culling roosters

Tishwa said:

I only thought the worst day of my life way when I culled my first rooster.  Today was worse by far!  I used the broomstick method to cull 5 roosters and it didn't work on any of them!!  It was awful!  My husband ended up using a flat blade shovel to finish them off.  Awful!!!  

I watched a youtube video on using the broomstick method and I still did it wrong.

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.22 bullet in the head. Not sure what you mean by broomstick method but laying a rooster down and laying a metal pipe or I guess a broomstick across the neck. Stand on both sides close to the head and pull up hard by the legs. I mean hard. The neck will break easily. Striking the rooster in the head with a metal pipe will knock them out, then do the other method by pulling on the legs. Kinda blunt but it's part of it. Good luck.

If you're having bad luck with other methods, and concerned about your aim with the ax, I think a kill-cone is the most sure-fire way of getting it right the first time (other than a .22).

Before you do it, take some time to sharpen the sharpest knife you have. I've been using a fillet knife, and there's a difference between when I've freshly sharpened it and when I haven't.

Slitting the jugular and letting them bleed out takes just one to three seconds before death, and less than that before they're unconscious and unaware. A chicken doesn't have much blood to begin with. If you want to be really sure, just cut the head all the way off.

Advantages are that you are in complete control, you aren't going to miss, and it's going to be over quickly with no pain for the bird.

The only thing that will mess it up is if your knife isn't very sharp. So if you aren't familiar with sharpening knives, find someone who is who can assure you it's ready to go.

There are plenty of I'm sure better instructions online on how to do this. Here's my take:

Hold the rooster by his feet with one hand, and with the other hold his body against your leg until he calms down.

Carry him to where you've set up the cone.

Insert him into the cone, head first, as far down as he'll go.

Let go of the rooster's feet, reach up through the bottom of the cone and using your fingers stretch his head down through the opening.

Secure his head by placing your fingers at the back of his head, and the lower jaw of his beak.

Now he's in position.

Rub the backside of the knife along his neck, identifying where you'll make the cut and getting him used to the feel of it.

Pull down on his head, as if you were going to pull him through the cone, so the neck is stretched tight.

Positioning the blade so the base of the blade closest to you hand is where you want to cut, pull the knife firmly toward you and into the neck, making a single cut through to the bone.

If it's your first time and you want to be sure of things, use more force than is necessary, and try to cut his head all the way off.

Assuming you don't cut his head off, continue to hold his head, pulling it down, until the bleeding stops.

At some point nerves will fire and his body will flop hard a bit. He's already dead - this is natural.

aart said:

You don't have to pull really hard....unless you want to pull it's head off.

Cervical Dislocation is shown in this video at about 1:00,
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it's the only CD video I've found that doesn't remove the head.
Notice the slight divot in the ground under the stick and neck, this will keep the bird from being choked.
Notice that she slowly stretches out the neck and legs before giving the short sharp jerk that breaks the neck, this is key to success IMO.
I've found this technique to be very effective.

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Dead is dead. Not pulling hard enough equals a hurt rooster. You could just hit the bird in the head hard enough with something and be done with it. The point is for people learning how to cull a bird. Imo often they are somewhat afraid of not getting it done the first go round, traumatizing for some. To each their own it's not that hard.