My First Chicken Kill

I've never had any trouble dealing with plucking and gutting poultry. My first memory of doing this was when I was about seven years old and my Mother was struggling with our free range Christmas turkey which had unexpectedly arrived with innards intact! After a few graphic phone calls to country relatives she, and my Granny, set about preparing the bird.   There followed several attempts to gut the turkey with intermittent swearing and fits of giggles, the process facilitated with a glass of festive sherry. Most of the insides were removed but some parts proved difficult. And so, under far from expert instruction,  my own little hand reached the parts grown ups couldn't. I don't think I did it again for twenty years, but I've always known I could do it. However, the part that comes before the plucking and gutting is another matter.

This past year we have had table birds here on our smallholding and also a few bantom roosters donated by breeders without the heart to kill them. More than one rooster in an average flock can lead to viscous fights to the death. Therefore breeders always have a surplus of male stock as they are in less demand and not very good at laying eggs!

So far its been Dan my husband who has dispatched any of our chickens. He doesn't enjoy doing it, but I respect him for being brave enough. I'll never forget the heartfelt solemn look on his pale face when he did the first one. It was something that touched him deeply. I have watched him do it with the hope that one day I might pluck up the courage to try too.  Last autumn I woke up one morning and decided that it was the day for me to practice what I preached, and to be involved from start to finish.

I picked my way through breakfast because my heart was in my mouth. I announced to the family that I planned to cook roast chicken for dinner and that I was off out to 'get a chicken'. Dan knew exactly what this meant and asked if I wanted him to come with me. I declined, thinking that being alone it may be easier to focus. I had read over the techniques in various books but the clearest and most humane, and the one that gave me the courage to try, was a dated 1980s (but still 100% relevant) publication ... Complete Book of Raising Livestock and Poultry By Katie Thear & Dr Alistair Fraser. Smallholders the world over will recognise Katie as the guru author of many livestock and smallholding bibles, and writes for the best smallholder magazines. I think that pretty much anything that she has written is worth reading.

So I left the kitchen with intent ... the time for reading and contemplation over. My heart was pounding and my hands shaking. I brought the scoop of morning feed and all the hens gathered around me in excitement. I spotted the young bantom rooster whose time was up and put down the feed. Immediately the birds flocked around which meant that I could pick up the chosen bird without any chase or worry on his part. In the same movement as picking him up under my arm and walking around the corner to where the other birds couldn't see me, I'd slid my left hand down around his legs and my right and onto his neck just below the head. Then a steady downward push and twist to the right with the right hand results in a clear feeling of dislocation in the neck. From picking him up to pushing the neck took about three seconds. The bird then spends a few seconds of flapping, trembling and flinching nerve endings.

It may sound ridiculous but my main fear was that I might hurt the bird. I wanted to pull hard enough to kill it instantaneously, but not so hard that the head came off in my hand. I was also terrified that once I started plucking, it may flutter back to life, meaning I'd only half done the job.

All my fears were put to rest. Killing a chicken changes something in you. It gives a deeper reverence for life, and the food we eat. It cultivates a huge respect for the life that provided us with food and as a result we dare not waste a single bit of our roast chicken. We say words of thanks before we begin the family meal. When the bones have been eaten clean, the carcass is used to make soup.

We won't be eating chicken every week. We will be eating chicken only on special occasions. The process is not easy... physically or emotionally, and so eating a chicken takes on a whole new meaning. They are saved for sharing with special friends, during special meals. Nor do I walk into a supermarket or butchers and pick up a packet of meat/poultry anymore without giving thought to the animal it came from, the life it had, and the death that occurred in order for me to eat it. Its just all too easy these days to eat meat without truly appreciating what happens before it reaches our plates. I think if people did know they would eat less meat, they would ask more questions about the welfare, or lack of it, that their meat has experienced.

Comments

[Wibit(Brie)]

I want to say well done, but as you said this is a serious thing. So well done for living your values! You have been very brave.

[Deborah]

What a great post. You are very brave to do the deed and to share. I don't know if I'd be able!

[Jean]

I'm dreading the day I have to do it. Thank you for sharing your experiences again.

[Cakes]

What an important lesson to learn. So many of us have become so far removed from our food that it's true, my package of boneless skinless chicken breasts in the refrigerator were given no more thought than the box of crackers I bought on the same day.

