Rebekah’s Down Too! Chicken Butchering

It is butchering day. I've only got one arm. Thankfully, I do have some great kids and 5 secret weapons. Let's get into this. The height of our farm. It's the busiest time of the year. Let's go see if we can do this. We are at the climax of busyness. I've dislocated my shoulder. I've got one arm. Gotta be careful. The only way I can slow down I can't stop. I literally have to slow down. It hurts to walk fast. Things still have to get done. They're gonna get done when they get done. On top of that, the beautiful one got a tooth removed last night.

I'm gonna try to support in the house, get some stuff done in here like laundry. I mean, you know, all the fun stuff, dishes, things of that nature. I forgot to do this yesterday when I got home. Was just in a lot of pain.

Let's see if the bees are gone. That'll help us. Boys cleaned it up nicely here. The bees are gone. They did a fantastic job. They came out here last night in bee suits and burned any remains. Thankfully, we have Abundance Plus members coming today for a chicken butchering workshop. We're gonna help them teach them how to butcher chickens, and they're gonna help us. We need it, don't we? Uh, get these tons 100-some-odd chickens butchered. Scalders filled with water. This could be your huge bottleneck. I've forgotten to do this before, and then everybody's waiting around to butcher for an hour and a half. Let's hope this turns on. It did not. Let's just hope it's unplugged. We're screwed if this is not working. This loosens the feathers on the birds. Okay, something's not plugged in. I've got to scoop it over, and it's plumb full of water. Too much water, actually. You dip a chicken in there, it's it's gonna flow over. I'm waiting for somebody. The kids are doing the chores. I needed somebody to put my sling on. My underarm itches like crazy. It's one of my chief complaints. And every once in a while I move in a certain way and I can— it's, it's unstable. I can feel— it's like I can feel something moving around there. It's gross. I can even kind of hear it sometimes. It's like a little pop. I'm wondering if my— is my shoulder moving around in there? They said within 3 months I need to be— most of my mobility back. Certainly not sore anymore. And they, they said something like stable. I guess you can have a sense of instability. We hope that's not the case because that would mean surgery. We ain't doing that. It turned on. We so should have checked that last night or even a few days ago, but it fell through the cracks. Thankfully it's working. Same thing with this thing. I gotta get the plug. That'd be even bigger problem because with a Scaldor you can at least heat up a big pot of water, maybe. But with a plucker, I don't know an alternative other than just plucking them by hand, and that'd be 15 minutes versus 15 seconds. Oh boy, I would have been having this filled up. I said to the boys, did you fill up the tank? Yes, yes, we filled up the tank. I could have been having it filled up while I was up here. That's not great. This is not great. For a checklist, we go down the line like we're acting like we're butchering. So one of the very first things you do is turn on the water. Is all that good and set up? No, the, the splitter is broken. I think that's the only one. We already kind of had it, Jerry. We had a splitter on a splitter, but we'll go see. And we really could use another hose. We kind of need a four-way. I wonder if we can borrow our four-way down here. I bet we can if we top everybody off. That means we can get the breakfast posse hose. We really need one more hose. We need one more table. We're gonna have so many people here, we might as well be keeping everybody busy. I just chopped and dropped that comfrey. It wants to grow here. Look at that, coming back hardcore.

Now on to dishes. I'm gonna wash my hands really well. We are making hamburger buns for our Fourth of July party. First I'm gonna fold the towels and then I'll get to the dishes.

That means we're gonna plug the chickens the greenhouse. We cannot unplug the pasture for it'll feed— be watering the cows all day. But we could leave that one plugged into the main line, the main spigot, and make sure these chickens are good and we're good to take the four-way. How you doing, Lily? Good. Come here, can you put on my sling?

Exerted myself a little too much. Hold on. Um, I was gonna ice my face and then Henry woke up, wanted me to change him, and then he wanted to go out to the chicken butchering, so I got him out there. I need to lay down for a minute. I'm very tired. I don't know why I'm so tired. I guess my body's just healing. So I'm gonna rest for a little bit and then, um, should probably take some Arnica too.

