I loved my grandpa’s fried chicken. Watched him catch them , ring their neck , hang them upside down then cut the throat and let it bleed out and before you knew it he would have it picked clean as a store bought one and cut up and in the skillet .Fried or in dumplings it was always delicious.

Make yourself a Guillotine box. Basically, just mount a blade along the top edge of a wooden box. Hold chicken by the head with the body inside box and slam the hinged lid shut. Blood and flopping bird are contained in the box. Hose out the box when you're finished for the day. You can even mount the blade down in a notch so that it's easier to keep bird in place until the lid slams. If you do, screw a wooden block to the lid to drive the chicken's neck down into the blade.

NOTE: I haven't actually done this myself, but I have given it a bit of thought. In my mind, it's a great idea. That or just ring thier necks.

Are there any Amish or Mennonites around they usually have someone that kills for a fee. I killed and cleaned a many chicken in my life doesn't bother me. Also, wife and I butchered our own beef and hogs for years. I used a big funnel with the spout cut off had it nailed to the wall drop the chicken in pull the head down and cut it off with a sharp knife works like a charm.

I've always thought it would be a great idea to raise my own chickens instead of the hormone infused, genetic mutants from the store.

But it's probably another idea where the reality doesn't match the dream...

Yep

We buy chicken from a place called Gore Farms. They are pasture raised. No shots. It's good chicken. Almost all of our chicken comes from them.

https://gorefamilyfarms.com/

Killed and cleaned about everything don’t think it would bothered me to chop a chickens head off. The box idea sounds good that way you wouldn’t have to watch em hop around lol. And don’t give ‘em any names. My mom said they had a pet duck named quack quack their aunt killed for thanksgiving one year. Said they all started crying when they sat down to eat because they hadn’t seen him for a day or so lol. If I lived in the country and had the time I would love to have chickens for meat and eggs. The ones from the store now days seem to have no taste and tough as crap

Woodchipper.

Wished they were closer

Look at the cone method where you hold them up by their feet the blood goes to their head and then them calm down. Put them in head first pull head through and make a slit in the neck to bleed them oit

We've done about 30 each of the last 2 years. Not a big deal. I do the killing, draining, scalding and plucking and the wife and daughter take it from there.




If you're doing the Cornish hens and are taking them to a full 8-to-10 weeks, don't buy the cones for the chickens. Buy the ones for turkeys instead. Our hens were too big for their heads to stick through the bottom of the cones. I had to kill them then cram them in the cones to drain. Before we did the second batch, I trimmed about 2 inches off the bottom of the cones to enlarge the opening. That worked Ok.

Invites every predator in the county. I had a raider of some sort that eluded me for a while. It would pull them down off the roost and kill several and eat some.
I went over that henhouse with a fine tooth looking for how this critter was getting in. Never found anything. This happened every so often. I went down there
one Friday night after chasing the night life with 12 gauge in hand on a whim at 2 am. There he was. Big Possum munching on a Chicken. Boom !
I had to talk to the neighbor the next day, as he was pretty close even though rural. Never tried to keep any since.

we have a flock of heritage/dual purpose breeds & i’m thankful times haven’t gotten that tough on us - we religiously quarantine/dispatch badly sick birds - & even though i haven’t named our hens it’s hard not to get attached to the nasty buggers 🤦🏻‍♂️🤣💩 eating our hens would be a challenge - but if we got hungry enough we would

My grandaddy used a hatchet. They do make a mess flopping around.

my wife wanted to raise some chickens to eat. Told her it aint gonna happen. I can buy 40 pounds of chicken thighs for $10.50
The only thing I can clean myself and eat with being grossed out is fish.