DIY HUMANE way to Kill Slaughter Chicken (Stun-kill, Gas)

[tlordon]

Hello,
im unsure where to put .(mod pleae relocate me if wrong location) i will post the Humane way i find and plans..

I be Tommy..

sorry this is kinda long. when it comes to killing any thing it should be done properly and i am covering my bases..

Im new here and new to raising and the dreaded Slaughtering and even procesing

i have 2 problems LOL

i have read up on different Kill methods,
Breaking the Neck (swing it around or however)
Ax its head off
hanging and silting throat
Making a Funnel for it and slighting throat..
to all of those not no But xxxx NO!!!!!

my problem with all those.
its a personal kill (ill remember there eyes), and it will not be dead instantly.. while draining.. after sliting
its not my car oil i can just uncap and wait a minute.. this is a life im taking to continue mine..

i have heard of a funel that had a stun feature but haven't found any more info.. but it would be alive going into it getting nervous. so no to that

however i could put it in a funnle after it dead just so i dont have to be cruel after the kill (hanging upside down by feet thats sad no mater how i look at it)

the more i think about it im thinking gas or stun kill..
it would be an impersonal Kill..and thats better not ok but better

the more i think about it if i did the prosesing i think the chicken needs to be COLD.. warm ikk.

so my thoughts are..
making a Nitrogin or Co2 Gas Chamber (thats easy Styrofoam cooler or bigger custom built box) and both gases avail cheaply. my concerns are does gassing like this hurt at all or do they just get sleepy.. and a Co2 detector as long as it starts beeping i know it hit enough ppm to kill (for the testing part)

the stun-kill is another option
the problem with that is

and my problem with designing a DIY stun-kill i have to test it and im not willing to test on animals....
i heard bout electrocutions not working and hurting the person. so that could hurt my chicken..
if i can get a source that tellls me what voltage, at what hz, and amperage and where on body to design box for (one they would just walk threw and poof.. nothing holding them or attached

and yes i have thought about having someone else do the processing however the kill would be bad there in my eyes..
i would do the kill and bring dead to them..
so it wont suffer at all....as u see no mater what i do i have to figure out the kill part

economics has lead me to Raising my own Eggs/Meat..(how crappy is that Americans so broke they have to revert to farming) im a geek if any thing not a farmer

and the KFC crap pushed me over the fence.
so i normally wouldn't even consider killing an animal..

thanks for your time.. any thoughts will be apreciated..

 

[galanie]

I'll likely get swatted for saying this, but OMG just end them. Don't overthink it, please. I'd rather hear of an air rifle than suffocation by some intricate plan. Seriously.

 

[twentynine]

Thread still going!

If you have so much of a problem killing a chicken, that you have to use $2000 captive bolts, argon/Co2 whatever to stun them, maybe you ought not be doing it in the first place.

 

[EmsoffLambs]

This is an interesting post. And I hope I'm not ruffling any feathers (pun intended

). I just would like to help put this topic into perspective.

First, I want to clarify that I absolutely am an animal lover. Just come look at my home and you'll see that by all the happy critters of all sorts running around. I went college to get a degree in animal science, not because I wanted to get rich (anyone know a rich farmer/rancher? Not me!) but because I love animals. I have as many pictures of my critters on my walls as I do my son!

So I don't want to sound like a callous, cold-hearted animal killer. But you simply can't assign human emotions and intelligence to animals, particularly chickens. A chicken's instints are very primative. Its survival instincts are very strong. To a chicken, you holding it, affectionately stroking it's back, is just as threatening as you hanging it by its feet holding a knife to its throat.

Raising animals is my passion. Unfortunately, it isn't all happy critters prancing through green grass on a warm spring day. I would love it if it was, but it just isn't. I've had to make some tough decisions about whether to try saving a sick or injured animal, or if it would be better to just put it out of its misery. I've worked so hard to try to save some and then have them die. Those tmes make me question why I'm even doing it at all. I'm saying this to show you that when hard reality hits, "gas chambers" and "stunning" will seem like small frye and even a bit silly. Sometimes when raising livestock, you have to just grit your teeth, and go for it, whether it means pulling your first lamb, castrating your first calf, or killing your first chicken.

