Wednesday afternoon Clint, my dad and sister slaughtered and butchered our three remaining turkeys. We had one tom and two hens that managed to survive to butchering time. I was at work when the killing commenced, so I wasn't able to help (I'm not sure I would have been around for the actual killing, but I would have helped with the rest), but Clint was good enough to take pictures!
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| The brown hen was laying eggs pretty regularly. |
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| Tom protecting his harem |
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Tom calmly waiting for his demise due to the abnormal amount of
blood rushing to his head |
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| Katie weilding an axe. . . they used the stump as a chopping block |
A Warning: The next few pictures are a little bloody, so if you're not a fan, scroll over quickly. Actually, the rest of the post depicts the birds dead, so if you're squeemish, I won't be offended if you stop reading.
The turkey (I'm not sure if it's the tom or a hen) was convulsing after it's head was chopped off. . . I think it's kinda cool, but I didn't see it in person, so you know, maybe I wouldn't like it so much then. . .
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| Dad and Katie plucking the Thanksgiving turkey |
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| Clint getting ready to bag up and freeze our share of the meat |
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| One of Tom's breasts |
I didn't take a picture of it, but we used Ziploc's cheap version of vacuum sealing, and it seems to have worked pretty well. I suppose we'll see next summer if our meat has freezer burn or not!
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Homestead Barn Hop!
Did you scald the feathers before plucking? We're going to butcher our turkey closer to Thanksgiving.
ReplyDeleteNo, we didn't scald them, but they came out nice and easy, except for around the oil gland, because they were so greasy it was hard to get a good hold on them. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteOkay....I did scroll down quite quickly...but those are some amazingly large birds. What a job!!!
ReplyDeleteConnie