Butchering Chickens

If you raise your own meat chickens then chances are you already know how to butcher them for your family. For those who have never done it, but are considering raising meat chickens, then this is a process you will need to learn. Every day we see more and more people joining the world of preparedness. Learning how to butcher or dress meat is another one of those tasks we should all educate ourselves in so hopefully this article will help you step one foot into that door of your journey.

Tools You Might Needed:

• Sharp Boning Knife:  I have many friends who raise and butcher their own poultry meat and they all say this knife is a good boning knife.  It is a High-carbon 420 stainless-steel blade resists rust and stains.  It has an exclusive Taper Grind edge stays sharp and is easy to re-sharpen. Full-tang blade extends from tip of knife to end of handle, lends balance and weight.
• Butchers Steel: Many people think that a Butchers Steel rod is used to sharpen a knife.  It is not.  What this tool does is repair damage to a knife that already has a sharp edge.  You could take a dull knife and try to sharpen it all day on this tool and it will remain dull.  If you look at a freshly sharpened knife under a magnifying glass and then used it to prepare a meal and looked at it again when you were done, you would see many imperfections in the blade.  These imperfections will dramatically reduce the performance of the knife that is still actually sharp.  The butchering steel removes the imperfections and gives you the full benefit of the already sharp knife.  This tool works best with short knives like boning and paring knives.  The steel should always be longer than the knife you are polishing it with; it is unsuitable for a long knife or a chef’s knife.  That being said, they do make Butcher Steel’s specifically for longer knives as well.
• Knife Sharpener: This is the sharpener we use and we love it.  We will use this unless we no longer have power and have to go back to an old-fashioned whetstone.  (Sharpen your knives after about 10-15 butchers.)
• Gut Bucket: Self explanatory
• A few pots with lids for neck-bones and the edible internal organs such as livers, heart and gizzards.
• A large ice chest or any plastic or metal container will do.  This will be filled with cold water and ice so you can toss the birds into once they are cleaned.  (This also keeps flies off them.) A larger ice chest can hold about 15 large birds on the day of butchering.
• Lung remover
• Water hose (Preferably with an attachment that allows you to change the settings to a high power stream.)
• A work station set up. (You could make your own table using a saw horse and boards it you wanted to.) If possible, having an outside sink will save a lot of time and work.
• Apron and some rubber gloves/boots.

Keepin it Spicy,

Jalapeño Gal

This is an archive of: http://americanpreppersnetwork.com/2013/03/butchering-chickens.html