September 2011 - With a pluck pluck here...

As mentioned in a previous post we had to slaughter Nandos.. he was really being picked on by the other chickens. First by Colonel Sanders in the tractor, and then by all the other chickens once we introduced him back to the flock..

So hubs killed him using the method as described in John Seymour's book "The complete guide to self-sufficiency" which up until recently we had really been using, and had committed to. And I say that with a hint of sarcasm, for the book, in many ways is really helpful, but there are some chapters which could have been extended to include hints and tips, as well as a more in depth description of just how things should be done.. we have had to learn this the hard way, and unfortunately it started with Nandos.

So anyways, Jan had killed the poor chicken, and de-gutted him, and I said I would pluck him... little did I know that this would be a rather arduous task, but pluck him I did... and it took forever!!

So this chicken has been a learning curve for us, and we have subsequently slaughtered more chickens (roosters who were superfluous), and have done this in a more humane way, after which we dunk the bled, and dead chicken into boiling water, and then pluck. This method we saw on a Permaculture video on You-tube from a farm in the States where they use this method too. It involves holding the chicken upside down, as this prevents them from flapping in panic, and then cutting the main artery in the throat, just under the beak. Once the chicken has bled out you insert the knife point into the mouth and up between the eyes, this will destroy the nervous system and prevent spasms and flapping.. after this you dunk the chicken in the boiling water for about 3 minutes, and then pluck. The plucking is much faster, and the whole process must simpler, and the chicken is nice and clean once gutted and plucked. You can see the process here for Part 1 and below that for Part 2: