We have roosterage
Tuesday November 11, 2008
Categories: Agrariana
Ah, well, Julie and I have been wondering if Cleo, the much larger of our three hens, is actually a rooster. Chicken-sexing at the biddy stage is more art than science. As the chicks matured into pullets, there was something...
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Rod I hope you're the one to wield the ax. Unless of course you've got the experience and or talent to do the old fashioned head twist off like my grandma used to do so well. It wouldn't be fair to put the man's work off on Julie.
We have a running joke around our house about the time we raised about a hundred fryers and then processed them ourselves. My wife still smarts about Brookshires having whole fryers on sale that week for sixty nine cents a pound.
I felt that since I was the one that fed them and whom they trusted when I called I should be the one with the ax. I got it down after ten or so. The early birds didn't get the worm but some of them only lost half of their head first swing.
Some say that 'kill cones' work better than using an axe. Also, look into skinning the chicken rather than scalding and plucking.
We raised chickens for ourselves and our friends -- time was, we'd do 300 in a summer. I was always the one to hold the bird for my dad to do the deed; bloody, bloody work.
Not to re-live recent campaign rhetoric, but chicken killing went better with a sharp kitchen knife than an axe. You can get the neck in one with an 8" cook's knife if you put your other palm behind the spine for more pressure. Use a knife with soft steel that will nick, but not chip, when it hits the bone. Hard steel will hold a better edge, but that's not an issue if you're just doing the one bird.
We used to have three knives that we'd rotate out: my brother would sharpen the one while we slaughtered with the other.
Depending on the age of the bird, you may have an opportunity to made excellent coq au vin
Here is a great web site on how to butcher a chicken in case you need it:
http://www.butcherachicken.blogspot.com/
Best wishes. Jim
Countdown to inevitable innuendo in 5...4...3...
"Goodbye Cleo, it's been nice, to have had you, with a side of rice..."
Apologies to Supertramp. And to Cleo.
Killing, whether with the axe or head cone, is the easy part. The hard part is sticking your hand inside and taking out the nasty bits. Our experience votes against skinning--yes, it's an easier way to get the feathers off than scalding, plucking, and singeing, but you end up with a skinless (= dry) roast chicken.
Please be aware that hearing your chicken go 'cock-a-doodle-doo' does not necessarily guarantee it is a rooster. All chickens crow at dawn. All three of my hens do.
Trade or give away Cleo to a friend. It will make explaining his/her absence to the children so much easier. ("Cleo is a rooster and we can't have roosters in the city, so he has gone to the country."
You might get something useful in exchange (maybe with a little "to boot" you could even get another pullet), but if you don't, you had a summer of enjoyment of Cleo as a pet, and blog-fodder.
Skinning's fine and tidy if you don't need the skin.
Given my experience with a strangely tough young rooster and the advice from meat-savvy friends, I'd suggest leaving the carcass sitting on the counter (or hanging to drain) for an afternoon. If you toss it straight in the freezer, the rigor becomes permanent, or something like that.
Also, it's fair to warn the wife before feeding her a home-grown chicken. Kids might be a different story.
Well, my tenderhearted daughter who prayed the most for Roscoe's recovery is now praying you will pardon the unfortunately misnamed Cleo and grant him a reprieve in the form of a new and bucolic existence elsewhere. When reminded that she does eat chicken herself, she exclaimed that she hasn't ever eaten one whose name she knew.
Uh, oh. Well, I guess you'd better "take care of it" before somebody calls 3-1-1 about the crowing. You and Julie should get someone experienced to help you the first time. Let us know how it goes, and we'll be thinking of you. Hope the kids didn't get too attached to Cleo.
And Mike, if you really have hens that crow, you should call the media and get it on the news, 'cause I've never heard of such a thing. Not to say it doesn't happen, but my grandfather raised chickens, and--relying totally upon family stories--not one hen ever crowed. But, y'know, that was back in the 1930s. Who knows what's going on with 21st century hens! :)
Rod,
Do you already slaughter chickens? Couldn't tell from your story. There is a huge amount of preparation and clean up that goes into slaughtering. It seems hardly worth it for just 1 bird. I did some slaughtering of cornish crosses this summer, and 4 hours of work produced 20 dead chickens ready for the freezer. My neighbor, more set up for the procedure, does 80/hour. In any case, every single step that you have to do for 20, you also have to do for 1. My recommendation: give the little guy away, or keep him until someone complains, then give him away.
"Trade or give away Cleo to a friend. It will make explaining his/her absence to the children so much easier."
With respect, Another Ann, this is stuff and nonsense. If I recall correctly, Rod's kids are of the age that they can begin to take seriously the connection between a living thing dying and the food on their plate. Indeed, for much of human history, I would venture to guess that no child of any age labored under the delusion that farm animals existed for reasons other than to be eaten. It is only since industrial agriculture that we have shielded our kids from these facts of life.
If you need an ethical context to put the discussion in, Rod, I heartily recommend The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. In brief, his argument is that early humans struck a sort of bargain with certain animals, in which we would breed them to become domestic and docile, and would use their milk and their meat and their wool. In return for which, we would shield them from predators and see to it that they had a decent life, compared to what they would have had in the wild.
Modern people seem to think that the alternative to eating farm animals is keeping farm animals as pets. It's not. The alternative to eating farm animals is letting farm animals go extinct.
Please note: this argument has a humane component. The fact that the death of the animal is an accepted telos of its existence in no way justifies or allows our mistreatment of the animal during its brief existence. Indeed, mistreatment violates the terms of the bargain.
Sorry to jump down your throat about that, Ann, but this is one of those topics that I think has a pretty clear answer, and a good one, and I don't have much patience for woolly-headed romance about what we eat. Respect, yes; sentiment, no.
I dunno about the "don't bother to slaughter one chicken" point. My grandmaw-in-law thought nothing of slaughtering one or two chickens for dinner. As far as kids go, IMO it is good for them to get used to the realities of homestead life re: animals.
Oh, don't KILL her! Him. There must be another way! Let Cleo live!
...Er, Leo.
God bless.
"When reminded that she does eat chicken herself, she exclaimed that she hasn't ever eaten one whose name she knew."
Very smart kid! Wise words to live by.
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