Originally Posted by k3n
Yes it was hard at first - especially with the pigs we had which I got quite attached too. BUT I'd much rather eat our own meat that I know has lived well, eaten well and died as painlessly and quickly as possible, on our land without the trauma of the trip to the abbatoir!
K x
When my husband was growing up on an Iowa farm his dad traded the pet pig with a neighbor so the hams in the freezer weren't the kids pet.
My DH Glen named all his pigs and had them come to him by name!
My kids used to ride the pet pigs out into the barnyard so they wouldn't have to walk in the mud!
I grew up butchering chickens also. When you grow up on a farm you take the butchering in stride. If you want to eat!!
When I was growing up my grandparent had a huge long chicken house. The floor was made of part sand(natural to the area) and sawdust. It made a perfect place to play! My cousin and I used to run large toy trucks/tractors/combines in the sand/sawdust floor! It was like having a huge sand box.
I hated getting eggs though sometimes the chickens would peck or fly at your head. Wasn't my favorite thing to do.
My MIL used to collect fancy chickens. It was always fun to see what she added to the flock. She had French hens /quineas(which are so LOUD) and Chinese crested/ and a lot of them I didn't know what they were.
They had a rooster named Pete he slept under the Wood burner on the porch and whenever anyone opened the door to the kitchen he would scoot through the door until someone saw him and kicked him back out the door!
They also had domestic turkeys and Geese. One Gander backed my son over a culvert top! He has not liked them since but he hunts and has no problem shooting turkeys!
I get nolstalgic about all this but we had some roosters given to us about three years ago and my mom and my son thought we would butcher them.
My son thought he knew how to kill them but he had never done it. Now this son has killed and dressed rabbits turkeys deer and all kinds of fish but chickens are differant. You can't shoot them you would ruin the meat. So my dad and my FIL always used to wring their necks. So Nathan tried and couldnt' get it done. He got so mad and then an elderly neighbor came over and she is in her 70's and she killed them for him!
We decide we won't do that again!! I HATE the smell of wet feathers! It was always my job to strip the feathers! Then I learned to cut up chickens. We did 300 at a time when I was growing up.
So I always buy my chickens whole and cut them my way. I wish I had access to buying whole chickens fresh. Once in awhile someone would have them locally but they are quite often expensive!