I know you are all dying to know...

The butchering went well.  Considering Mark's Uncle John did it all :P  Actually we started our journey for home-raised chicken in November with 10 starter broilers.  We knew when we started we weren't going to save money, just have a better quality product when we were done.  

For those interested in the math, we paid 3 dollars a piece for them.  These little piggies ate 2 bags of feed at 15 dollars a piece.  So 60 dollars for these chickens right?  Well, apparently we waited a little too long, and 2 died here at the house the past week, and 2 "chickened out" and died in the box on the way up to be butchered.  So we had 6 chickens.  We gave one chicken to John for butchering it, so we ended up with 5 chickens at about 4 pounds dressed a piece.  So 20 pounds of chicken with bones, minus the backs and necks I gave Ky for broth! So about 3 dollars a pound for natural, nearly kosher chicken.  

You can thank me later for not posting all the pictures of hatchets swinging, and kids poking the heads.  Yes, the chickens did run around like chickens with their heads cut off though.  Should of got a video of that :P  Apparently there used to be a headless chicken that lived for months or years that they would take to the county fairs, and feed with an dropper through the neck.  John told us this after one didn't stop running/twitching for 20 minutes.  I don't think PETA would approve though.  

Mark and I did do the cutting up though with the whole birds.  I had never cut up a whole chicken before in my life, I am ashamed to say.  And seriously, as long as you are careful with the deadly sharp knife, there is nothing to it.