Slaughtering Chickens...lessons on the reality

I just finished a "Raising Chickens for Meat" course offered by my local co-op. I signed up for the series so that I could 1) face the reality of my chicken-eating lifestyle and 2) assess the as-yet-unplanned potential for raising my own chickens someday.

The first session was "meet the chicks" where we literally stood around in the instructor's garage talking about the 35 cheeping puffballs running around in his make-shift incubator (i.e. cardboard boxes, tape, straw, a couple of light bulbs, and a water bowl). Five weeks later, we learned about how to take care of the adolescent birds as we examined another make-shift pen in our instructor's backyard (i.e. net for fence, cold frame on its side for shelter, lots of straw, and a woodpile to climb on).

Yesterday was the third and final session: day of harvest. The birds were only 12 weeks old, not even sexually mature, but ready to process into a freezer full of tender chicken that will feed our instructor's family of four for a whole year. I came to this final session with visions of blood spatters and headless chickens running around. The instructor told us to wear rubber boots, if we had them, so I was gearing up for ankle-deep piles of guts and feathers. Turns out, I was COMPLETELY wrong about the whole process.

I did not perform any of the steps myself this time (i.e. blood-letting, scalding, removing head and feet, plucking, eviscerating). I was concerned about my pregnancy and the possibility of contracting some chicken gut or blood disease. I don't actually KNOW of any specific disease that I could have contracted from slaughtering chickens (organic, brilliantly healthy, bloodless chickens at that!), but I chose to be cautious. Here's what I thought:

• It was surprisingly clean, quiet, and efficient. Because of the instructor's particular way of bleeding the birds, they did not appear to suffer. They made no noise. No struggle. It was eerily quiet and simple to kill a chicken. There weren't as many guts as I thought there would be, either, and there was certainly NO blood after the first step. The process was logical and simple. Everyone in the class was capable of each step after only a couple of pointers.
  
• The instructor and the class members were very mature about each step. Not somber, per se, but there was a certain respect for the animals. It was an environment for learning, too, as we discussed why things were done a certain way.
  
• It was a striking example of moderation. The instructor raises 30-35 broiler chickens for the WHOLE year. That is one chicken every week and a half or so for his growing family and that's essentially the only meat they eat. The slaughter was not excessive by any means.
  
• It was a lot of work. I was reminded of all the work that goes into planting, growing, harvesting, and processing the produce from my garden. The hardest work is at the end when you are already tired of looking at the stuff. It's a fulfilling kind of work, though. Pain with a purpose.
  
• There's a lot of "waste" in processing a chicken, though not as much as I had imagined: feathers, heads, feet, internal organs, and blood for 35 chickens adds up to about three 5-gallon buckets of waste. You also throw out bones and skin after cooking the meat. Our instructor composts all the waste on his own urban property with little to no smell...he's a pro.
  

So, can I raise chickens for meat? Yes. I am convinced that it is something I am capable of. Even the yucky disposal of undesirable pieces. Even on this teeny bit of land we've got now in this exact neighborhood we live in. It can be done!

Do I WANT to raise chickens for meat? That's less certain. It's a relatively short time commitment (12 weeks total compared to 6 months before a laying hen will lay, then maintaining the hen for a couple years until she stops laying) but I get the feeling that I would be doing it all by myself. Bobby is awfully supportive, but he's not a saint :) Anyone else interested in learning this new skill with me?

I sure love the IDEA of 35 ready-to-eat, free-range, organically-raised, humanely-treated, antibiotic- and hormone-free, locally-raised chickens hanging out in my freezer. Especially since they can be produced for only $2 a pound (dressed) instead of $4-5 a pound from another producer. I will need at least 2 more reasons to pursue this seriously, though, since cost savings will only motivate me so far.

All in all, it was a very helpful class. I haven't dismissed the possibility of raising chickens for meat just yet, but it will need much more consideration.