Keeping Chickens Free Range

[duluthralphie]

Hey, I use an axe at the present time, I am seriously thinking of trying a killing cone and a extremely sharp pruning shears or knife.

When they are upside down they are starving for oxygen, or so I am told, that makes them less active and more sedated. Lets be honest there is no great way. It is not like we are hunting them and they have a sporting chance to escape.

They are good food, raised well, loved and treated humanely, they unfortunately drew the short straw and are the base of the food pyramid for a bunch of animals, us included.


Hence, never forget the adult beverage.. (unless you have that as a problem, then please forget it)....

 

[Victoria-nola]

Hey, I use an axe at the present time, I am seriously thinking of trying a killing cone and a extremely sharp pruning shears or knife.

When they are upside down they are starving for oxygen, or so I am told, that makes them less active and more sedated. Lets be honest there is no great way. It is not like we are hunting them and they have a sporting chance to escape.

They are good food, raised well, loved and treated humanely, they unfortunately drew the short straw and are the base of the food pyramid for a bunch of animals, us included.


Hence, never forget the adult beverage.. (unless you have that as a problem, then please forget it)....

::nods:: As for method, I plan to follow the method in the following video, which it's said could also be done in the cone, so I think this may be similar to what you're describing. In the comments section, there is information about the benefits in terms of minimizing suffering and increasing quality of the food. Someone else on BYC posted this video link, for which I'm very grateful. The headline is: Respectful Chicken Harvest:

 

[SmColorInDaPan]

I now have 2 roosters, which I can handle. When I thought I had 3, considered what a DR told me; hang them upside down, slit their throats, right under 'chin', let them bleed out. Best to catch, dump the blood far away from where chickens reside for obvious reasons. JUST like the video! THANK YOU *SO* MUCH FOR POSTING THIS! I am a visual person....

 

[Victoria-nola]

I now have 2 roosters, which I can handle. When I thought I had 3, considered what a DR told me; hang them upside down, slit their throats, right under 'chin', let them bleed out. Best to catch, dump the blood far away from where chickens reside for obvious reasons. JUST like the video! THANK YOU *SO* MUCH FOR POSTING THIS! I am a visual person....

Me too, it really helped me. Plus she is such a gentle soul, it's just very helpful to know that gentle souls can (and do!) still take charge of their food security.

The headline is: Respectful Chicken Harvest:

 

[SmColorInDaPan]

Me too, it really helped me. Plus she is such a gentle soul, it's just very helpful to know that gentle souls can (and do!) still take charge of their food security.

The headline is: Respectful Chicken Harvest:

I have a theory that those too squeamish are Hyper guilting themselves for something far into the past. Let GO & Let God. We are taking care of Ourselves, god will take care of those gone.

 

[Victoria-nola]

Quote:
eh. Not so sure it's about past guilt. To this point I'm still too squeamish and it's definitely not guilt about other things. Primarily, it's that I know my birds personally, individually. As Ralphie wrote, that makes it a better death, but that doesn't mean it will be easy. That's part of what I liked about that video, is that she sheds tears. It really shouldn't be "easy", it should be sacred. The fact that it is not, on such a wide and industrial scale, is to feel guilty about, that's for sure.

Anyway, these are very personal subjects, everyone is different about it. Definitely don't mean to prescribe.

 

[Beekissed]

Deleted by author.

 

[Kmac1]

Update:


After reviewing laws and legal liabilities for the neighbors, I called and reported the incident to animal control.  They re-affirmed it is our legal right to defend our livestock and property and can shoot the dog if it comes back and threatens our birds. He thanked me for taking the first step and speaking with the neighbor, and he is going to the neighbors property to issue a written warning. 


I am praying they do a better job of giving their dog attention and containing him.  I hope this doesn't get ugly.  I am feeling better there will be a written record of this.  I hate burying animals. That dog better not come back!

I know this is old news but I'm just now getting to your post, (sorry for your loss). Seems to me you handled the situation in a good neiborly way where as he displayed his total disregard for your birds and had no respect for you. When he threatened you instead of offering his deepest regret and it will never happen again apology, he displayed his true color of arrogance and selfishness stating that no one matters but him. That's war in my books. With the law involved giving him written notice then should his dog return and it will and when it does I know if it were me that dog would never make it back home alive.this is kinda off the subject but along the lines of neibors. Three weeks ago I walk around in my back yard and two feet from my patio where my wife and sit every evening I find an arrow buried 6" deep in the ground. It was a crossbow arrow. I called my neibors to the north about 400 yards and ask if he knew anything about a crossbow arrow I found in my yard. He said yes my son just got a new crossbow and shot an arrow straight up in the air, we didn't know where it went and just kinda laughed. He offered no apologies and didn't care about what could have happened. I am in the yard everyday from daylight till dark, my wife and our daughter, granddaughter and son in law are out there in the back yard a lot. It could have hit one of us and it would have killed who ever it hit. I hung up the phone and stewed about it till the next day. So I call the sheriff that next afternoon and filed areport and when the sheriff came out and talked to him and his son did they come down and apologize. I guess my point is you can have good neibors or you can have a**hole neighbors like yours and mine. Had the arrow hit one of my family the sheriff would have been the second call after the coroner. Sorry for ranting but thanks for listening.

