Buthering Chickens

Buthering Chickens

It’s just a fast, easy way to put meat on the table.

Things you will need

1. A sharp knife, axe, meat cleaver, or machete for cutting off the head.
2. Rope. Cut 3 or 4 pieces of ¼-inch rope 12 to 18 inches long. One is to tie the chicken’s legs together tightly before you cut the head off; otherwise you will have a headless chicken running about the yard. The other is to tie the chicken’s legs onto your hook on a tree or cart.
3. A bowl. I use a stainless steel one but any large bowl or panwill do. Put your chicken in it once you cut it away from the carcass.

|[pic] |
|Figure 2. Front view showing where the cuts are made and how the skin |
|is peeled away |
| |

4. A large bowl of water. Again I use a stainless steel one. It’s to keep my hands and knife clean while skinning the chickens.
5. I use two sawhorses for a table base, over which I placed a sheet of ¾-inch plywood 24 x 48 inches. If you have a small folding table you could use it.
6. A clean sheet of plastic or butcher’s paper big enough to cover your work table top. Tape it on or tuck it under the table top.
7. I use my trusty cart, setting it up on end. The handle bar is just the right height for me to hang the chickens from and skin. I put a concrete block in it while I’m pulling the skin downward so the cart will not fall on me.
8. A garden hose is handy to clean your knives and to pre-clean the chicken of any dirt or feathers before they are taken into the house for final cleaning and freezing preparation.
9. A large black garbage bag with two twist ties that hold the garbage bag on the cart. Cut the garbage bag two-thirds of the way down so that anything you cut off while skinning, such as the feathers and carcass, goes into the bag (Figure 1).
|[pic]...

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