Okay, so I have to ask: What method did you use to, you know, X him?

well, i realized after i had already decided that i didn't have a butcher knife, axe or whatever. i moved recently and lost most of my stuff. anyway. didn't feel up to going to neighbors and saying,,,,,,,uh, dya have any sharp implements of destruction? ;)

o, since i figured it was now or never i used the loppers (garden shears). worked pretty darn good. next time i will do better, but definitely did the job and good for a first effort i believe. almost threw up afterwards, though.

afterwards, i bleached everything.

i admit to saying a little prayer for him even though i hated him.

....the loppers?

That's a new one. But, I could see how that would definitely work.

I've done most of the classic methods: neck jerk, .22 to the brain, hatchet to the neck, blunt object to the back of the head. For what it's worth, the one that seems to work the best is hanging them upside down in a kill cone and cutting the jugular. They bleed out in about 15 seconds (less blood than you'd think), they close their eyes, and...lights out. No fuss, no muss. Good carcass. Nowhere near the acrobatic drama of a decapitation.

Anyway, congrats. Take comfort in the fact that the life and death he experienced was infinitely superior to the vast majority of chickens. And, the world loves a back-sliding vegan. Too many things disconnect us from life and its shadow.

Well, the loppers are a new one on me...but hey, it worked, right? :)

Good for you for taking action. Life is too short for mean roos. And at least he provided you with a few meals, so he wasn't wasted. :)

Velvet ~:>

I'm baffled as to how a vegan could go from that extreme to a person who takes the garden shears to a rooster's neck. Just wondering....

I don't know Picklespickles very well yet, but I would think that one of the reasons she was a vegan was that she hated factory farming. When one starts raising your own chickens (or whatever) tends to reconnect a person with their place in the food chain.

When one is a caregiver to a group of animals, the welfare of the many takes precedence. This rooster was causing a problem that was not going to go away. Having decided the rooster must be killed, it would be wasteful and inappropriate to waste him. So she ate him.

Makes perfect sense to me and my hat's off to you, PicklesPickles, for your resolution and courage. It's normal to feel shaky or sick afterwards the first time. It doesn't ever get really easy but one does become more accustomed in time. Well done!

tried to post a couple times earlier but my post kept getting eaten. maybe it is the rooster doing his own gobbling. :)

your responses are really grand and this site has helped a lot.

i was raised very citified but come from a rural heritage. in order to make more money, my family understandably tried to distance me from certain truths. you know the whole thing of first taking an outside job to support the farm, then eventually moving to the city altogether.

my mom grew up knowing exactly what was in a gizzard and thinking it was the best part of the animal. i grew up hearing that she was silly for wanting to eat such a nasty thing. you know, too white trash, etc.

i haven't told her yet that i ate it. don't know if she will be tickled pink or will think, gee, why did i work so hard to get out of the country and here my daughter is again. hmm....

you're right about the factory farming thing. i was vegan from about twenty to thirty, then had to switch back about ten years ago because of health reasons. my body just wasn't working right. it took me a couple years to be able to even smell meat cooking without feeling sick.

i have done some writing about old mr rooster and that has helped. i am really glad i got rid of him. it was brave, actually. thanks.

i think when i was younger i would have kept him regardless and that would have been a bad decision in the long run. now i can go out in my backyard and read a book and take care of the animals without being so nervous and having to look over my shoulder every five seconds for a flying ball of fury.

yall take care. :)

ps

to clarify, didn't mean that i ate the gizzard specifically. couldnt' do that.

and, posted this earlier but never appeared....did hang him to bleed and was less than i thought. how do you know where to cut his neck, or do you just do it?

I'm assuming you will use a kill cone and that the bird is hanging upside down. Hold the head in your fingers and turn it so the side of the neck is facing you. Gently move a sharp knife blade under the neck feathers so they don't act as body armor to the cut. Use a knife with at least a 5" blade. Make a decisive cut downward and across the side of the neck under the jaw line. You don't want to sever the trachea (wind pipe) if you can avoid it. Cutting along the front of the neck puts the trachea at risk. If you do the cut right, blood immediately flows and continues for maybe 15-20 seconds. The chicken is usually unconscious within 10 seconds after the cut. A clean cut doesn't seem to disturb the bird. That's all there is to it.

