Araucana thread anyone?

[Illia]

Quote:
Using a cone, or just simply hanging the bird by its feet upside down, I take a pair of good tree loppers to its neck, and off comes the head. Putting the bird up is easy as long as you make sure he's calm, which most of the time he will be, and during that calm moment, you simply fit his head between the blades, and make a quick close. You can control the wing flapping by using a modified cone or by tying them or something, but I usually just let them go. I just have a nail in a building in which I use twine to hang from, the bottom of it is a lasso that fits tight and snug around the birds' feet. Either way, the bird felt absolutely nothing and is gone in less than a second.

Out here the weather is in two seasons - Mostly rainy but tolerable, and REALLY rainy, windy, and never sunny.

 

[welasharon]

I haven't gotten to that point yet but am interested in methods. Horrifying experience as a child...neck braking and head chopping...still have the scent of singed pin feathers in my brain.

We are at the top of the Gulf so we will have extremely hot and dry weather as Irene passes. I'll take it. Hope everyone does okay.

 

[cashdl]

Processing birds was not as big of a deal as I thought it would be. Once they are dead, it is pretty straight forward. I too use the cone method with a garbage can underneath it. Makes for super easy clean up. My husband build me a killing kitchen as he calls it. I have a counter top with a sink plumbed for a hose, at the end of the sink is a cone nailed to the side with pointy end down, about 3 feet away is where I put our gas barbecue with a side burner ( for heating water ), on the other side of the sink is an 8' long wood folding table, and I have several ice chest full of ice water to keep the birds cold in between whatever station they are going to next.

#1 - Kill them and drain them, put them into ice chest while killing the next one.

# 2 - boil in water for 45 seconds then pluck them under running water at the sink. Put them into ice chest while plucking the next one.

# 3 - Take out the insides by whatever method that works for you. put them back into ice chest.


The best advice I can give is keep the carcas cold, hence the ice chests with ice water.


Lanae

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Quote:
Using a cone, or just simply hanging the bird by its feet upside down, I take a pair of good tree loppers to its neck, and off comes the head. Putting the bird up is easy as long as you make sure he's calm, which most of the time he will be, and during that calm moment, you simply fit his head between the blades, and make a quick close. You can control the wing flapping by using a modified cone or by tying them or something, but I usually just let them go. I just have a nail in a building in which I use twine to hang from, the bottom of it is a lasso that fits tight and snug around the birds' feet. Either way, the bird felt absolutely nothing and is gone in less than a second.

Out here the weather is in two seasons - Mostly rainy but tolerable, and REALLY rainy, windy, and never sunny.

This is just about exactly how I do it as well. I simply haven't the strength to hold a bird by the legs with one hand while swinging an ax with the other; I have done it, but without the strength of a man's arm, it doesn't work in a single swing as it really should, for the sake of the bird. I'm all about making it quick and painless for the birds. I also have found that pressure canning the chicken is a much easier way for me to be able to stomach eating it later; It doesn't look anything like the creature that was walking around the yard the week before. No matter how easily I am able to slaughter and kill the vast majority of the chickens out there, there will always be the few that I simply couldnot stand to eat. I let my husband take care of the slaughtering part of these and if possible, the butchering too.

 

[Stacykins]

Wow, thanks for all the information! So five to six months for the birds to fill out, good to know! The birds I am interested in butchering definitely aren't stellar examples of the breed, and I don't want excess cockerels to harass the pullets and hens.

Quote:
Most starting fluid is diethyl ether, once upon a time used for anesthetic. But most starter fluids, even though they contain diethyl ether, also contain hexane or other solvents in the mix, along with 'bitterents' (compounds added to prevent huffing abuse by making it nasty). The other solvents might cause significant irritation to the bird's eyes, nasal membranes, and respiratory tract. But the analgesic effect of the ether might override that, or the animal loses consciousness quickly enough. Seems certainly less messy then other euthanasia methods, and more humane than CO2 I think (death by hypercapnic hypoxia is really bad because of the body's induced panic and pain response to high levels of CO2).

 

[cottagechick]

On a slightly different note from the last threads.

I have just noticed that the feathers on my Black Bantam Araucanas are getting BEAUTIFUL. I thought they were a little homely when I first got them - just solid black. There is lots of beautiful shiny green in them now. Any suggestions for getting a good picture of the color?

 

[Illia]

In the shade on a sunny day is the best I get color out of. In direct sun is good, but often you don't get COLOR you just get shine. However setting your exposure down before taking the shot can help.

 

[suzannaski]

Whew, that was getting heavy. Happy to talk about feather colors. (Stacykins, you explained the starter fluid much better. I only knew to check for the right ingredients)

I agree with Illia. I've gotten the best photos of black cats when they were in bright but indirect light. I'm sure its the same for chickens. Sometimes a longer exposure time with a smaller aperature helps bring out color. It also gives you more depth of field. And of course you can always adjust contrast in photoshop. I've never used the digital darkroom for RAW format, but I'm sure it helps bring out hidden colors.

 

[Stacykins]

So I have a quick question about laaavender birds.

I have two pullets from my last hatch that are lavenders from HinkJC lines. Both however are tailed and and cleanfaced. Would my best bet at getting more lavs be to breed those two pullets to my black tufted and rumpless male Abe, and then choose the best quality son who would be split to lav, and breed back to the mothers? I plan next year to cull heavily since this is the starter year, next year will be the improvement year.

 

[jeremy]

Quote:
Sounds like a good plan to me. You might want to look into getting a few different unrelated black birds though to keep the line genetically diverse.