End of an Era

Today, I had two friends over to learn how to slaughter chickens. My writers' group contains a large number of people with a sort of survivalist streak. All of us have made lists of skills that we need in order to be more self-sufficient. We can sew and cook and clean and all of those really minimal skills, and some people are getting emergency training, etc.

Lauren and Mike dragged themselves out of bed this morning and up into the mountains. First, we watched the chicken video I bought. I skipped right to the end where it showed how to kill, pick and clean the birds. Both Lauren and Mike looked a little down after the video, but nobody hesitated. Peaches caught the roosters and we put them into the cones and we all had a chance to cut their heads off with the hatchet that the Pirate sharpened. Lauren did the last one, and although she did a great job - severed the head in one go - it continued to cluck and thrash much more than the others, spattering everyone with blood. I got the brunt of it because I was holding it at the time.

The plucking was hard for the two first-timers, but it was really difficult the first time I'd done it. The whole five-chicken process took about 2 1/2 hours, as opposed to the nearly four hours that the last four-chicken process took. This time too, I was a little more careful with the eviscerating and saved the giblets. Mike likes to eat them himself, and Lauren's dog will appreciate them.

In all, I was really impressed with how well my friends did. The killing was emotional and hard. The plucking is just a pain in the neck. The cleaning is easily the smelliest job in the world. Afterward, everyone had a shower before being able to feel good again.

So now, it's just Cargill and the girls down in the chicken yard. Frankly, I'm really happy about that. All those roosters were getting very, very noisy.