Apr
22
Written by:
Sherri
4/22/2009 8:18 PM
Since moving out to the country and being closer to our "meat" raising friends, we have access to more unusual activities. Last week, our friends at Rehoboth Ranch processed their first batch of chickens for the year. We were able to obtain some chicken heads and necks as pet food for our dogs 
. When we were packing them for our freezer, we discovered a WHOLE chicken....no feet or feathers, but everything else intact...(read....head, neck and GUTS!). Upon talking with them, it didn't look right for human consumption, so it landed in the dog food pile.
Today was the day for "dissection" of this chicken....read, it's been in the fridge a whole week and will start to stink sooner or later. When looking at these pics., remember that I only took one biology class in my life. I had tried earlier to get one of my other "chicken farmer" friends to come over and hold this class, but she subtly encouraged me to do it. Of course, someone (Ted) had to take the pics!
Here's the poor thing set up on the "chopping block". 
We successfully cut it open with the kitchen scissors, without damaging the innards. If you ever need to do this, we cut through the side of the breastbone.
The intestines...of course the boys thought this was the best part! It is amazing how much can be compacted inside.
A great shot of the liver.
The gizzard...guess that's Rehoboth Ranch gravel inside.
The boys getting into it. Did I say...the boys REALLY loved this! They explored everything about that
chicken, including the eyeballs and tongue!
When it was all said and done, we carefully cut out the intestines and threw it away, then cut up the rest of the chicken for the dogs. It took our Lab/Pyr mix dog, Darling, a while to understand THIS was dinner. But she finally chowed down. Our other two Australian Shepherd puppies didn't waste any time digging in. The cats probably got the best part...the liver and heart 
.