When we decided to raise meat birds I did lots and lots of research on processing. We wanted our birds to be raised as close to organically as possible and then processed in the most humane and efficient way possible. The conclusion of my research was that we would use a killing cone for processing our chickens. The reason for this is that when you use a killing cone, the method entails cutting the chicken's jugular. The bird looses consciousness very quickly due to a loss of blood pressure to the brain. However, it's heart continues to beat, allowing virtually all of the blood to be removed from the body. The chicken is restrained in the cone, so there is no flopping around. Birds processed in this way are much cleaner to work up. There if very little odor when you are doing the rest of the processing compared to other methods such as complete decapitation.
I was asked a very, very long time ago to share a tutorial on how we built our killing cone for processing chickens. It's been in the back of my mind on my to-do list ever since. I kept putting it off because I didn't want to waste our sheet metal making a second one, and I couldn't think of any inexpensive materials to use to make a prototype. Today I stumbled across this
article on how to do just that! I see no reason to reinvent the wheel. The author used essentially the same method as we did. I hope you enjoy learning how to make this simple, but quite valuable homesteading tool!
3 comments:
Very nice! We take our birds to an Amish butcher who uses these cones. It does make it easy and quickens the process. I think this year we may do our own. We are going to raise Freedom Rangers, a meat bird that does more than sit next to the feed bin.
Thanks! I've heard of Freedom Rangers. If I had a bigger family I would consider them. As it is, the cockerels from our laying flock are more than enough for the two of us.
You made your own? I wish we'd had this tutorial two years ago. They are not cheap but we felt it was worth the investment.
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