Cheating with Chickens

Ok, you know I am a hermit.  I have been procrastinating about butchering the white rocks because it is COLD outside.  Cold and snowy.  But the white rocks can't wait.  I did butcher the worst of the lot before the snow hit, along with a couple of my unidentified chicks that turned into large barred rock roosters one day.  Seriously, I was standing there watching them romp around the chicken pen, when it suddenly occurred to me that those are roosters.  Where did they come from?  How odd.

We kept one as a back up rooster, the rest went in the freezer.

The white rocks were still kind of small then.  Now they're kind of big.  Having issues with their weight.  They need to go in the freezer.



Today I cheat.  #2 lopped the head off of one.  It's sitting in the sink.

I have a pot of water heating on the stove.  A five gallon pail to catch the feathers and guts.  I am going to pluck and clean this chicken right in my kitchen.  I am a little nervous.  It's usually a messy job.  Mess versus frozen fingers.  Today the mess wins.

If it's not too messy- then I plan to do one or two a day until they are all in the freezer.

UPDATE:
Well that wasn't too bad at all.  A couple of errant feathers to pick up, but otherwise everything went into the bucket as planned.

A few minutes later, and the guts were added to the bucket too.  I set aside the heart and liver for the doggie stew.  It's been moved to the woodstove in the sunroom to cook through the winter.

All done.  Almost.  I'm hungry now.  I made some stuffing and tossed it in the oven.  Yum!