan to nail a thick board to the powershed at the working end of the cone, aren’t you going to be chopping into the powershed wood? Guess I’m not that delicate with an axe because I sure would. The chicken should fit tightly enough in the cone that it doesn’t flop around. Metal trash can and cone made of wire mesh are super ideas, wish I’d thought of that. You sure need something to collect the blood.
Zelda, the cone isn’t for use with the hatchet. No bladed instrument needs to touch the wall. With the cone, you cut their throats with a sharp knife.
And yes of course I’ve used a pressure cooker! 🙂