Have you ever wanted to try raising meat chickens for your family? Learn some of the ups and downs from blogger Kaylee Vaughn’s experiences.   After several years of owning and raising chickens, we decided that it was time to try our hand at raising meat chickens. In the past, we had raised and home-butchered […]

How do you make the most out of your chicken flock? Matthew Wilkinson shares his thoughtful and practical perspective on the difficult task of processing your chickens. Early Foraging Lessons In middle school, I was obsessed with the book Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbins. I’d rush home from school, grab the book, and […]

Learn Meredith Leigh’s method of butchering a chicken carcass into 8 pieces. Chicken Butchery Chicken is a great place to hone your cutting skills. We’ll cover the standard, eight-piece cut, and offer a slight variation, which will come in handy when you’re frying chicken. Wings Begin by removing the wings. Stretch the wing as far […]

Knowing the anatomy of poultry can help you butcher more efficiently. Learn about the placement and processing of gizzard, crop, perineal gland and other internal poultry organs. How to Begin Before attempting to slaughter or butcher an animal, you must perform enough preliminary research to ensure that the work you do is efficient and humane. […]

Matthew Wilkinson shares the early lessons he learned about raising and processing chickens. That Initial Excitement As soon as my daughter had blown out her fifth year birthday candles, I saw my opportunity. I approached my wife, knowing she was in a weakened state from this joyous celebration. I did not hesitate however, blurting out […]

College Farms are training grounds for students who want to learn about farm management, from small organic operations, to large industrial farms.  C.J. Walke is the manager of Peggy Rockefeller Farms, part of The College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. He shares with us the history of the farm and specifics of its […]

Part Two of a two-part series on butchering chickens Read Part One by Krislee Johnson Our morning started early on the day of butcher.  After breakfast and some coffee we were eager to get started.  I think we were most interested in getting past the actual act of dispatching birds.  That would be no fun […]

First of a two-part series on butchering your chickens. Read Part Two by Krislee Johnson As we prepare to butcher I am getting excited over the prospect of putting meat in our freezer. The flock is in desperate need of being thinned out after this spring’s incubator hatch. With 31 birds, three of them being […]

by Hank Will — Photographed by Suzanne Griepentrog At the end of the original Community Chickens Project in 2009, headed up by the editors of Grit and Mother Earth News magazines, Grit editor, Hank Will invited several project contributors to his Osage County Kansas farm to teach them how to humanely clean and package the […]

by Gwen Roland — Photographed by Preston Roland   Raise your own broilers, and avoid battery cage-raised, flavorless supermarket chicken. Though I have kept chickens for years, I never expected to eat any of the animals I raised. After they provided many delicious eggs, I would retire my layers to the barnyard. But Barbara Kingsolver’s […]