Nice to know that we have a chicken butchering community here. MontyJ, you'll have to give us a report about how you like the birds you're getting, after you've had them awhile. Just wanted to comment that although my dressed birds aren't as plump, the taste is still tremendous. My oldest DD says she probably won't be buying store-bought chicken to eat after eating mine.
MontyJ, have you butchered before? BYC has a couple of stickies about butchering. I followed their advice and it really helped me. I don't use an axe bc I had trouble getting it sharp enough and I value my thumbs. I hang my birds from a tree in the back yard, super sharpen my knife, and I've gotten really good at bleeding them out. It takes about one minute.
My two dogs LOVE butchering day. I try to butcher at least 2 birds at a time. They eat the heads and the feet. I eviscerate in my kitchen. I keep the livers and necks, but the dogs and cats split the gizzards, hearts, kidneys and lungs, and eggs (from butchered hens), which, if you didn't know, have a hard shell right before they are laid. Some people like to put the intestines in a compost pile, but I prefer to throw them in my kitchen garbage.
