Beekissed
Mountain Sage
Well, butchered the ten broilers my niece gave me that had gotten too old at 4 mo. to still be tender. These birds were like Frankenstein chickens!!! I've never seen more ugly and weird birds in my life. Just unnatural, they were. 
Anyway, tried the "pithing" method. Does not work! Had plenty of birds on which to practice the method. I practically scrambled these birds brains...the entire brain....and they still did not "relax and close their eyes" like the description on the BYC! I tried all the angles suggested, the twisting suggested, the depth suggested (actually punched through the heads with the knife a couple of times). They just bled brains and gore out their mouths and went wild when we tried to cut the jugular veins.....the usual flapping and mess of blood flying. Ended up finally just cutting off heads per usual to end the drama.
Nasty business, at best. Glad the hard part is done, the absolutely huge birds are now chilling.....and so am I.
Soooooo glad that is done.
I will tell you this....I don't think I would ever buy some of these Frankenstein birds, even though meaty. I'll stick to regular extra roos for my meat production, thank you! Icky-poo!
Now....bow season starts Oct. 18th....bring on the tenderloin and deer burger. Another messy, icky job with great rewards for the family food budget!
Anyway, tried the "pithing" method. Does not work! Had plenty of birds on which to practice the method. I practically scrambled these birds brains...the entire brain....and they still did not "relax and close their eyes" like the description on the BYC! I tried all the angles suggested, the twisting suggested, the depth suggested (actually punched through the heads with the knife a couple of times). They just bled brains and gore out their mouths and went wild when we tried to cut the jugular veins.....the usual flapping and mess of blood flying. Ended up finally just cutting off heads per usual to end the drama.
Nasty business, at best. Glad the hard part is done, the absolutely huge birds are now chilling.....and so am I.
Soooooo glad that is done. I will tell you this....I don't think I would ever buy some of these Frankenstein birds, even though meaty. I'll stick to regular extra roos for my meat production, thank you! Icky-poo!
Now....bow season starts Oct. 18th....bring on the tenderloin and deer burger. Another messy, icky job with great rewards for the family food budget!
un Sometimes one really needs the green face to express the sheer ickiness of the situation. I mean, I'm a pretty stone cold killer when it comes to butchering~had to be, as I was the designated helper on butchering day when I was growing up~but this was pretty gross even for me! I tried every angle of the knife, every area of skull cavity available....I basically just cleaned out the brain cavity until the contents were pouring out the beaks.....the birds were still moving, their eyes were open and they still put up a fight when the jugular was opened. I'm quite traumatized by the gore, actually. Next I'm trying killing cones and the loppers. Can't be worse than this episode! 