We've butchered a grand total of 4 chickens now (but we've done a lot more rabbits, lambs, hogs, goats, and steers over the years). I ABSOLUTELY want the kill to be as quick and painfree as possible. We've found that the quickest way is to hang the bird by it's feet and cut of its head with a sharp knife. When hanging a bird, we hold it and tie its feet with a small cord. Slowly lower the bird to a hanging position while holding its wings against its body so it can't flap around. If done slowly, the bird remains calm and never flaps around at all. Hold the bird's head in one hand and with one quick motion, cut off the bird's head. The bird will flap around wildly, but it's just reflexes. It's dead instantly. Also, I'll warn you that the head can be a little disturbing as it opens and closes its mouth several times after its cut off (again, just reflexes). We just automatically drop the head on the ground after we cut it off and don't look down for a few seconds.

This does require a very sharp knife to severe the head quickly. My husband always tests the knife by shaving a little hair off his arm. If the knife shaves the hair, it's sharp enough. Also, a killing cone I'm sure would make this process less traumatizing for the humans as it will eliminate the flapping after the kill.

I wouldn't trust me or the bird with an ax! Perhaps I've seen too many Looney Toons, but I don't know how you'd keep the bird still long enough to do the deed. A sharp knife though, has worked very well for us.

Also, one more thing, hanging a chicken upside-down isn't as cruel as it might seem. It seems to put the birds in a bit of a trance. Birds are weird like that. One of my husband's friends raised brittney spaniels and would use pigeons to train the dogs. He showed us one time how to trance a pigeon. He'd hold the bird and tuck its head under its wing. Then, holding the bird in his hand, he's swing his arm around rapidly three or four times. Then he's stop, lay the bird down, and it would just stay there until you bumped it with your foot to wake it up, when it would fly off. He said the bird would stay for 1/2 hour or more! Watching this, at first I thought, "how mean!" But after seeing how peaceful the bird were in their trance and how quickly they flew off once aroused, I realized that it wasn't harming or traumatizing the pigeons at all! But was still strange! But hanging a chicken upside down seems to have a similar effect.

 

[LoneStarHen]

I know that by now you probably feel stalked here to a degree but I want to clue you in on something. "Backed by scientific research" isn't as respected a term as you might imagine. Scientific Research has proved quite a bit over the years. And an awful lot of it has proven to be flawed and just plain untrue. "Natural animal fats are bad for you! You should eat Margarine and Crisco!" is only the tip of the iceberg. "There is no difference between homogenized milk and raw milk for the consumer" is another. "Science" often throws out very pertinent points as worthless and develops the wrong conclusion. One day I believe this whole "Man is causing the climate change" thing to be proven wrong as well. The evidence that this world's climate has changed often and drastically without people even being on it is overwhelming.

Galanie,

I don't feel stalked at all. I happen to work in science, animal research with livestock species to be exact - I've held my career for many years now. Not all science is good, not all science is bad. I've worked in the animal welfare regulation field for most of my career. It makes me nuts that animals used in research are under one set of regulations, and those used as food are not covered as well. But that is neither here nor there. People are entitled to do what they want with their animals, as am I.

What I am quite disappointed in is that people are so disrespectful to those who have a difference in opinion of practices. Did I call anyone names or act rude in any manner? No, I did not. However I was flamed over trying to present an OPTION. It is an OPTION, I never said that it should be regulated, implemented, or any of the sort. I never said that any method mentioned was wrong, nor did I belittle anyone. I admit, the responses on this board really turned me off to BYC.

The initial question on this very old thread was regarding ways to butcher birds that were considered "humane". I was adding an option and folks jumped to the conclusion that I was some sort of animal rights nut job. I just found that rude. I spend my life immersed in animal welfare - which for the record welfare is completely different than rights I travel to seminars, I have to do continuing education, and I have to read and comply with a lot of regulations. I am also very interested in the welfare of food animals, so I spend time researching and educating myself about that. I understand that the small flock owner is different that the large corporation.

 

[Phoenixxx]

I know if I was sentenced to death, I'd much rather have my head lopped off than be stuffed in a box with feelings of fear, confusion and wondering "what is going on?" Please, if I am to die, just be quick about it! I LOVE to breathe and I KNOW when my air is lacking oxygen - I would take that one breath of whatever gas you pick and FREAK OUT! On top of already being nervous about being stuffed in a box...

