Gutting a chicken - brilliant link for you.

[jessmorris]

down home at The Hennery: Butchering.. WARNING GRAPHIC PICS !!!

Another link on how to kill and gut a chicken......

[Munch]

Well that was an experience!

I have just gutted Frank the Cockerel. It was sort of what I was expecting apart from the poo and the sudden foul smell that can with that!!... but I have to say I refrained from gagging...... wash him thoroughly and carried on........

Done!

I think I am quite proud of myself

He, must stop calling him that...... IT has no breast meat whatsoever but still weighs 2.3 kilos! I have no idea how!!! IT had much darker skin than I expected too, im guessing that is cos IT is homegrown, any ideas?

[OverWyreGrower]

We take food away before slaughter, so they don't come as full of poo as usual *bleuch!*

And yes, the smell is very..... interesting......

What breed was he - I'm wondering if that can affect skin colour?

[Munch]

He was a light sussex but he was a ginger light sussex.

An we did withdraw his food for a day but somehow the little begger had had some corn as his crop was full too.,..... me think little munch had been down the garden visiting the chickens with her corn bucket!!

[RichmondHens]

There is no such thing as a "ginger light sussex"!!!! I'm guessing he was a sussex cross, ie mum was a light sussex which is why the eggs looked like the the others, dad was a rhodie maybe. Light Sussex normally have a reasonable amount of breast meat (well, mine have always done) but if you are comparing to a supermarket chicken then yes definitely not as much but remember those are force fed, overgrown birds and have unnaturally developed breasts. A good meat cross is indian game with light sussex although I've been crossing my IG cock with several breeds last year and this and they all taste good. The IG produces bigger breasts and bigger legs, and yes free ranging will give them good leg muscle, but that's fine IMO.

[Snadger]

He was a light sussex but he was a ginger light sussex.

An we did withdraw his food for a day but somehow the little begger had had some corn as his crop was full too.,..... me think little munch had been down the garden visiting the chickens with her corn bucket!!

Sussex colours

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex_(chicken)

[Munch]

I was told he may have been deliberately that colour to sex at birth, the technical term escapes me!

Interestingly I think they (5 hens and 1 cock) maybe crossed with a leghorn or something as the girls, although perfect light sussex colouring but have big floppy combs!

[jessmorris]

Well done Munch. Enjoy your dinner.

[Munch]

To be honest I may have wait a couple of days before I eat him..... let the memory of gutting subside first lol

[Mikey]

I don't think much to their method of dispatching the chickens munch, hang it in a cone and slit its throat.

Bit barbaric to me.

[Munch]

I don't think much to their method of dispatching the chickens munch, hang it in a cone and slit its throat.

Bit barbaric to me.

I totally agree, alot of Americans seem to adopt that method, well in t'internet anyway.

We use the brromstick method, much more humane.

[RichmondHens]

I don't think much to their method of dispatching the chickens munch, hang it in a cone and slit its throat.

Bit barbaric to me.

Don't they stun them first? The way I've seen it done is to put bird in cone, stun, then slit the throat. That seems fine to me. In fact have been thinking about getting cone and stunner myself.

[Hilary B]

Well, bromstick has always been good enough for me. I usually hang either before or after plucking (depending mainly on how busy I am), but NEVER hang poultry once you have had a knife near it! (or if the skin has torn badly during plucking). I don't like wet plucking, so I pluck either as soon as it is killed (while still warm) or after hanging for up to 48 hours (depending on temperature, and whether I have access to somewhere cold to hang it at all), and I remove the neck (but not the skin of it) before loosening the crop. Since the bird has been killed by the broomstick method, once the neck skin is cut (where you stopped plucking) the head comes away readily, then slit down the neck skin to the shoulders (on the back of the bird), and remove the neck by cutting between the vertibrae as far 'back' (towards the shoulders) as you can manage.
Because at this point you have the oesophagus intact, it is not really difficult to separate the crop however empty it might be!
I didn't follow the instructions beyond that point, because it was slow to load, but once you get past there, not a lot of scope for variety, apart from how careful you are to avoid breaking the digestive tract. The gizzard can (with skill and care) be separated leaving the contents in the 'lining' (tough skin layer on the inside) for use as gibblets. If you can't be bothered with giblets, that can all go in the rubbish (but it seems a bit of a waste).
I usually do the job on a thick layer of newspaper on the kitchen table, all the unuseable bits stay in the newspaper, the sink is handy for washing whatever needs washing, and once finished, roll the paper around the waste-bits, and dispose in whatever way is viable. We used to have a Rayburn solid fuel cooker, and if the fire is going well almost ANYTHING wrapped in newspaper will burn; these days it goes in the bin (in a poly-bag), if I felt brave about regulations it would go on the compost (a great activator).