First time processing by myself-Have questions

[reereechickens]

I can process my chickens by myself, well my 3 DS help some. I usually skin mine to avoid the plucking. My DH hunts deer and has processed my rabbits. Well I had 3- 8 month old buns that I have been waiting forever for him to kill them with the .22. I thought as old as they were they would be tough to use the broomstick. Well last week when it was nice and cool he would only do 1 of the rabbits and gives me a quick lesson on the skinning. Well Tues he finally shoots the last 2 and leaves to go somewhere so I'm scrambling to get ready. Yuck, I hate not having my stuff ready! Well I could not find the huge pruner thing to cut off the front and back feet so that was a pain and cutting the head off was harder than I thought. What I normally hang my chickens was not working and my knives were dull on the rabbit but I got cut and was bleeding more than the rabbit!

So I bought hanging hooks from Bass Equipment for that issue and will buy a descent table. I will process them at 8-10 weeks old. BTW I'm hopefully getting some NZW this weekend that is why I need the cages. I did not soak the meat or let it rest so my dog will be eating great this week.

My questions:

What do you use to get the head off? Any better place to cut to make it easier?

Was the meat tough b/c I did not soak or they were too old?

Where do you get your hatchets or axes sharpened if that is what I need for the head?

Would it have been hard to use the broomstick at their age to break their neck?

Any advice?

 

[kfacres]

Here's how I butcher rabbits, either wild ones shot, or tame.

To kill the tame ones- hold by the back legs in the air, and take you hand to chop down on their neck as they are holding their head up. You can also grab them by the head, and snap downward to break the neck. Don't bother with a .22-- waste of ammo.

I then keep a nail in a telephone pole, on the barn side, in a tree- somewhere. Take the rabbit, and poke the nail through the tendon on the back leg-- same one you would use to hang a deer on.

Rabbit skin is very thin, and you can just pinch it and pull it off, no need to even use a knife. I start both back legs, and skin it all the way down to the head- use a regular ole knife to cut the head off at this point. Cutting the head off is easy- just cut through the meat- wiggle your knife to land in a vertibrae, and continue cutting it off. Or you can hold the rabbit's body with one hand, and the head with the other- twist them opposite ways-- and you can twist the head off with force that a 5 year old could send out.

Then take that knife, to gut it- split the pelvic (just like you would do with any other animal) and remove insides.

We either leave the rabbit whole to freeze, or can cut it up.. take the front legs off, take the ribs off and toss to the dogs, and split the rear legs.

The legs are so small and brittle- you can just snap them to remove the inedible bottom portions.

In all honesty, rabbits are the easist, and quickest thing we butcher. We hardly even need a knife to do the whole process. let alone any eqip bigger.

To answer your questions, even though I don't think you need that sort of answers.

you can sharpen your own axes- with a bench grinder, or a regular hand held grinder and a vice to hold the axe head in.

rabbit meat is not tough, I'm guessing it's soley dependant on the way you cook it.

 

[reereechickens]

Thanks! I will try your way out next!

 

[secuono]

Rabbit bones are frail unless you get a giant or something. I've easily broken legs, ribs and hips of all age rabbits whilst skinning them.

Broomstick will work on any age, you just need the strength to jerk up with enough force. The thinner the stick, the less shoulder/neck bruising there will be.

I use pruners/shears or kitchen scissors to remove legs and heads. But I first use a sharp, full tang knife to slash between vertebrae to make it easier for the scissors. I break the legs at the joint, then cut them off. You need real knives, no kitchen knives. Ones with a full tang, that is, the blade continues into the handle, all the way to the base. Otherwise, knives just pop out, break the tip of the handle and other things

 

[reereechickens]

Thanks! I seen some nice kitchen scissors in Wal Mart that looked like they might work great, will check Amazon also!

 

[hoodat]

I watched my grandfather as a kid and learned to skin fryers as he did. Cut a slit crossways in the middle of the back, just enough to get a couple of fingers under the hide. Pull in opposite directions. The skin will tear and pull off in two pieces. It ruins the hides but it's a waste of time to process fryer hides anyway. Too thin.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

We just started butchering our meat rabbits last week. I watched this video and did it the same way he does. It was super easy and much better than I thought it'd be. I wasn't thrilled about the idea of breaking the rabbits' necks, so we used a pellet gun and it worked great.

 

[secuono]

When the rabbit is hanging right after the broomstick, I cut the head with a regular kitchen knife. Head comes off easily, not sure why you'd have trouble. Mine were a couple months old.

Meat needs to rest for several days, if you can get it all cut up before it starts to go into rigor, then it might end up fine.

SOG has nice ones and freaky sharp, use then for the birds.

Any age rabbit should be easy to use the stick on, just pull sharply up with some strength.