Emotional support needed to kill mean rooster

[bobbi-j]

Thought I might be able to butcher some for food in the future (b4 this experience), but after this year, I know I'm too much of a softee. I'm just glad I was able to do what was needed to end their suffering.

Good for you for doing the right thing for your birds! Don't write off being able to process your own chickens yet. You had to euthanize pet chickens. For me, when I am raising chickens for meat, I raise them with a whole different mindset. I can't say it's easy, but it is easier than processing my old laying hens. I get kind of attached to them. But for my flock management, processing is a part of it. I don't have room to keep adding chickens without subtracting some, too.

 

[Grenadianexpat]

Should you eat a chicken if it does inexpertly? Or just bury it? I don't if it would be wise or not since don't know why or how it died. Don't want to waste but scared not knowing what or how it died.

If it dies at your hands, even inexpertly as you say it is probably fine, although you do want to try to let as much blood come out of the carcass as possible. If it is a random death personally I do not eat it myself as you don't know if it is poisoned in some way, or has an illness that might cross animal/human barriers.

 

[Viksceeks]

So- I finally got around to cooking the roo. Life happened so it took longer than expected to get around to it.
I boiled it, and I plan to shred and crockpot the rest into a stew.
Question is- there's a portion that is bruised, I'd say roughly 1/8th of it give or take. I can't find anything on eating fresh bruised kill. I'll probably just cut it out. Any opinions?

 

[EggWalrus]

So- I finally got around to cooking the roo. Life happened so it took longer than expected to get around to it.
I boiled it, and I plan to shred and crockpot the rest into a stew.
Question is- there's a portion that is bruised, I'd say roughly 1/8th of it give or take. I can't find anything on eating fresh bruised kill. I'll probably just cut it out. Any opinions?

Eat it.
It won't taste a bit different. Might even be a little more tender.

 

[bobbi-j]

I cut out the bruised spots. Just personal preference.

 

[uncertainty]

I am inexperienced in butchering chickens. My son's neighbour (2.5 hours away!) let me join the team when they were processing their extra roos. I did every task at least once. They were using the cone method and showed me where to make one sharp cut on each side. They also warned me about keeping my face out of pecking range. It is a manageable job. Certainly nothing a person would look forward to, but manageable. The actual hands-on learning was really valuable and totally worth 5 hours of driving.