# Please don't laugh at me!



## rockdoveranch (Apr 30, 2011)

Please don't laugh at me, but I have been reading through this section and feel sick to my stomach.  I am a HUGE carnivore, but when I drive past the packing company in our closest town I cannot even look at the cows.  THEN I drive on to the grocery store and buy loads of meat from cows, chicken and pigs.  YUM!

We are former big city people, but both of us spent a lot of time in the country growing up and have lived out in nowhere Texas full time for 7 years now.  We don't hunt, but we HOPE to have our lambs processed for the first time this year for our freezer . . . if we can bare it!

We have French Lops and I have read that they were breed to be meat rabbits.  

We need to become more self-sufficient by eating our animals, both lambs and bunnies.

The packing company will process of lambs, but it is pretty costly.  I really would like to learn how to do it all myself.

So . . . any advice on how a HUGE meat eater can get past being afraid to kill and eat her own animals?


----------



## SDGsoap&dairy (Apr 30, 2011)

Start with something less cute and cuddly, then try to work your way up.   I never killed anything larger than a bug in all my life until we got our first chickens.


----------



## rockdoveranch (Apr 30, 2011)

n.smithurmond said:
			
		

> Start with something less cute and cuddly, then try to work your way up.   I never killed anything larger than a bug in all my life until we got our first chickens.


That is a good idea.  Starting with something less cute and cuddly!  We HATE our chickens!  We only have 5 mean hens.  I will talk it over with my husband and perhaps borrow a rooster from down the road.

Still am feeling a little sick to my stomach, but am looking forward to smoked brisket tonight.  So weird?!?!


----------



## Legacy (Apr 30, 2011)

Yep, start with chickens, then move to rabbits.  Rabbit processes faster and easier than chickens too.

I have to admit, I still don't dispatch our rabbits but I don't have a problem with it being done and butchering them afterward. I just can't be the one to do it. My dh handles that.


----------



## DianeS (Apr 30, 2011)

Yep, starting with a chicken that just pecked you is a great idea. 

So is getting the ENTIRE thing set up - start to finish - before picking up the first animal. Everything from the knives or hatchet to the empty sink to the scalding tank to the platter or bag for the finished meat. Easier to grit your teeth and carry through with it than contemplate cleaning up all the set up stuff without having used it. 

Tell us (or another supportive friend) right before you do it, too. Say "I"m going go to process the chicken/rabbit/whatever, I'll post back when it's done." Avoiding embarassment of saying you didn't go through with it helps!

Have a recipe ready for the finished meat. You want it to sit in the fridge a bit afterward so you won't be making it that same day, but thinking ahead ot chicken and dumplings (or whatever) helps.

You can do it!


----------



## terri9630 (Apr 30, 2011)

Get some broilers to try.  By 8wks old they are ready to butcher and you will be glad they are gone.  They are messy and STINKY.   We raise/butcher about 50 a year for our family.


----------



## rabbitgeek (Apr 30, 2011)

Legacy said:
			
		

> Yep, start with chickens, then move to rabbits.  Rabbit processes faster and easier than chickens too.


I agree. After processing rabbits I hate plucking chickens. 
I don't mond plucking turkeys though.

Have a good day!
Franco Rios


----------



## rabbitgeek (Apr 30, 2011)

It just occurred to me that having chickens first then rabbits means one would have to build a coop then build a hutch.

I think I've seen sheds that house both chickens and rabbits under the same roof?

The rabbits are in wire cages higher than the chickens. Rabbit poop falls through the floor wire to the ground.

Chickens are on the ground and will scratch through the rabbit poop, eating any fly larva.

Just something to think about.

Have a good day!


----------



## rockdoveranch (Apr 30, 2011)

Wow!  8 weeks and broilers are ready for butchering?  Is that the age for butchering all chickens?  We eat chicken about twice a week, and I always have home made chicken broth in the freezer.

What is terrible is that one of my neighbors and her sister drove 2 hours to my daughters school to pick up 3 week old chicks the kindergarten classes hatched for Easter.  _They could have been mine!_  Wish I had read through this section first.

Our 5 hens are all 6 years old.  We lock them up at night in a dog run that is partially covered by an awning and is next to the dog yard.  Sometimes we wish the dogs would bite their heads off as they are SO mean!

During the day they free range but are always under foot when they see us with a bucket.  This afternoon we were moving some 2x4s and under the wood was this precious little field mouse.  One peck from a chicken and the mouse was dead.  Could not watch to see which chicken actually got to eat it.   

Thanks for all the support and advise.  I will give it a try, REALLY.  I will check with a neighbor to borrow a rooster and then get everything in order to get this done.  

I took a hard look at our French Lop baby this morning.  I envisioned her was a meal, but instead, I put ads on a few places that were free so that we can try to sell her.

