In August we traveled to Braymer, Missouri to visit with our older sister Janel and her husband Isaac Rude, but also, with the intent of killing meat chickens.
Monday the 26th morning, we woke up and made breakfast. We ate quickly and dressed in our worse clothes, knowing that guts and blood was going to be everywhere. Then, we went outside to the yard where the butchering station was set up and the chickens were to be collected in crates. Scrap, scrap, scrap went the knives as they were sharpened for killing the chickens. Up went the killing cones and the water was heated for dipping the chickens in. The chicken plucker was set up, the tables ready for the eviscerating. The containers for clean butchered birds were prepared with fresh water, as the innocent little birds slept in peace.The Rudes took time to talk and quickly demonstrate the process to us. Specifically with great detail of how to remove all of the vital organs.
When the birds woke they set waiting to be fed but feeding time would not come that day or any
other day. For they only had a few hours left to live. As the birds waited, the
Rudes and us headed to the coop to round up the chickens. There were lots
of flapping of wings, but finally all were caught and put in cages with bricks set
on top of the cages to secure them.
The
massacre started!
Out came the chickens two by two and into the killing cones they went. Slit. We cut their throats. We tried not to cut the esophagus. They bled out slow with a steady flow of crimson. Then, into the boiling water they went. The water was hot enough to loosen the feathers but not so hot as to scald off their flesh. Then, to the evisceraters who remove all vital organs. When that was finished the carcasses were rinsed and put in ice water. We repeated this process from the morning to noon, about four hours in total. We did a final wash of the carcass before we bagged them.
After, we showered and napped for a long time. We all were very tired.
THE CHICKEN MASSACRE WAS FINALLY
OVER!
