Dogs certainly are a odd animals...but so funny.
Now, I shall explain how to butcher a rooster. Note: I am not an expert.
Behold the mighty rooster---
Step 1:
Set up your station. You'll need: a sharp knife, disinfectant (Everclear diluted in water in a spray bottle), paper towels, hot water, big bowl, plastic bags, table and chair, give or take. Apologies that the picture quality is not very good.
Step 2:
Rooster's meat will become tougher around 8 months of age, around the time they will start becoming more aggressive; recommend canning the meat for soups or stews. If you have an excess of roosters (ratio of roosters to hens should be around 1 to 5 or 1 to 10) and keep separate from the flock otherwise the hens health with be risked. The roosters have "tallons" and with excess breeding will scrape off the hens feathers and if continued can rip open the hen's skin on her sides, also the exposed skin will sunburn. Too much breeding or disturbance will interrupt the hen's laying cycle and she will discontinue laying until peace is returned.
If the rooster(s) are not separated, bate them with chicken scraps into an enclosed area where it will be easier to catch them. Alternately, catch them at night because they will be calm and not alert.
Step 3:
First things first - kill the rooster. If you've never done this before and raised the rooster from a chick you may feel a bit of remorse for taking its life. But, just thank the rooster for providing you with nourishment and then get to business. I took an old road cone and cut the top off of it (be careful to not cut the hole to big like I did, if it is too small obviously cut it again) and supported it by sticking it upside down in a tomato wire cage. Take the rooster by the hind legs and guide his head to the cone hole, may have to help pull his head out the end. Work swiftly. Locate the main artery on the neck and make clean cut. Allow all the blood drain out; you may have to hold the rooster legs while it is draining, the cone should keep it held in place. Immediately rinse away or wash off anything the blood has gotten onto because chicken's blood coagulates extremely fast. Another way may be to just chop its head clean of with a hatchet or something and the subsequently let it drain.
Step 4:
Defeathering...I have not completely figured out how to do this correctly yet and always somehow manage to scorch parts of the skin. I boil water and fill up a five gallon bucket about half way and dunk and pluck the chicken one section at a time - head/shoulders, wings, back, legs. Bag up the feathers so they don't blow all over the yard.
Step 5:
Off with its head and feet and then gut it! This is a smelly task...very smelly (kind of deters an appetite for actually eating the poor bird) The head is pretty simple to remove, get the knife between the vertebrae. For the feet, cut at the joint; make a little incision and bend the leg backwards, it should pop apart and then use the knife to cut any remaining attachments like the tendon. Save all unwanted parts for a snack for the cats and/or dogs. There is a little stink gland above the tail that you want to cut around, also important, do not cut the intestines. If I can find the images for the step I will add them, in the meantime will do my best to explain it. I cut flat along the back bone under the stick gland, make little incisions on either side of the tail and a single slit down the center just until above the anus (What is it with that word? Scientifically correct names for physical parts are so awkward) cut around the anus (helps to cut along the pelvic bones to ensure no incisions in the intestinal tract. React inside and carefully separate the interal fat layer (yellow) from the body cavity walls (may require cutting with knife), work your way up with your fingers up by the heart, cup your hand, and carefully pull out the lower organs. Keep reaching in and pulling out upper organs. Be gentle with the kidneys because you can pop them they will explode tannish goo. With the organs out (I do not save the heart or the liver because it seems too weird to eat those) react in next to the spine scrap out some blood clusters. On the outside, cut or pull the crop (may have food in it) away from the neck skin and take out the crop and throat. With a match or hand torch lightly get rid of pin feathers.
Step 6:
Rinse off bird and freeze or cut into parts.
Presto - that is how I butcher a rooster.
On the more light side...if one of your hens in broody, make use of her. Let her do what she is naturally inclined to do - lay on eggs and raise chicks. I experimented with just one egg and in about eighteen days (after returning it to under the hen when I discovered a cheeping egg on the kitchen counter because my fater collected eggs without realizing the situation). Unsure how the rooster or other chickens would be towards the chick I set up the hen and the chick in their own little pen. After a couple weeks I let the hen and chick join the rest of the chickens and discovered they were good about it and the rooster actually took on the roll of helping guard over and protect the chick. Really neat experience. Unfortunately at about a month old the hen was starting to roost up with the rest of the flock and leaving the chick alone at night on the floor. A stray cat came and ate the chick (I deduced from the remaining little feathers the next morning) and ironically enough the next night my sister's dog (who feverishly hates cats, thus I have a feline deficiency and mouse overpopulation) killed the stray cat in one chomp. Oh dear! Life and death is such a funny and pecular thing.
That is all for now! Ciao
P.S.
Free range pasture chickens and fertilized eggs are better for taste and health.
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