Home kill, do you?

rascal

rascal

Forum GOD!
Joined
18 Mar 2018
Local time
2:41 AM
Messages
19,712
Location
Christchurch New Zealand
Do you or have you experienced home kill meat? I've killed and dressed lambs pigs and chickens. Not because we are poor, just that I know a lot of farming people that raise stick. From slitting a lambs through to skinning and dressing. Cutting up and freezing. I just ordered a whole lamb dressed for xmas. I prolly wont pay much as I will swap stuff.
Have you any experience, I'm picking TastyReuben has ? Any others here?

Russ
 
Yes, I do have that experience - we raised beef, hogs, and chickens when I was a kid, and we slaughtered and butchered them ourselves, and as far as the pork, we also smoked and cured our own shoulders, hams, and bacon.

My first job with killing anything, when I was 6-7yo, was to stand next to my dad with the top half of a kettle grill, and slap it over the chicken as soon as he chopped the head off. He'd gotten the grill from work as a gift of some sort, and we actually grilled something on it maybe three times in 15 years - it was always just the chicken catcher.

We raised chickens for maybe three or four years before Dad deemed them too much work for too little payoff. We butchered more hogs than anything else, and once a couple of my brothers left home and my grandad got too old, we'd take in the typically two hogs and/or the one cow we'd raise to the local slaughterhouse, and pay them to do it. He held out the longest on raising a couple of hogs, but eventually, that got to much for him as well. He raised his last hog when he was around 60, maybe. Hard to do by yourself.
 
Not home kill, but field kill. I was an avid duck hunter back on the Gulf coast. I did process them a few times, but there were plenty of butcher shops down there that would process them for you for a reasonable price. They had easy and efficient ways to strip the feathers and remove the steel shot, so it was worth it.

CD
 
I have friends who raise pigs every year and they are slaughtered in the Autumn. they are actually working pigs, pigs purchased to clear badly over grown woodland. It's a tried & tested method that's environmentally friendly. The only issue they have is that in the UK at least, you are not allowed by law, to slaughter your own pigs- I'll assume this extends to other livestock. They have to be taken away to be slaughtered professionally. The meat is then returned to them once they have paid the bill!

And whilst I don't kill my own animals for food, I will euthanase as needed (wild & farm animals). I don't see the point in driving 120km round trip to get a chook enthanised at a vet, stressing the poor thing out for the Journey when it is terminally ill. I will use a vet when I don't know what's wrong with it and it stands a chance (chooks are remarkably good a healing) but with chooks in particular, cause you know they are ill, & they are clearly showing it, it is usually too late. We had to put one down this weekend, sadly. (our approach is a very sharp axe. just tie the legs together with a soft cloth (j cloths) and a single chop to the neck. the flat side of the axe is then used to hold the body against a vertical side of the chopping block until it stops working out its dead. We've found this stops it spraying blood everywhere.

I've also euthanised and then dissected a terminally ill chook before now, to see why she was terminal.

And I'm not are for leaving injured wildlife at the side of the road. Some injuries you know are going to result in the animal's death, so my view is to prevent unnecessary suffering, though in Aus, if it is native you have to be very careful & ensure a vet or the police euthanase native wildlife.

My main "problem" is that I can't stand seeing an animal suffering and I'd rather put it down than leave it to suffer. And usually if you can catch it (assuming its wild or not one of my more domesticated chooks who want to be held), It is usually too late to save it.
 
Our house warming party back in 2000 included a whole pig. It was brought live and killed in the back field. And not very humanely. I can still hear it squealing!

I'm not a vegetarian but I object to animals being made to suffer.
 
Yorky said:
Our house warming party back in 2000 included a whole pig. It was brought live and killed in the back field. And not very humanely. I can still hear it squealing!

I'm not a vegetarian but I object to animals being made to suffer.
Click to expand...

Around these parts, the dispatching of a pig is done with a large caliber pistol to the top of the head. It is over in a fraction of a second. The involuntary muscle twitches begin shortly after that, which freaks people out the first time they see it. The animal is dead, but to the uninitiated, it doesn't look like it.

CD
 
Like CD said, "field kill" as in birds for me. I always pestered my dad to take me bird shooting when I was a kid. We would shoot large pigeons/doves and remove head, feathers, and innards before coming home. We didn't even try to remove the shot pellets, I guess either mom would remove some on final cleaning or they just settled to the bottom of the pot when the birds were stewed. This was a good skill to learn as it can easily be scaled-up to apply to larger birds like ducks, chickens or turkeys.

I know its not quite the same, but I would also include fishing in that "field kill" category. Scaling/skinning, gutting, and different styles of cuts or filets are best learned in a hands-on manner. Reading or watching a tutorial only gets you so far.
 
I have never personally hunted or processed birds or animals. I do fish and scale or skin and filet my catch. I do not remember a time when I did not observe birds and animals being processed. As a child we had cattle. Dad would process a calf each year. Every fall Mother's Aunts and Uncles had a multi family Bouchere (pig slaughtering and processing). After Dad gave up the cattle he raised chickens, ducks and quail. Dad and my brothers hunted and fished. George hunts and fishes. He went fishing last Wednesday and came home with a gallon bag of Speckled Trout (Sea Trout) fillets. We have Teal and Mallard ducks in the freezer and wild pig. We are low on venison, except venison sausage. Our deal is he hunts it and cleans it, I cook it and eat it. I do help with the sausage making. One person can do it but it is much easier with an extra pair of hands.
The woods where George hunts are overrun with wild pigs. There is no season or limit because they are considered a nuisance animal. Large pigs especially Boars are left in the woods for the predators. The pigs do have to be cleaned properly. There are glands on the inside of the legs that have to be removed.
Anyway - the short answer is yes.
 
Yorky said:
Our house warming party back in 2000 included a whole pig. It was brought live and killed in the back field. And not very humanely. I can still hear it squealing!

I'm not a vegetarian but I object to animals being made to suffer.
Click to expand...
I used a .22 to the head on pigs then stuck them.

Russ
 
ElizabethB said:
I have never personally hunted or processed birds or animals. I do fish and scale or skin and filet my catch. I do not remember a time when I did not observe birds and animals being processed. As a child we had cattle. Dad would process a calf each year. Every fall Mother's Aunts and Uncles had a multi family Bouchere (pig slaughtering and processing). After Dad gave up the cattle he raised chickens, ducks and quail. Dad and my brothers hunted and fished. George hunts and fishes. He went fishing last Wednesday and came home with a gallon bag of Speckled Trout (Sea Trout) fillets. We have Teal and Mallard ducks in the freezer and wild pig. We are low on venison, except venison sausage. Our deal is he hunts it and cleans it, I cook it and eat it. I do help with the sausage making. One person can do it but it is much easier with an extra pair of hands.
The woods where George hunts are overrun with wild pigs. There is no season or limit because they are considered a nuisance animal. Large pigs especially Boars are left in the woods for the predators. The pigs do have to be cleaned properly. There are glands on the inside of the legs that have to be removed.
Anyway - the short answer is yes.
Click to expand...

I really want to attend a Bouchere some day. Anthony Bourdain did a good episode about one -- not far from where you are (maybe closer to Lake Charles). You can find it on YouTube.

CD
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom