Butchering a 25 Pound Turkey I’m almost done butchering the 10 Broad Breasted White turkeys I ordered this spring and raised on our homestead. There’s one left to butcher when I get a nice cool day, but the rest are in the freezer or I pressure canned the meat for…
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Processing My First Turkey of the Season
Butchering Broad-Breasted Turkeys This spring I ordered 10 Broad Breasted White turkeys from Dale (The Chicken Guy) in Wisconsin. Actually, I think I ordered 6, but Dale always orders extra and somehow a few of them end up in my basket. I picked them up on March 13th. They were…
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Dressing a Heritage Turkey for Thanksgiving
Raising Heritage Turkeys for Thanksgiving There’s something special about gathering with friends and family for a traditional Thanksgiving feast, complete with roast turkey and all of the trimmings. I think that our society has, perhaps, lost a little bit of the spirit of Thanksgiving. With prosperity and an abundance of…
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Butchering a Cornish Rock Hen
Butchering a Cornish Cross Hen I wouldn’t normally recommend keeping a Cornish X meat bird past the normal butcher age of 6 to 8 weeks. If you can believe it, the hen on the left was a runt and wasn’t large enough to butcher at that age. I kept her…
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Too Many Chickens? Make Soup!
Do You Have Too Many Chickens? Nothing puts a damper on keeping chickens like a high feed bill, too many aggressive roosters, and a flock of unproductive hens. Yet many chicken enthusiasts find themselves faced with just this situation. Some of them will find new homes for their old and…
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Confessions of a Former Rabbit Killer
Confessions of a Former Rabbit Killer Hi. My name is Lisa and I’m a former rabbit killer. For the record, I never enjoyed killing cute little bunnies, quite the opposite. I did it because I felt I needed to. It has been several years since I last killed rabbits. Why…
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Butchering in Subzero Temperatures
Check out my posts ‘How to Cull Your Old Laying Hens’ and ‘Butchering An Injured Hen’ for more of my thoughts on butchering. Extreme Butchering Butchering animals in subzero temperatures is not an ideal situation. However, life doesn’t always work out the way we plan. Sometimes an animal is injured in the…
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How To Skin a Chicken or Other Poultry
See also How to Butcher a Chicken How To Skin a Chicken, or Any Other Poultry I recently shared an article, Should You Skin or Pluck Your Home Butchered Poultry, where I shared my thoughts on the pros and cons of each of these methods of processing. You may choose to…
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Should You Skin or Pluck Your Home Butchered Poultry?
For a complete tutorial, check out my post on How to Butcher a Chicken. Read my instructions on How to Skin a Chicken! Plucking Vs Skinning Your Poultry I’ve noticed that there are two camps when it comes to removing the feathers from your home butchered poultry. Some folks are adamant…
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Butcher Day with My Dad and Mom
For instructions on processing your birds, check out my post How to Butcher a Chicken. A Helping Hand My husband, son, and I live 600 miles from my parents. We visit them in New York every summer and they visit us in Illinois at least once a year,…
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How to Cull Your Old Laying Hens
For detailed instructions, check out my article How to Butcher a Chicken. When to Cull Laying Hens It can be difficult to decide when to cull your older laying hens. Some people like to keep their hens for a few years before culling them from the flock. Other people choose…
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How to Butcher a Duck with Complete Instructions
Step by step instructions show you how to butcher a duck. Preparation to plucking - a detailed description with photos to walk you through the process.
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How to Prepare for Fall Butchering
For Full Instructions on Dressing Your Bird, Visit My Post ‘How to Butcher a Chicken.’ Fall Butchering Season Will be Here Soon Fall is traditionally the time of year when extra livestock on a farm or homestead is butchered. The simple fact of the matter is this…farm animals are…
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The Chicken Chronicles – Butchering an Injured Chicken
Butchering An Injured Hen One afternoon I went out to the chicken coop to lock up the hens, give them fresh water and feed, and collect the eggs. I noticed one of my older White Leghorns had blood on her feathers. I inspected her carefully for signs of vent picking.…
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How to Butcher a Chicken on the Cheap
How to Butcher a Chicken Do you want to know how to butcher a chicken? I butcher my home-raised chickens so that my family has access to clean meat that was raised and slaughtered humanely. I’ve been doing this for years because my family is opposed to the inhumane treatment…
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Culling Old Hens from the Flock
Culling the Flock and Butchering Old Hens Monday morning I butchered some of my old hens. The oldest hen in my flock was one of the unlucky ones. She was an Ameraucana from my very first flock of 10 purchased the summer we moved here (2010). She was about 3…