A Fine day for a Slaughter
October 9th, 2015 · 3 Comments · Posted in farming
Every month this time of year we have 50-plus Freedom Ranger broilers ready for harvest. Since some of our customers prefer birds on the smaller side, we process half at 10 weeks of age, the rest at 11 weeks.
We normally split things up again over two days. But yesterday was such a glorious day, and with rain in the forecast for Day 2, we hit our midway point and decided to just keep going. We had 16 birds plucked and dressed by lunch.
I handle the killing part. After nabbing a couple of birds in their cage (chicken tractor), I walk them over to the killing area where they go head-first into these metal “death cones.” After saying a few words and giving them a farewell stroke of the neck, I open a carotid artery and they bleed out. Then it’s into a 140-degree tub of water to be scalded before I remove the feathers ever so tenderly by hand.
My wife takes over the eviscerating part, also removing any feather remnants and generally making our Freedom Rangers look gorgeous before I weigh, bag and price them.
This is about a million miles from the way chickens are handled commercially. But we are just a tiny dot on the meat chicken map, playing an ever-so-small role in feeding our neighbors here in Uostate New York.
I get that you are trying to share that perhaps you kill chickens humanely, but your whole description of the “killing” process rings of joy of slaughter…it’s rather despicable…not sure that such embellishment was necessary…in the end, your picture of the task of killing might as well be equal to the commercial genocide. This is not about eating…
Be glad you’re at the top of the food chain, Michele. You should not be reading this blog.
I guess you are right…I will unsubscribe…