Getting a must to fill this water. The compost posse actually unhook everybody. And the 4-way. And now it's gonna rain on us. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Now get the 4-way off, put the pasture one back on. Yep. And then turn it back on. Good. We need another table up there. It's in the garden kitchen. Take that table up there. Look at our— look at— hey. Look at our spigots for those shutoffs, those nicer shutoffs. Yeah, you did ball valves, but these are nicer because they're a little more precise. Any, uh, shutoffs? Really? Yeah, take that and replace— oh, did you know there's a crack in one of them? Last minute bee kill. There's two bees back there. Oh, right there, right there. Catching equipment. We got the trailer over there for the chickens. We got knives to kill them, cones for them to be in. We got buckets full of water to catch their blood. We got a scalder, almost a tenth. We got aprons, we got plucker, one eviscerating table, two eviscerating tables. Josiah, go get that big bowl, that big stainless steel bowl in our pantry so we can get ice into this. We need buckets for guts. Gideon, can you go get us some buckets for guts? That is— we weren't sure if we'd get our ice maker done on time. We weren't sure we got rid of the— we would get rid of these bees, but it's happening. And that's good because we got to put 100 chickens in there, maybe more. We started with 125. We've lost a lot, but— You're being very helpful. You're being very helpful this morning. How are you feeling this morning?

I feel rough. I feel tired. It's weird. Even when they were pulling it out, when they were suturing it, I was kind of like dozing off.

Oh man.

I just feel really tired still. I slept pretty good considering I didn't take any ibuprofen.

Well, the people are here.

Yeah, it looks great.

We're gonna go—

I'm happy they're here to help us. Because we're crippled.

We're gonna go catch chickens. Yeah, we didn't know if we were gonna do a group this time, but I'm glad we did. Yeah, we're gonna help them and they're gonna help us. And there's not as many as there's supposed to be, so it's good that somebody's here to help us. I think there were supposed to be 10. We have 4, but also Sam and John are here, the neighbors, so that's 6, plus Lily is 7, plus Gideon is 8. We're not counting me. I'm pretty doofus with just one arm. She's just running. She must have gotten stung. If I get stung, I got to be cool. If I get stung, shocked, sneeze, I'm screwed. If I jerk— set them in. They don't fly. They're very heavy. Pick them up by two hands. Josiah, that's a good example. Perfect example. You guys want to get in there? Just make sure We're constantly washing our hands, certainly before we eat. They're muddy from the 4 inches of rain we had yesterday. Whose first time catching a chicken? Has everybody caught a chicken? Shannon, you've caught a chicken? Yeah. Jarrett, you've caught a chicken? I have. Chris, you've caught a chicken? Oh yeah, man. All bunch of crazy chicken ladies. He's got some weight to it. Yeah, buddy. We've got some shavings down. They're not just standing in the manure while they're waiting to be harvested. Come on, we're just going to get going. I'm going to teach you as you go. Everybody wants to at least do everything once, acting like it's your own bird, you're doing your own thing, you go through the whole cycle once. And then sometimes you find a favorite spot. You might want to eviscerate, you might like killing, you might like plucking and scalding. But at least do everything once, and probably in order. So yep, yep, it's good. Okay, next, stomach towards you and the cone. The cone. Oh yay, right off the bat! After the kill, the scald. Okay, test it. Let's show them how we test it. You can pull at the wing feathers, or you can scrape at the legs. Straight at the legs. Show them. It's done. I just feel it by grabbing it. See how it's peeling at the legs? Show them, Jonah. That means you're ready with the skull. Try pulling one of the wing feathers for a double test. Okay, that was a little too difficult. Just go a little hair more. We have the prodder so that we can dunk even the legs since we're going to keep them. We want to peel them. Okay, that wasn't even 15 seconds. If you keep going too long, you'll start breaking bones and It's not a good presentation. Whatever he's got left, he just pulls the little feathers off. Cut the head off, put it in the bucket. Oh wait, we should save it for a broth. He's not cutting the neck. You don't want to cut bones with your knives or you'll dull them. Circumcised it so he can pull that out. You can leave those loose, that'll come out when you grab it. Yes, wait, while you're here, grab the crop. It'll come out when I pull the guts out. You see that little sack he's holding? Yeah, it's not full normally. That's full of food. He just peeled it from the breast, but we didn't let them eat. We stopped feeding them last night, so their crop will be empty. Otherwise, you've just wasted food and you're dealing with full crops, and you might actually cut it and then food goes everywhere. It's just gross. So he just started very gently. Look how he's pulling the joint backwards. You gotta slow down, Jonah. This is not a race.