I put her mom back in with the buck.  They are SO in love with each other.


----------



## rabbitgeek (May 1, 2011)

Sounds like you need white meat rabbits.

French Lops are too cute to be meat rabbits and they have big bones which means less actual meat after butchering than some other meat breeds.

Have a good day!


----------



## dewey (May 1, 2011)

It can take a bit to get used processing your food, but you may also surprise yourself and find that once the dispatching is done, the rest comes fairly easy and gets easier with experience.

I've field dressed many deer & elk and plenty of other wild game, along with virtually countless rabbits and plenty of chickens and turkeys.  2 things for me -- dispatching is never looked forward to, and rabbits are the easiest to dress, by far!  Always felt that way and still do after 35 years or so.   My days of processing birds are pretty much over if given the choice.  

So agree with RG on the breed...having other than family pet raised cutie-pie breeds would be the way to go.  I think all buns are adorable (including whites) so I have other pets to set my affections on.  The one here and there that might capture your attention can be kept for breeding or sold if it's not what your program needs.    

Do you cut up store bought whole chicken or rabbit?  If not, that'd be a good place to start, too.  When you're ready, you could buy a meat rabbit to process or have the seller process it while you observe.  Also, maybe someone can process them for you at first in exchange for meat.  You could watch and assist as you felt more comfortable.

I once befriended one of my hogs and couldn't eat the meat.  He was processed on schedule and I cooked the meat for the rest of my family.  Nobody gave me a hard time.  Stuff happens, lol.


----------



## rockdoveranch (May 1, 2011)

I do prefer to buy whole chickens.  It is cheaper and I love the meat on the back, and even more, I love the skin.  Years ago I had a butcher tell me I cut them up wrong, but I still do it the way my mother did it.  Can't remember what the butcher said was wrong, but I think it had to do with the breast bone.

I have never eaten rabbit, but I have seen it at times in the rural grocery stores.  

Thanks for all the information!


----------



## a7736100 (May 1, 2011)

I have no problem cutting up a dead rabbit.  It's killing it that bothers me.  I've found shooting it in the back of the head with a pellet rifle the easiest for me.  It just drops dead with no fuss unless your shot is a little off.

Wow.  Didn't know chickens were good mousers.


----------



## terri9630 (May 1, 2011)

Fast broilers are ready at 8 weeks.  Slow broilers are ready at about 12 weeks.   They are bred to grow faster.  The other breeds "egg breeds" take much longer. Broilers are what they sell in the grocery store.


If you have one "cute" little field mouse you have a million and they aren't so cute when they are ripping open bags of feed or you go to fill feeders and find they have mouse poo in them.


----------



## PattySh (May 1, 2011)

Don't name the ones scheduled to be eaten. I find that all white rabbits work for me. We had lops originally but they are just too cute and too friendly.  Rabbits are easier to learn on than chicken. They dress far easier. Plucking chickens is messy nasty work. I will do it but much prefer to pluck a turkey, goes   so much easier and faster. We process our own pigs and steers and male goats. I am pretty used to it. Some people can't  do the killing thing tho, I have a friend who will help clean rabbits after I get the job of dispatching them. The first one is the hardest, but knowing where your food comes from makes it worth it.


----------



## 20kidsonhill (May 2, 2011)

Kow that you are caring for the animal as humanly and with as much respect as possibly, and when butchering use the most human way possible.


----------



## justin (Jun 17, 2011)

If you really want to feel better about killing and butchering your own animals just watch a documentary on the large slaughterhouses and see how badly the meat animals you buy steaks from in the store are treated. I remember seeing a live cow being pushed around with a front end loader and watching its legs break. All my animals are treated like animals until they are ready to be butchered and then killed as humanly as possible. I'm an animal lover and will never enjoy killing but I accept it as a part of life and take comfort knowing that I'm not supporting the company's I saw in that documentary. I try to be as self sufficient as possible and when I can't I support small farms as much as possible. Also don't name them!


----------



## rockdoveranch (Jun 17, 2011)

justin said:
			
		

> If you really want to feel better about killing and butchering your own animals just watch a documentary on the large slaughterhouses and see how badly the meat animals you buy steaks from in the store are treated. I remember seeing a live cow being pushed around with a front end loader and watching its legs break. All my animals are treated like animals until they are ready to be butchered and then killed as humanly as possible. I'm an animal lover and will never enjoy killing but I accept it as a part of life and take comfort knowing that I'm not supporting the company's I saw in that documentary. I try to be as self sufficient as possible and when I can't I support small farms as much as possible. Also don't name them!


I have seen that documentary, or a similar one, and will never ever watch it again as it haunts me.  There is a large chicken processing company in our county, I think Pilgrim, that was investigated for abusing the birds before killing them.   

