No store bought chicken can compare to the delicious flavor that farm fresh chicken can bring to your dinner table. Such a rich flavor comes from chicken from your own backyard. But in order to get it you have to have….butchering day. Now, a fair warning: there will be a lot of graphic pictures in this post on account of the butchering of the chickens. So if you are bothered by that, please overt your eyes.
I am not the life-ender in this scenario. I don’t know if I could manage that at this point in farm life. Scott does all of that, plus skinning, and gutting. What a guy. *swoon*
This daddy does not allow his kiddos to watch the actual slaughtering, but they are allowed there for skinning and gutting. They really liked looking to find different parts of the chickens. I kept hearing things like, “Oh I see the stomach!” and, “What’s that over there?” and, “I think I see kidneys.” The kids are the primary caretakers of the chickens. They’ve known them since they were 2 days old. They feed and water them every day. They are the ones who make sure they get out of the coop in the morning and back in when the sun is going down. For them to understand the whole process is great!
Then the chickens are brought to me in the kitchen for cleaning and quartering. We started with 10 chickens. One wise guy ran into the bushes, so we ended up with 9 for today. He has since been captured and his days are numbered. To learn more about raising meat chickens, click here.
The chicken was then packaged, labeled, and frozen. I love that I can section off exactly how much we’ll need for each meal! The bones and necks have been set aside for bone broth. Our freezer is pretty well stocked with bone broth, so for now I just froze the bones and necks. We’ll get to them later.
There you have it! Farm-raised chickens, brought right to the table. Kids who know exactly where their food comes from. And hard-working parents to show ’em how it’s done. 🙂