The next one—

look, he's slitting this towards the bottom, towards the vent. Now wait, pull that. Hold that over the bucket when you do that. Show them that, because in case they have food in there, poop's gonna come out and needs to go right out into your bucket. He's just reaching in there and grabbing as much guts as possible and trying to keep his— see, he's pulling the windpipe out now. The crop, it should have came out, did it? Yeah, that's just fat. And he's grabbing the back rib cages right now for the lungs. Show them the lungs. Come on, slow down. Wait, watch. See, see, this is the, the, um, poop chute. So he's cutting straight down under it, and then he'll cut the other side. No, no, not— no, don't cut all that off. Hold on, wait, wait. Cut more like this because we don't want to lose that fat. No, no, no. Yeah, okay, turn the chicken like this. We've cut all that fat off. We didn't want to lose that. Now rinse it off. I'm up.

I'm gonna go put some gel on my face, take some Arnica, and then I'm gonna hit the dishes.

You just killed one? Have you ever killed one before?

Not many, really.

Just roosters. Is it hard on you?

A little bit, yeah.

You can be honest.

Yeah, a little bit.

It is? Okay.

Yeah.

All right. I say that because the chickens, it's not hard on me anymore. I'll be honest with you. We should, uh, maybe get more ice. Shannon, you feel like you're getting the hang of it? Yeah, a little bit. I need your help with this one for sure. I'm enjoying it. All right, Josiah, is this hard on you to kill a chicken? We're getting loads of stuff for broth. It's hard to film, keep these guys busy at the same time. You are leaving 3 kids behind, and they're little kids, so you left them with Grandma. Yep. How long has it been since you and your wife had a time without the kids? It's been a couple years. We went to, uh, you know, that home, uh, stedder jamboree with Fit Farmer last year. That was the last date. Yeah, they were there, but okay, we, uh, definitely— you know, you might be a crazy chicken lady if you're— you only date once a year and it's to homesteading events. First you go to an event. That was probably nicer than this. That's probably more romantic than this, definitely, right? Oh yeah. What kind of date is this?

This is a homesteader's date.

Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Yep.