I have found a butcher in a small town west of us that has been recommended to me by several people.  I AM going to bring our wether to them in about 6 weeks.  When I look at him I try to see cuts of meat instead of a cute little ram lamb.  

I would eventually like to learn how to kill them myself and do the processing myself, but we will see.


----------



## Okie Amazon (Jun 17, 2011)

How much will they charge you to process your wether?  The place we are going to send "Goatburger" said they charge $75.00 for slaughter, butcher, cut up and wrap/label cuts.  I thought that soundedn pretty reasonable.


----------



## rockdoveranch (Jun 17, 2011)

Okie Amazon said:
			
		

> How much will they charge you to process your wether?  The place we are going to send "Goatburger" said they charge $75.00 for slaughter, butcher, cut up and wrap/label cuts.  I thought that soundedn pretty reasonable.


I am going out of my mind!  EEEEEERRRRRRR!  I cannot find my notes on the butcher we are going to use.  If I cannot find them over the weekend I will call on Monday and post then.

I do have my notes on the butcher we are not going to use.  He charges $65 to "kill them", and then 57cents a pound dressed.  Not sure if I am using the right terminology, but that is what I wrote down.


----------



## secuono (Aug 28, 2011)

Idk what y'all are talking about, chickens are adorable! I cannot kill my birds, unless they are dead set on being mean or fighting others. 
I think rabbits are so hard because the media has made them into pets. Chickens no one thinks of pets, so that's "easy". Get a pellet gun and it will be far easier, no matter the animal.


----------



## SuburbanFarmChic (Aug 28, 2011)

You just need to live closer to me.  L.    I go to a friend's house, dispatch the animals and do a butchering class for 1/4 of the meat.  Usually after 2 or 3 times they've learned enough that they can do it themselves.  I still usually get called for each new "type" of animal.  Only thing I can't do is beef, just too big.  If I had a tractor to drag it I probably could though, right now I just have no way to pick the darn things up.


----------



## manybirds (Aug 28, 2011)

a7736100 said:
			
		

> I have no problem cutting up a dead rabbit.  It's killing it that bothers me.  I've found shooting it in the back of the head with a pellet rifle the easiest for me.  It just drops dead with no fuss unless your shot is a little off.
> 
> Wow.  Didn't know chickens were good mousers.


Really? when we shoot a rabbit because it's sick or something it normaly takes at least 3 shots! it's awful. If i could butcher and know they would be dead right away we'de have our own meat. it's worrying i'll do something wrong and the animals wont die rite away that i cant stand. we're trying to work to it. i've killed a few rabbits/chickens but that was because they where sick/wounded.

(they're good frogers too aparently.)


----------



## manybirds (Aug 28, 2011)

justin said:
			
		

> If you really want to feel better about killing and butchering your own animals just watch a documentary on the large slaughterhouses and see how badly the meat animals you buy steaks from in the store are treated. I remember seeing a live cow being pushed around with a front end loader and watching its legs break. All my animals are treated like animals until they are ready to be butchered and then killed as humanly as possible. I'm an animal lover and will never enjoy killing but I accept it as a part of life and take comfort knowing that I'm not supporting the company's I saw in that documentary. I try to be as self sufficient as possible and when I can't I support small farms as much as possible. Also don't name them!


I've seen cows with broken legs be tazered and harrased just to keep them up and alive until they can be marketed off. I'm no vegitarian but thats awful


----------



## Okie Amazon (Aug 29, 2011)

manybirds said:
			
		

> Really? when we shoot a rabbit because it's sick or something it normaly takes at least 3 shots! it's awful.


???????? How bad a shot to you have to be?????


----------



## 20kidsonhill (Aug 29, 2011)

manybirds said:
			
		

> a7736100 said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You have to shoot it at the correct angle.


----------



## manybirds (Aug 29, 2011)

Well how do you do it? It's awful! When your sitting there waiting for the poor animal to die!


----------



## Okie Amazon (Aug 29, 2011)

This is using a bolt gun, but the positioning is the same.


http://youtu.be/K0WnN6P2mTY


----------



## manybirds (Aug 29, 2011)

Would it work just the same with a regular gun? I'm not exaterating it took three times! and on the Flemish giant i think it took more.


----------



## Okie Amazon (Aug 30, 2011)

What kind of "regular gun"? A pistol? A .38 or a .22? Whatever you use, just make sure that the bullet goes into the ground and not into a surface it could ricochet off of.


----------



## Ms. Research (Aug 31, 2011)

Okie Amazon said:
			
		

> What kind of "regular gun"? A pistol? A .38 or a .22? Whatever you use, just make sure that the bullet goes into the ground and not into a surface it could ricochet off of.


