{"id":18920,"date":"2024-01-04T08:52:05","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T08:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aloland.v.paler.net\/2024\/01\/04\/19-times\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T14:59:57","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T13:59:57","slug":"19-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alo.land\/pt\/19-times\/","title":{"rendered":"19 times"},"content":{"rendered":"

He was walking slower than usual. His face was as serious and dignified as always, though a little puzzled. Not bad after losing so much blood and landing a backflip fall from three times his height. I caught him again and put him back in the cone, this time holding on for a while longer. He was number 19 and we roasted him for Christmas dinner. I need to build a bigger killing cone.<\/p>\n

The first one was exactly one year before. I’d seen plenty of animals being slaughtered \u2013 as a child, at my grandparents’ in the countryside \u2013 but doing it myself was a different story. He had an inquisitive look on his face, as if he was curious to see what adventure he would go on that day. I didn’t manage to dispatch him as quickly as I’d hoped. He kept blinking for a long<\/strong> time while bleeding. I had to get better at it.<\/p>\n

Raising and harvesting our own meat is an emotional affair. It’s a way forward that bypasses the horrors of industrial animal farming and the challenges of a vegetarian or vegan diet. It yields tasty, nutrient dense food while building soil<\/a>. The animals live the best life they can have until that very last moment. We get to pamper them, but we also have to kill them.<\/p>\n

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Delicious 100% homemade roast duck. Some (dis)assembly required.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We harvested and ate 19 poultry in the past year: 14 Muscovy ducks, 3 Khaki Campbell ducks, and a pair of turkeys. I handle the slaughtering and butchering, then In\u00eas cooks them into delicious meals. We’ve learned a bit each time and there’s still a lot to learn. Here is a summary:<\/p>\n

Slaughtering<\/h2>\n

The standard way of cutting the carotid arteries and letting the bird bleed out works, but doesn’t feel entirely right. Muscovy ducks take a long time to die this way. They don’t make noise but keep staring and blinking. It’s disturbing and doesn’t feel very humane.<\/p>\n

Based on online advice<\/a> I tried using a pithing tool<\/a> intended for hunters. One would ideally use it before exsanguination to minimize suffering. I have yet to manage that because the tip is not very sharp. Pressing it into the wrong spot just causes needless pain. It seems to also work if used after cutting the arteries. I want to (carefully) practice using it as the first step again since that seems to be the least painful way for the bird. At some point, I’d also like to try a combined pithing\/exsanguination cut like shown in this video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The birds are often too big to fit in and be safely restrained by the killing cone. I’ve been following the method demonstrated in this video<\/a>: restrain the bird with my legs, cut the arteries, then soon after snap the neck at the base of the skull. It works, but a bigger killing cone would be better. I’ll need to make it myself since we’re already using the biggest one we could find for sale.<\/p>\n

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The first harvest<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Defeathering<\/h2>\n

This is the most labor intensive part of the harvest. I tried all the different ways I found out about:<\/p>\n

Wet plucking<\/h3>\n

This seems to be default choice for many people but it’s not a great one, especially not for waterfowl:<\/p>\n