Well, at least you had time in the car to talk. That's right. How you got it, neighbor? You doing good? I'm doing good. I'm getting there. John, how are you doing? Pretty good. Who showed you how to do it? Jonah, kind of. He was going fast. Yeah, he's kind of a fast teacher, isn't he? Now cut flush with your knife. There you go. The key to getting the manure out is when you open up the cavity to let any manure fall out. There you go, look at you! Oh, you're even pushing it out, I like it. As we near the end— whoa, 3, 4, 5, 6 7, 8. We've overflowed our ice tub. You got it down? Okay, when in doubt, throw it out. Little bruise. I like that. I like how you split it, bent it, and then cut it off. Are you the butcher? Uh, I used to be a chef, so you've cut a lot of chickens. So, all right, it's a good day to have you around for parting. You might be able to teach us a thing or two about parting. So what is a chef doing out here on my farm on a Wednesday? Weekday? Well, I'm not a chef anymore. Mess my back up too much. Ah, what leads you out here to do this? Uh, my family. We just moved out to Burnsville and just looking for a different pace of life. We've lived in the city and in Florida for the last 4 years. Yeah, and just want to be out in nature. We were in California, we lived on 20 acres in like an old dilapidated avocado farm, and, uh, just kind of fell in love with it, having chickens and gardening. Okay, you were doing it out there? Yeah. Why'd you leave California? It's too expensive, and we want to be close to family because we had 2 kids and one of us, you know, yeah, I'll depart our birds this time. I'm jealous, he's got 2 arms. Okay, spread it out as evenly and as thinly as possible in this bare area. We are throwing everything we got at this hurricane pasture. Blood, all the animals, chunky stuff, chunky stuff. Now that's number one duty. We're gonna put the feathers out here everywhere. Just spread them as thinly as you can. They ain't afraid to grab a hold of it. She's spreading it like seed. They— you'll be their best friends now. They're not as enthusiastic because they just ate breakfast, but these guys are killing it, aren't they? Hang the chicken to dry. Little Homestead Builds poultry drying rack right there. These two are keepers, they jump right in. We're cleaning the table, transitioning. We're going to be parting today. I'll start with the wing. You pull it up so you can have the armpit, then we're coming Stand right here. Oh, you're left-handed. Yeah. And you slice until you can bend and find the joint. Yep. You gotta stay— you're below the joint right there. All right. The joint's so far in there, it's tricky to get. Okay, now we might as well now cut down through here. We're gonna cut to— we're gonna cut wings. Learning some tricks from the chef. Thank you for the oyster trick. Oh yeah, that's my favorite bite of the chicken. Krista took over. Thank you. It's tricky with one arm. Try pushing the button and holding down that at the same time. What we ended up with, 3 chickens worth of dark meat. Yes. So 6 thighs, 6 legs, right, Lid? You're doing 666? It's 11, it's almost 12 PM. All right, so 3 chickens, dark meat. Gonna do 4 chickens worth of breasts, right? Yes, sir. So you've got 4 chickens worth of bread, correct? I wonder, no, if we should do to keep the 3. Yeah, just to keep the numbers the same. All right, let's do that. So let's pull 2 out of each one. We've stopped bagging whole birds because we're not big fans of the very hot water on the chicken, coming in contact with chicken, leaching of the plastic on the meat. So not big fans of storing in plastic, but how are you going to get away from that? At least this is cold and not hot plastic. 3 birds worth of breasts, just 6 breasts. And then 3 birds worth of dark meat. So in that case, 6 thighs, 6 legs, 6 wings. We are done. Huge blessing. The Abundance Plus members ended up being— we taught them how to— when we scheduled this I didn't have this arm issue. We're just ready to do a workshop, teach the people how to butcher some chickens, and they came and they were a lot of help. So thanks for you guys who came. Thank you, we appreciate it. If any of you others want to come, you got to get an Abundance Plus and you'll get an email invite. We have one more chicken butchering this year. They have washed the tank. We can go swim in the pond.

Whoa, you're doing it!

Oh my gosh, it's actually so cold. 3 minutes, let's go! What is the problem with that? Your arms are so cold, right? Come on, see who can do it the longest. Time it, Josiah, you got it? Josiah, you got the timer? Yeah. All right, 10 seconds. I believe Jonah's deeper than John. Oh, Jonah, don't! Put your arms back in. You're fine.

Nightmare.

Don't move, don't move, dude. Yeah, don't move. That's good advice. It's terrible. So what you do, guys, is just torture yourself after a torturous day of butchering. I'm going a minute. How long, Josiah? 40 seconds. Ready to get out of there. You guys want to slow down time? Just get an ice bucket. When are we at?

A minute. I actually think it's so—

it's colder than cold. The last 10 seconds. Go, ready? All right, I'm calling this a perfect happy ending, right? Happy day.