14 April 2012
The chickens are no longer laying, you have too many goats, and the rabbit cages are bulging at the seams. There is only one thing to do now, and that is harvest the animals.
Slaughtering an animal is not an easy choice if you have always gotten your meat wrapped in plastic at the store. They look at you like, “Gee dad, that’s a sharp knife, whatcha gonna do with it?” Now you know how Abraham must have felt!
But there is a difference between slaughter and killing. Slaughter implies you are going to do something with the meat once you are done. Killing usually implies you are letting the meat rot in the woods. This is what separates us from the pack – we kill what we eat, we eat what we kill.
I have slaughtered chickens before and quite frankly it is not pleasant, so I’m with you if you are thinking you can’t do it. You can and to be quite honest, it is a skill someone in your group must learn how to do.
The videos are disturbing. They are not to be viewed with young children around!
Websites
http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/pdf/rabbits_slaughtering.pdf
http://beselfsufficient.net/raising-goats-how-to-slaughter/
http://www.cultivatinghome.com/2008/10/how-to-butcher-chicken-easy-way.html
Videos: 12 videos – 1 hour 22 minutes
Pioneer Handbooks