[queenie]

this is something I have thought of often. Often I would say that if I had to kill my own animal for meat, I'd be eating a whole lot less meat. I was intrigued to hear that your experience was to make the whole process much more solemn; reverent, even, instead of making you a vegetarian or a guilty carnivore by proxy. There is something almost obscene at nameless, faceless animal parts in shrinkwrap. . . .

[hedgewizard]

Beautiful post, Rebecca, very clearly written - although I'd love more info on your hand position for holding the head and neck. Any chance?

[French Knots]

That connection with where your food comes from is generally lost. The Hugh F-W programme recently highlighted not only the awful conditions that factory farmed chickens are kept in but also how many people simply didn't care.

[Virginia]

Thank you for all your posts, but especially for this one.

[Wild Rose]

It takes a lot of courage to kill the meat you eat, but possibly even more to write about it.

Marie

[kelly]

Hi Rebecca, I've been gratefully following along in my feed reader once I discovered that you were posting more here than on your other blog...

I've never killed, plucked or otherwise handled freshly slaughtered animals...but am eager(nervous) to learn. Our laying hens will go through this final summer, and then it's time for the stew pot/freezer. I don't want to outsource the processing...but am so afraid of hurting them. Have been reading and re-reading my John Seymour... and asking everyone I can think of if they know how and would be willing to come over to supervise/suggest and share... nobody knows how.

hooo boy.

[mil.]

Well done, Becky. I learnt how to do it in Africa from the poultry officer, also a woman. Normal sized birds are easy enough to do but I remember pulling a bantam's head off once, so keen was I to do the job quickIy and without distress to bird. You must always wear some dreadful old clothes when you do it in case of such accidents!

[Breanna]

I've been reading your blog for a while, but wanted to say thanks for this post. I found it very meaningful.

[Dana]

Wow.

I echo the earlier comments others have written here--
gosh, what an amazing read.

I, too, think you very courageous to complete the task at hand.

I've been devouring the book 'Kitchen Literacy: how we lost knowledge of where food comes from and why we need to get it back.' We really don't appreciate where much of our meat comes from...but you do...

and thank you for sharing this event.

[Moi]

This moved me to tears. Only recently am I discovering, and coming to true understanding, at how speechlessly horrific our meat is made.

But the problem is ... I love meat! So do so many of us! I've been thinking about raising my own chickens. So I googled up "how to kill a chicken" and came across this post. Thank you. So very much.

[joe]

I honestly mean this with as little offense as possible... This is really ridiculous. There is absolutely nothing courageous about unnecessarily killing a small defenseless animal. You should be ashamed not proud. I really wish these were not the kind of macho heartless ideals taught to children.

[Spen]

I have just been reading your post and all of the comments below it (above this one!).

First of all, I would like to say fairplay too you, I am going to dispatch the first of 8 chickens tomorrow and like yourself, I want to do it as quick and painlessly as possible, I have been reading any thing that I can find on the net and think that your descriptions and ways of doing the deed are the best I have found so far.

It isn't going to be nice job, but it is better than buying crap from Tescos that have had a terrible lives locked up in barns, all of our chickens are freerange and have had no chemicals put into them.

Also I think that joe shouldn't have written anything on this page, we are humans, we are meant to eat meat, that is why we have canine teeth at the front of our mouths. I hope that joe doesn't eat meat, he doesn't deserve to.

[S. Mortonsmith]

I would like to say "Well done" I too had my first experience in the preparing my chickens for the freezer last fall. Boy! did my experience teach me the hard work it took to farm them to size, the life they gave to feed me and mine, and that bought food never tastes as well as homegrown. Yes, I even prayed for each bird and refused for the ones to be killed in front of the next one to be killed. No I didn't cry, but I would not allow my butchers to mock me or how I felt, because everything has been given to us by God. I have been trying to farm for 15 years, and sometimes my garden produces alot and the last few years not much, but i don't give up, even when I'm not supported by my family. My hats off to you young lady to try a better, simplier lifestyle that is healthier for you family, and I'm sure they "raise up and call you blessed" for all that you do. By the way Joe, if you have played any vido games that kill you have done that, but cheated you'self, to kill is to eat dinner. Shame on you Joe. In Christ Jseus, Sheryl

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[reza]

very god.I admire you

[karen]

Well done Rebecca.You are very brave as well as being tenderminded.This post was very meaningful and instructive.But can you kill a beast like a sheep too?Could you guide me please?

[Patrick Belgium]

I also just killed my first chicken, I would prefer that a experienced chicken killer would help me and learned this to me. Its not easy, its dirty. The book of John Semour is on this topic not very clear.