Correct way to pick up a chicken

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It would depend totally on what you plan to use chickens for. If it's one you want to handle on a regular basis, I would advise against dangling by the feet or wings. An old laying hen can be a little delicate. I've seen people pick them up by both wings, too. It works as good as the leg method, but without making them choke or throw up if their crop is full. If you need to grab a bunch of chickens and move them in a hurry, say a limb smashes your henhouse and it's pouring rain, you are not going to kill your chickens by grabbing them and carrying them by the feet. Is it undignified, yes. Does it build a foundation for mutual trust and respect, no. Does it look good in public, no. Is it a good way to transport a bunch of half wild cockerels caught off the roost to the pen to butcher the next morning, well, that is for the chicken's owner to decide.
 
Woohooo! Some people that agree with me!!!! I always use the "football" hold, if mine are one of the fiester ones I'll hold their feet with my right while holding them football with my left. When I sell extra chickens on craigslist, some people hold them by their feet after yanking them off the roost upsidedown. It makes my blood boil to see them after being put in the crate, gasping for breath while collapsed on the bottom. Being grabbed from 6 feet up in the air qnd dragged off the roost by my feet would give me the same reaction! For dusting, I just put them on their back on a level surface.
 
I hold mine like the pic from whitehouse quail. Mine freak out if i pick them up any other way but almost go limp if i 1 hand undr breast them though.
 

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