 

[duluthralphie]

I thank God and I thank the bird both. It is giving it's life so I and my loved ones can live. It is God's plan. We were created to eat living plants and animals.

I do not want the bird to suffer. I require people that are helping me to treat the birds with respect and not be cruel to them. The bird may not understand our language but they surely understand the tone of our voices and if we are calming or agitated, excited or scared.

IMHO if you do not feel something when you take that many lives or even one life there is something wrong inside you. Killing a creature brings you in touch with your own mortality. It is a trying time.

When we are done we have a meal with everyone involved. This is normally sloppy joes, beans and so on, anything but chicken! We have a couple Mike's or beers or whatever a person wants, and yes, some just want Coke. We relax and talk about what a bounty we have for the coming year. There is nothing ruckus about it. It may not be what you do, but it works for us.

I grew up on a farm, this farm I now own, in fact. I have lived my entire life with animals and watching or helping them die to become food. To not thank them and their spirit cheapens their death to me. For those that have never killed anything and their meat has always come form a butcher shop or meat market, it can be a very traumatic event. If an adult beverage helps them, so be it.

Your post seemed very judgmental as if your way is the only way, I apologize if I read it wrong. Please do not judge me and those like me that have different ways of handling it or doing it. God is a big tent type guy there is room enough in his loving embrace for all of us and all our different ways..

Here's my 2 cents on respectful chicken harvest, pardon me if I don't dress it up nicely, but these are just my thoughts on it:

There are many kinds of respectful chicken harvest and not all of them involve tears, imbibing alcohol and petting the birds or even thanking the birds. Unless you live where they worship chickens, I can't imagine it being sacred to kill a chicken...that sort of deifies the animal. It's a chicken and ultimately it's food, whether you have a personal relationship with it or not. We all have personal relationships with the animals we care for each day, so one isn't more attached than another when it comes to that, no matter who cries and who does not.

All of these emotions and things involved with killing an animal seem to be a result of overthinking things and humanizing these chickens, feeling bad about killing them, etc. It's never easy to kill an animal, don't get me wrong, done it hundreds and hundreds of times and I would never call it an easy thing to do...and it really shouldn't be. But it also doesn't have to be this over dramatized event that requires getting soused or crying or any other patting, hugging, cradling and otherwise mauling the poor bird. It's a hard job...best to just get over it and do it.

The best thing anyone can do for that chicken on killing day is to be calm...they can feel your nervousness, anxiety and fear and feed off it, just like any other animal. Fake it if you have to, but move with resolve, don't get in a rush but don't linger and paw at the animal, crying and keeping the bird nervous. Don't chase them around the morning of the kill....go up the night before, remove them calmly from the roost and place them somewhere or somehow where you don't have to chase them around prior to killing. It's cruel to do that, IMO, putting the bird in that much fear is needless. Make every step count, give them a quick and clean death and get down to business.

Killing day here is quiet, it's calm, it's slow and it's done with efficiency....that doesn't make it less respectful, it makes it more so, IMO. I thank God for the animal, I don't thank the animal itself.. I'm sure if it had a choice it would not be dying that day, so no need to thank the bird for a decision it didn't get to make...kind of hypocritical if you ask me. It also doesn't understand our language, so it's being said more for the human than for the bird.

Crying doesn't do anything for the bird, petting it and holding it, letting absorb your nervous energy and anxiety does even less for it. If one wants to have a respectful chicken harvest, think of the bird and less of how you feel about the bird. It's not really about you at that point, but about how you are going to do this last task for your animal...it's a last act of caring.

Anybody who has had animals for any length of time can tell you they feel nervous and anxious when you feel it and they can certainly feel your lack of confidence and resolve, so remaining calm and matter of fact in the face of this last task should be a priority. Over thinking all of that keeps one from remaining calm and efficient, so best just to get your mind right before you ever step out that door. Best thing anyone can ever do before killing one of God's creatures is to pray about it to the One who made them all and knows when a sparrow falls, asking Him to take this bird into His keeping and help you give it a good and quick dying.

In the end, respect and care is shown when it's less about the human and how they feel than it is about the animal and how you go about managing their last day. Now that's free advice, so you can take it or leave it here, but it just may help a few of you who don't know where to start when it comes to killing a chicken.

 

[duluthralphie]