This year we tried a new experiment - raising meat birds. We were inspired to do so after finding one of our local Tractor Supply locations closing out their birds for half-price; and already fed for probably 4 weeks.

Cornish cross are a hybrid breed of chicken that is bred to be a meaty bird that grows very quickly. We purchased 10 birds in mid-August. They are ugly little things, and act very different from other chickens which we have raised; they are very lazy and messy, and seem like they are not very robust. At the advice of someone who had raised meat birds in the past, we set our feeder and waterer at opposite ends of our brooder-trough to force them to move around some, as they have a tendancy to just want to sit still.

It wasn’t long from being in the brooder that we had to move them to the barn. They eat a different 22% protein feed from the 16% we normally feed our layers, and they did indeed grow really fast. In the 40 days we had them, they went through two bags of feed, and were ready to be processed. I tried to fast them for the last two days before processing, but they broke out of their pen and got into the feed, so I don’t know how much that helped.

Processing chickens is pretty straightforward, but not something that you can approach in a timid fashion. To get started, you need a few things:

• First, you need a large pot of boiling water. We use a turkey fryer pot because it allows for us to boil outside unencumbered and provides enough depth to completely submerge the bird. This is important.

• Second, you need a large container of cold water. Some people say to use ice water, but I don’t think that matters as much as it just being cold; as this water is better changed out frequently and ice is a pain to deal with. I used an old aluminum stock pot that I had laying around.

• Third, you need a poultry restraining cone. This is a cone that you can hang the bird upside down in to bleed out. It is important that the cone be made of metal, as the bird will thrash around and a plastic cone will break. We tried to purchase one from the farm store, but they only stock them early in the season, but we found one on marketplace for $12 so it worked out fine.

- Fourth, you need a sharp knife or two. I used my 'magic knife' - a spyderco fixed blade knife for slaughtering and a cuisinart filet knife for cleaning. Using two knives is important because the knife you use to slaughter will get covered in blood and you don't want to use that to clean the bird.

• Fifth, a large cutting board. I used a plastic cutting board that I could easily wash off and sanitize.

• Sixth, you need a hose with a sprayer attachment. You are going to be using this a lot - refilling your cooldown pot, to clean the bird post-kill, and to spray off your knives and your work area.

To set up, get your hot water to a simmer (not a rolling boil), fill your cold water container, and hammer your cone into a tree. You want the cone to be about 4 feet off of the ground and pretty secure so the bird doesn’t fall during it’s death throes.

Once you are ready, go and get your first bird and put it in the cone. You want all of the blood to rush to it’s head so that it is a bit stunned and calm. Once the bird is ready, it is time to proceed. This is not a step where you can be at all timid. You don’t need gloves or anything, but you do need to be confident and quick. Grab the bird by the head and pull it out of the cone to expose it’s neck, and then with speed and force, slice the birds head off. Don’t just try and cut it’s throat, but in a clean back and forth motion just get in there and do it. Within several seconds it will close it’s eyes and the comb will turn from red to grey. For the body, it will kick for a minute or two as the blood drains out. You can tell when it is done because the feet will turn from yellow to white.

The next step is to clean and pluck the bird. Take your sprayer and clean off as much of the brown gross feathers as you can to keep your water from getting too dirty. Then, to loosen the feathers, dunk the bird in the hot water for a 25 count, holding it by the feet. You don't want the water to be too hot for two reasons - 1, you will scald your hands; 2, it will cook the meat. The whole purpose of this step is to loosen the feathers.

Once you hit your 25 count, dunk the bird in the cold pot. I then find it easiest to pluck the bird while it’s in the water as the feathers come off easier and it’s less messy. Most of the feathers come off pretty easy, but the wings you have to be careful as you can rip the skin in so many ways. Pull the wing and tail feathers out one or two at a time, holding by the base. For the rest of the feathers, pull backwards from rear-to-head.

With your plucked bird in hand, now it's time to deal with the innards. Take and turn the bird, feet up, on your cutting board. With your filet knife, cut a line across the top to loosen the gut bag. Next, grab by the anus to keep it closed, and then from the sides of the anus cut upwards to your cross cut, being careful to not cut any intestine and minding the tailbone. Lastly, cut a U around the bottom of the anus to free it from the body.

While still holding the anus closed, reach your free hand up as far in to the body as possible, grabbing all of the organs, and then pull them out away from the bird. You may have to pull hard to get the esophagus out, but it will come. There are several organs that are good for harvesting - the liver, kidney, heart, and gizzard. They kidney and heart are the easiest, the liver requires cutting up above the bile duct so that the gall bladder doesn't leak everywhere, and the gizzard is sliced along the middle and turned inside out to remove it's contents and spray out. The last step for the organs is to pull out the lungs, which are located on either side of the spine.

Once you have the organs out, flip the bird over to cut out the neck. Cut with a V down along the neck, and then turn your knife and sever the spine. Save the necks as several can be used to make a good stock - spines have a lot of good meat on them, and the cartilage and spinal cords are great sources of collagen.

The last step is to turn the bird back over on it’s back. For each of the legs, you bend it back to reveal the joint, and then make a cut a the top, and then from the bottom bring your knife up to sever off the feet. Once the feet are removed, the bird is done processing. At this point I take it inside, where it gets rinsed and any remaining feathers are removed before bagging and putting in the freezer.

That's it, you are done. In total, it took about 3 hours to process all 10 birds. With feed costs, it cost us about $7.50/bird; which I think is pretty darn good considering that it is completely organic and gets such a good yield. Considering that whatever we didn't eat ourselves gets fed to the dogs or the pigs, it works out to be a great source of protein and nutrients for the homestead.