Cuttin’ up on the Farm

Things quickly got real on The Chosen Weeds Farm this weekend.  I debated whether to make a post of this or not, but when I started this website one of the themes I decided to try to convey would be honesty and authenticity; and that includes being honest about the mistakes we make even if they are highly embarrassing.  So many stories we read seem too perfect and the writers seem like they are impervious to mistakes.  The pictures are perfect, the camera angle is just right, the videos are impressive.  The truth is that we all make mistakes quite often in our path to knowledge and sometimes those moments are when we learn the most valuable lessons.

The mistake I made this weekend was a large one that cost me a trip to the emergency room.  After getting 16 stitches to close the filleted skin flap this is the result of my error.

So what did I do to get such a Frankenstein type wound across my leg?  I attempted to decapitate my first chicken.  Trust me, I didn’t go into this blind.  I took this matter very seriously.  Perhaps even too seriously.  I had watched many videos in preparation for this day; and no this wasn’t my first rodeo handling a knife.  In my haste to make sure that I did this as humanly and quickly as possible, I didn’t think about which direction to swipe the knife.

Let me set this up for you.  The chicken was head down in the cone.  He would be sliced at the neck and blood would run down into the bucket below him.

 

I held the chicken’s head taught and proceeded to slice across the neck (the knife was in my right hand while the chicken’s head was in my left).  These are the lessons that I quickly learned as I was waiting for my friend to scramble to get the keys to my car while I was applying pressure to my leg with a towel:

• Lesson #1…always cut AWAY from you (Ok, I can see the “well, duh” look on your face, and yes, I already knew this, but like I said before….I wasn’t thinking clearly).
• Lesson #2…..although on one of the videos I watched the person totally cut off the head in one swift motion, you don’t have to make a quick, sweeping motion in order to do this humanely. Do make sure that your knife is very sharp when you do this.  The knife I used was a brand new filet knife.  In that regard, I was told that I was fortunate because the laceration was clean.
• Lesson #3……don’t do this while you’re emotional. It clouds your judgement.   Aside from the numerous fish that I have filleted (and never chopped off a finger, let alone cut myself), I have never actually butchered an animal, let alone one that I had raised.  I do not take what I was doing lightly.  I wanted to respect him for giving his life and thank him for providing us with food.  But even after a deep breath and a prayer, I should have waited until I had was in a better state of mind.
• Lesson #3…..These lessons are often painful, costly, and may even leave you with souvenirs to remind you of the occasion.
• Lesson #4……Familiarize yourself and your family with first aid procedures and keep supplies ready. You never know when you will need them.  The doctor told me that keeping pressure applied and my leg elevated was exactly what I should have done in this situation.

 

So after a trip to the emergency room, 16 stitches, and much comedic levity at my expense (I have been told I am no longer allowed to handle sharp objects), the chicken did get butchered, cleaned, and eaten.

Please make sure you are fully prepared, both materially and mentally, to butcher your animals.  Think through the process and take a few deep breaths to calm your nerves BEFORE you begin.  Go through the motions slowly if you aren’t experienced and perhaps even practice with a mentor if you can.  Although, I can find humor in this now, I would hate for anyone to have to go through an experience like this.

This coming weekend we are going to take a neighbor’s advice and try a set of heavy duty loppers to quickly, humanely, and hopefully safely thin out our flock.  We plan on testing them on a turkey neck purchased from the local grocery store first before the main event.  God help us  🙂

Post up date 9/6/2016:  We had said that we were going to try loppers for butchering as this was recommended by a neighbor.  We bought a brand new pair of loppers and tried it on turkey necks bought at the store. The loppers cut clean through with no problem. On the chicken, it cut the throat and killed instantly but we were not as successful taking the head off completely. We believe that the feathers interfered with the blade of the loppers. We went back to using the knife with great success.  Four roosters were butchered with no other incidences. 🙂

Here are some videos that helped us out as we were learning this: