I can do it. I’ve done it several times now. But not often enough to get used to it, and the wind-up to the act always makes me feel like a bad person.
But it’s past time to clean out the Fortress of Attitude…
…and by “clean out,” I mean kill all the hens. These are the only two I’m going to actually butcher.
Principal Seymour Skinner is extremely upset right now. He did, bless his heart, really try to defend his hens. I don’t hold that against him. And I’ll replace them, in the fullness of time, with three or four fresh new hens that look exactly like the best of the old ones.
But it’s really time to stop putting this task off. Sorry, ladies, but I told you at the beginning that this would be the last act of the play.
The non-butchered ones aren’t pot-worthy?
No. Nothing but bones. The non-potworthy ones are the last of the hens I raised year before last, bought locally and positively defective. Shouldn’t have kept them this long except Adie was kind of cute.
Uh-oh, staying in a relationship with a cute chick longer than sensible. Sounds familiar.
I was gonna say use the skinny ones to make stock but then you’d need a freezer unless you used it immediately.
Oh no! Is Adie going into the freezer? Heart break, heart break….. Bless your heart she lasted this long.
You’re a batter person than I am. That’s a job which i ended up doing once and i swore never again. I’m not squeamish it that the job is a pain in the butt.
Poor Seymour. He will be forced to do without for a while.
It’s ironic that his gender nearly caused him an early end, but now it has saved him.
Yeah, around here at least it’s a rare rooster who survives past puberty. Maximum one per generation per chickenhouse, in fact. Most mature into complete insufferable assholes that are far more trouble than what little they’re worth, causing trouble and upsetting the hens. They become food, and I generally enjoy doing it.
A good one, though, is a calming influence. A yard full of nothing but hens gets psychotic and violent. It’s like trying to live with many little red feathered Rosie O’Donnells, except useful because they lay eggs.
Chicken stock can be pressure-canned. A pint makes a good start for many yummy dishes.
Just sayin’ . . .
I haven’t done any chickens for a long time. I’ve got four in the backyard right now that need to go. I hate the smell of the wet feathers. I was down in Tractor’s Supply a couple of weeks ago and they had an automatic chicken plucker on display. Kind of a rotating tub with rubber fingers protruding all over the inside. I looked them up on you tube and they are the ticket. Don’t know what they cost but one would sure be nice.
No getting around the smell of the chicken feathers, but killing them is easy asI learned from my dad , pick up the chicken by the neck and using the body mass, do a quick flip of the wrist, it snaps the neck and you are done. Dipping the whole body into a pot of boiling water for a few seconds loosens the feathers at the root then you pluck forever or go the the neighbor with the rubber rotating chicken plucker , and yes, those do work nice but you still have to use a blowtorch to get all the residual fine fluff off before gutting for use or sale. Done it enough in my youth to not want to but it is not difficult and the smell does linger.