Pickles,
good for you! what an accomplishment to be able to go full circle like you have. I know it was difficult but the nasty personality of the roo had to make it a bit easier. What a feeling of independence you must have!

Take care,
Sheila

Don't hate me for asking this, but what's in the gizzard?

The gizzard usually has stones and fibers in it of partially digested stuff. It is also my favorite part of the bird, besides the thigh. I slice the gizzard open on the edge and rinse out the stones and stuff and peel the lining of the gizzard off rinse again and cook! I did not know that it was a white trash thing to like gizzards. The hoi palloi eat fish eggs (caviar) and think its great, along with pate' (which is liver) so it's a case of the pot calling the kettle black!

Missinformation, no one is going to think less of you for asking questions. The gizzard is a strong muscular organ in any bird's digestive system. Because birds lack teeth, they need some other way of grinding up the food. They also swallow small bits of grit which end up in the gizzard. The muscle walls press the food against the grit and it is ground into a more digestible pulp and then goes on through the intestines where the nutrients are absorbed.

When you process a chicken, the largest organ you will find is the gizzard. It is quite hard and about the size and shape of a plum, but flatter. Inside there us a wrinkly lining containing what the chicken has eaten and perhaps a dozen or more pieces of grit. It makes some people squeamish, but once the contents and inner membrane are removed, the gizzard is perfectly good to eat. (You've probably seem one among the giblets of your Christmas turkey - it would already be cleaned out and washed, of course.)

I always use the giblets (heart, liver and gizzard) when we eat a chicken. Cut fine and added to soup or stew, they are tasty. Gizzard and heart are quite chewy, so I usually put the giblets in the blender with the liquid they were simmered in and then add the mixture to the pan drippings for gravy. Waste not, want not!

Good for you, pickles!!! I had a couple of mean roos and we actually had them processed because we didn't want to do it ourselves. As I cooked them, the smell was not like any chicken I have cooked before. I ended up taking it all off the bones and feeding it to the dog.

We raised meat chickens and as you probably know, they are only about 8 weeks when they are processed. These roos were well over a year old and just not the same thing at all. We will never again pay to have a rooster processed. The last couple that were mean, we just shot and took to the woods for the wildlife to have a feast.

BTW, I would rather shoot them than take them to a poultry auction. Who buys a rooster that is a year or two old???? More often than not, it is someone who wants to fight them. Nope, I won't put even the meanest rooster in that place!

Carmengrower,
lots of people eat older birds, some cultures savor that "aged" taste. I wouldn't assume they would ALL go to people using them for fighting..... although it's good to be aware of this possiblility.

-Sheila

I agree, Sheila. Sometimes, too, small backyard flock owners lost their only rooster and need a replacement at odd times. I was without one for the best part of a year after Napoleon died. I did miss the crowing! If I'd come across a Speckled Sussex roo anytime in the interregnum, I'd probably have snapped him up.

What a great thread! I haven't posted here in a long time, but really enjoyed your story. I giggled when you said he sensed that your energy had changed. I had a Siberian husky that was aggressive and a biter. She really intimidated the other dogs and myself. I remember thinking, "I got rid of the alchaholic boyfriend, then rescued a dog with the same personality! I had to put her down.Glad you and your animals are living in peace again! I have chickens as pets, and I wish I could raise them for food, but I just get too attached. It seems very healthy, though...and I eat lots of chicken. That's great that you'll trade with your neighbors. I do that with fruit...and it's such a nice feeling to be stocked up and not have to spend any money. Just like the olden days!
Stephenie
Stephenie

:)

one thing my g'ma always said that it was better to be country poor than city poor. (regarding food, trading things with neighbors and such.)

i probably will eat a gizzard one day. jut working myself up to it. i guess i could write a thousand word essay about that, too. :)

i think blending it all up for the flavor but not the texture is a good idea.