Yup, if I am to die, please let me be outside in the open air watching the sailboats go by and just lop my head off.

 

[bachbach1]

GAS? what purpose can that possibly serve. To each his own, and you can do a bird in any way that you choose, still I think about what is real, what is cruel, what is necessary, and what is wasted effort/resources. Severing the head is instantaneous 100% death, it can be done with less trauma to the bird than shoving it into a box in my humble opinion.

We could send chickens into space, and the lack of oxygen as we approached the upper atmosphere would make them pass out, and as they reentered the atmosphere the heat would burn the feathers off and cook them Yum, just get out a net and catch em. In the process we would break the world speed record for the fastest bird too, LOL

No animosity, ill thoughts, or tension meant at all here, just my attempt at a funny, and showing that you can over think anything. Chopping block, hatchet/cleaver end him, humane fast, no wasted resources. Rough on the newbie chicken killer human, easy on the bird. Well as easy as it can be.

 

[LoneStarHen]

It has been a while since I've read this thread. I avoid this thread because of the rudeness I experienced while posting here.

I am glad to see that some other folks are exploring the controlled atmosphere killing method. It works well. For those of you researching the gas method - there are lots of resources out there. The initial set up is a little more costly than a knife and a cone. But don't worry about all the folks who are chastising you for thinking outside of the "box" (lol) or who think that you are weak for wanting to find a better method. I've used knives, limb loppers and CAK. One method is not necessarily superior to the other. A lot of the humane-ness of a method depends on the skill of the person doing the butchering.

I've worked at animal research facilities in the animal welfare regulatory role for a long time. I will continue to make the argument that we treat lab animals way better than food animals. The same species as a lab animal has a different set of pain and distress regulations than that species as a food animal.

When lab animals are killed there are many considerations on the methods and how humane they are. Not only is the animal considered, so are the workers. We have to make sure that the workers in a laboratory handle the task of killing animals mentally.

Here is my point - people come to this thread asking for opinions and trying to research methods to make the slaughter process less stressful for their animals. GOOD FOR THEM! I applaud them for trying to continually improve processes. But then they post here and so many people attack them and accuse them of being weak, or tell them that they should get rid of their chickens and go cry somewhere else, or tell them how stupid their idea is. Not only should we think of the animals, we need to think about the people too. Shame on those of you who are being ugly.

Killing your own food isn't for everyone - and I think that everyone should have to do it at least once. I can guarantee that most of you struggled with your first bird, but the process became easier and you became more skilled at it. But good grief people - be nice to those who come here asking questions and looking for better solutions. Teach them - don't belittle them.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
The OP probably read (as I did) that CO2 (which is carbon dioxide, the stuff we exhale, not some exotic poison) would knock a bird out quickly (a breath or two, was what I'd read) so you could slaughter it painlessly. It turns out that this may not be accurate, but I'm sure that's what he was talking about.

Not all birds raised and slaughtered for meat are Cornish X. I raise a lot of not-Cornish-X birds myself, have several roos in my freezer, a crock-pot cooked one is in the fridge right now.

I am guessing that the "KFC crap" he referred to, was the video evidence of abuse by slaughter plant workers, where the birds were being kicked, stomped, and abused in a variety of ways.

He's just searching for the most humane method he can find before he does the deed. Just because he's fumbling around a bit while learning, doesn't make him "wrong".

Not everybody takes easily to killing their own meat. That does not mean they can't or won't learn.

I asked a lot of people questions before I worked up the gumption to butcher chickens myself. I read everything I could find. I'm still not very good at it, but I'm determined to get good at it.

That's part of what Tommy's doing, he's asking questions, before he tries the actual deed. Isn't that what people are supposed to do, when they're trying to learn something new?

 

[jjparke]

I guess I need to clarify what I meant. Props for anybody that wants to raise their own food whether it's chicken, vegetables or whatever. HOWEVER, don't come here and say it's pathetic that you have to! We're not pathetic Americans that are so poor we have to raise our own food. In fact to raise our backyard flocks often requires more time and money than just going to Wally world to buy them. I take a lot of pride in my garden and chickens ( layers and meat ) and work very hard to make a living. Nothing pathetic about that.