I again selected one of the overly aggressive roosters (not the same one I had yesterday), and put him in the kill cone. Tony sharpened the knives, and after watching another video on how to slaughter chickens, he went to slice the chicken's neck, but twice failed. Again, the knife failed to cut the chicken.
So Tony decided to go the old way. He found a log, the hatchet, and a couple of screws. The rooster remained calm right to the end.
It was windy, so the pot of water for scalding the chicken was not up to temp right away. I started dry plucking, just to get moving with the process. After getting it mostly plucked, the water still wasn't up to temp. We took a quick break to put the ropes up between the trees to keep the new black raspberry patch in order.
Finally got the water up to temp, scalded the chicken, and finished plucking the big feathers from the wings. Then I took it inside to finish processing, and to get the bits of feathers that hadn't come off well. Then I couldn't find the crop to remove it, and had issues with evisceration. The whole process smelled bad to boot.
I admit I was frustrated nearly to the point of tears. I refused to give up only because I refused to waste the bird. It took hours to complete this "simple" process. By the time the processed bird was ready to go in the fridge, I was exhausted. The most frustrating thing about this whole ordeal? There's a slaughter place that charges $2.95 each to process chickens and return them to you wrapped, frozen, and ready for use. For less than $3 I could have avoided this incredibly stressful day. The other two that still need to go will be going to a processing place. It's well worth the $3 each to not have to do this myself. Chickens are nothing like rabbits.
If anyone is in the Brainerd area, or is willing to travel there... There was a big orange cat up for adoption there. His name was Jabba, and he was handsome, friendly, kept trying to bump his head and rub against the Plexiglas for attention. I hope someone comes to adopt him. The bettas there were overpriced. Why pay $12 for a fish when I can get one from Walmart for $3? They did have a beautiful African sideneck turtle in one of their water tanks. Gorgeous turtle, but they wanted $33, so it wasn't in my price range right now. Especially since we're still waiting for the insurance money to replace Minnow's stand so we can get her back into her big tank. I don't think it's an appropriate time to add a second turtle while Minnow is still in her small temporary enclosure. Upon further research it turns out that African sidenecks are aggressive and need their own enclosure or they tend to kill their tank-mates (I guess Petsmart didn't get that memo as theirs is housed with a Mississippi Map turtle). Not worth risking Minnow's safety. It was a pretty turtle though.
I used to work in a pet store and I absolutely hated when people would come in and buy an animal they had no idea how to take care of. I would offer to put a hold on the animal for 24 hours and tell them to go home and research. Nine times out of ten, they'd come back the next day and pick something else out after realizing that some animals are simply high maintenance. I want to be clear, even if I had money to burn, I would not have bought the turtle on a whim. Animals should never be an impulse buy! I take this as a learning opportunity. Today I learned that African sideneck turtles are beautiful, but too dangerous to be kept in a community tank.
I also learned that I have no interest in ever slaughtering a chicken ever again.