Chicken Butchery - Indian Game

Obviously this post contains pictures of dead animals so please don't read if that kind of thing upsets you. 

I had planned to process a batch of Indian Game chickens for the freezer this week. I was then disappointed when I found out that the day I had planned to do it the children were going for a sleep over at my mum and dads. 

This is how far things have come with the children, it's so much easier with them that I now plan to do it so they can help. So I made sure we all got up early that morning and got cracking before they had to go!

I had considered keeping the hen from this batch but in all honesty they were so wild. I don't think I've ever had such a wild hatch of chickens before, even thought he children spent so much time with them when they were younger. 

As a team we've become pretty quick at processing the birds. I normally set the water to boil while we're having breakfast, ready to scald them to make plucking easier. So by the time we've dispatched them the water is ready and we can move quickly. The girls are so good at the plucking now, together they can keep up with me now and, arguably, do a better job as they get all the small feathers. 

 

Also with the gutting now they're getting better. They're still not strong enough to do the job themselves completely and I do the knife stuff, the butchery knifes are just too sharp until they have more hand control.

I think in total it took us a little over an (intense) hour to process the six birds. We've left these in the fridge for three days to rest before we put them in the freezer to eat at a later date.