If you have decided to slaughter a chicken, here are some steps you should follow:
- Numb
- Kill
- Plucking
- Gutting
- Prepare
How to perform the anesthesia?
For the chicken not to be stressed or in pain, the first thing you need to do is numb it. This requires a firm blow on the back of the head. To be able to do this, however, you must first catch the chicken, and do so with as little stress as possible. It is therefore advisable to catch the chicken early in the morning before it leaves the house. In any case, this saves him a lot of fear and running around.
Catch the chicken by the legs, making sure you have a grip on the tips of the wings as well. On the other hand, go over to the stunning blow. You should use a stick. After all, you don’t want to torment the chicken. It is therefore important that the blow stun the chicken immediately. So it has to be quite firm, but again not too firm. Because if the chicken dies when it is hit on the head, there are likely to be difficulties with bleeding.
After stunning, if you have stunned correctly, the chicken will become stiff. This is a sure sign that the anesthetic worked.
Killing the chicken
There are two options for killing the chicken. On the one hand, you can use the so-called ear disc stab, in which you cut off the head with a knife, so to speak.
On the other hand – and this is the shorter and therefore more tolerable method for many – you can cut off your head with a hatchet.
A few seconds after the chicken has lost its head, it will likely begin to twitch violently and it may even walk without its head. The twitching is controlled by the spinal cord, which is still active after the anesthetic. The brain is not involved in this motor twitch, but would only be responsible for switching off the sensation of pain. This explains why, on the one hand, the chicken no longer feels pain after being anesthetized and, on the other hand, why it can still move without a head or brain.
Immediately after the head is cut off, the chicken will bleed out. To do this, hold it over a suitable bucket that will catch the blood.
If the head is not completely detached, you can remove it after bleeding.
How to pluck the chicken
You can also choose between two variants when plucking the chicken:
- Plucking with hot water
- Plucking without water
However, plucking with hot water is usually faster and works better, so that no great effort is required here. We, therefore, recommend this variant.
Use a bucket of water to do this. This should have a temperature of 60 to 70 ° C. The bucket needs to be big enough so that you can put the chicken in.
It is now sufficient to “soak” the chicken in the water for a maximum of 15 seconds. You can then easily pull the feathers out of the skin or pull them out by pushing them.
Gutting the chicken properly
- Lay the chicken on its back and first cut the ligaments and tendons that are around the heel joint.
- Then the goiter is exposed. To do this, you must first cut through the thin layer of skin. This takes a bit of practice but is then easy to do. Pull the goiter out of your throat by grasping it. Then, using the same technique, pull out the trachea and esophagus as well.
- Then cut a small hole about an inch below the breastbone with a sharp knife. Now insert two fingers through this hole. Hold the knife between your fingers and start cutting open the abdominal wall. Be very careful not to hit the intestines.
- Then take out the knife and reach into the opening again. Now you have to look for the innards. With a little practice, you can palpate and detach the liver and stomach without any problems.
- After that, loosen the entire intestine and cut out the cloaca.
- After that, remove the bile from the liver. Be careful not to destroy the liver too much.
- Cut out the entrance to the stomach and then separate the stomach. You can now thoroughly cleanse the muscle. It is best to use warm water for this.
- Before processing the giblets and chicken, you should also thoroughly clean everything.
Prepare the chicken after slaughtering
You can prepare the chicken right after slaughtering, for example by boiling or frying it. If you don’t currently have a need, there is also the option of freezing it to process at a later time.
Legal regulations for slaughtering chickens?
The three most important requirements that you have to consider in connection with the slaughter of chickens are:
- You have to adhere to the Animal Welfare Act.
- You are allowed to slaughter for your use without a certificate of competence.
- If you do not slaughter for your use, you will need a corresponding certificate of expertise and the legally required slaughterhouse.
Basically, before slaughtering chickens, you need to realize that you are killing an animal. If you want to sell the chicken later or give it away as a gift, you need a corresponding certificate of competence, which is combined with theoretical and practical lessons as well as corresponding exams.
In addition, the Animal Welfare Act stipulates that even if you do not need a certificate of competence because you use the chicken for your use, you must of course know what you are doing. You must not torture the animal and it must be properly anesthetized and killed under all circumstances!
If you only slaughter for your use, no one will check where you slaughter the chicken. In order not to introduce any pathogens, you should of course still pay attention to perfect hygiene.
If you sell or give away the slaughtered chickens later, you will need a slaughter room, which will be checked if necessary.
Which chickens to slaughter best
As a rule, roosters are mainly slaughtered, as they neither lay eggs nor are they necessary for rearing chicks.
Of course, if you plan to slaughter the chicken for consumption, you should choose one that is tasty and not chewy. Chickens that are no more than one year old and have more meat than thin, slender chicken breeds are recommended here. Chickens that are more than a year old become tough.
You should also take a close look at the stove beforehand. Often there is one chicken that makes it difficult for others. It then of course makes more sense to slaughter this chicken than a chicken that integrates perfectly into the group.
In the case of sick and suffering animals, slaughter is also sometimes recommended to free the chicken from its suffering. However, if it has had a serious illness, it should no longer be consumed.