X2


----------



## kstaven (Aug 31, 2011)

And don't do it in a closed small building if you value your ears at all. Had a neighbor put down a goat in the winter in a small shelter and now wears hearing aids because of the damage.


----------



## Caprice_Acres (Sep 2, 2011)

A .22 is excessive. We use a .22 to put down GOATS, for goodness sakes. And their heads are designed to resist butting impacts.  

A pellet/bb gun is more than sufficient to put down a rabbit.  I think the trouble is, you do not know how to recognize death. Many people don't at first - they think if it's still moving, it's still alive. This is NOT the case. 

Here's my butchering procedure for rabbits: 

Get butchering equip ready - long fillet knife for cutting throat/heads off, small paring knife for skinning etc,  clipper for cutting off feet, table for the equipment, 4 hole carrier for containment(remove pan for less cleaning), bb gun w/ pellets ready to go, bin full of water to toss the butchered carcasses into.  Then I fill the 4 hole show carrier with up to 8 rabbits at fryer age.  (little cramped, but they're not like that for long.  ).  

I pump the old BB gun about 18 times to make sure there's lots of pressure behind the BB.  I poke the barrel through the bars of the carrier so that it's right above bunny's head and right between the ears. The shot often causes them to jump and start spasming, with blood coming from nose or entry wound or both. I open carrier and place the rabbit on it's side on the ground, using my foot to hold it's body still. I cut out the throat to get a good bleed, then hold them head-down from their back feet till the kicking mostly stops. I then cut between the hock tendon and hock bone to hang from the tree.  From shot to cutting throat takes just a couple seconds. This way, JUST IN CASE it was a poorly placed shot, the cut throat will assure a quick death. I've never seen signs of a rabbit NOT dying from ONE shot from the bb gun, however.  I know people who simply tie the rabbits up by the back legs and sever the Carotid artery in the throat (Poke through with knife just enough to bleed). I don't prefer this method - I've not used it on rabbits but I have on chickens -  but I don't particularly believe it's inhumane. Death from bleedout is extremely fast, unconciousness is achieved in just a few seconds.  A quick sharp knife would cause very little pain or stress, IMO.  

All in all, death is death.  Some people think death is inherently cruel. It's just a matter of opinion. I respect animals and try to give them the best life and best death, while providing high quality foods to my family.  I think a quick humane death at any age is better than what many animals face.


----------



## stebi (Nov 2, 2011)

Hi,
I am new here.
I am a experienced butcher.
I will tell you there is one or two good books on the subject written by Vets. Butchering is a chore not to be enjoyed but done as cleanly as possible. Clean kill, little or no suffering. Completely painless does no exist. Be fast but on the mark. Feeling bad for a bad kill is o.k..Sadly practice makes perfect. The more practice the better you get. Personly I thank the animal for dying that I may eat, got this from a great uncle who was a farmer. A job, but never easy.


----------



## 20kidsonhill (Nov 2, 2011)

stebi said:
			
		

> Hi,
> I am new here.
> I am a experienced butcher.
> I will tell you there is one or two good books on the subject written by Vets. Butchering is a chore not to be enjoyed but done as cleanly as possible. Clean kill, little or no suffering. Completely painless does no exist. Be fast but on the mark. Feeling bad for a bad kill is o.k..Sadly practice makes perfect. The more practice the better you get. Personly I thank the animal for dying that I may eat, got this from a great uncle who was a farmer. A job, but never easy.


Thanks for sharing and welcome to


----------



## Citylife (Nov 2, 2011)

I am smiling here......  because this is an interesting subject to me.  I have 5 city chickens........  and in the last 2 1/2 yrs of having chickens I have had to probably take care of 7 roosters and found homes for banties we decided would be to flighty for us.  We, were right.  
My chickens, are like my dogs damn near.  I didnt plan it that way.  They are just that personable.  I have EE'rs and they have great personalities.  I have chickens for companionship, week killers, bug killers, fresh egg layers, and only do the "deed with them when truely needed" and company to my 5 dogs.  Now, I have Florida White meat rabbits........... and love them, love them!  I like the size, handlability, amount of meat to bone ratios, and the fact that one rabbit feeds 4 people......... and they are not much bigger then 1 1/2 lbs.  after butcher.  Now, that is amazing!  I do appreciate a rabbit where they all look alike and are just plain jane, so to speak.  

I now, dispatch my rabbits with a wringer.  A very good tool, just a long time to get the tool from the maker.  IMO when used right, it is very humane.  It only takes a time or two to get it down.  It is a very simple, to the point tool.   And compared to my chickens......  I know my rabbits personalities, but few stand out enough to get radical.  I have chickens I would kill for if someone wanted to hurt them.


----------

