Axe/hatchet method of chicken dispatch - is it the most humane and cost-efficient method?

[high5]

Wow! You guys are blood-thirsty!
Why not just...

"Grab the legs with your left hand, and the neck with your right hand so that it protrudes through the two middle fingers and the head is cupped in the palm. Push your right hand downward and turn it so the chicken’s head bends backward. Stop as soon as you feel the backbone break, or you will pull the head off." - The John Seymour way.

That's the way I was shown a long time ago, and it's less of a strain on the chicken or the person who has to do it!

Do we really need all that blood, cones, Spanish inquisition stuff, etc?

 

[3KillerBs]

Wow! You guys are blood-thirsty!
Why not just...

"Grab the legs with your left hand, and the neck with your right hand so that it protrudes through the two middle fingers and the head is cupped in the palm. Push your right hand downward and turn it so the chicken’s head bends backward. Stop as soon as you feel the backbone break, or you will pull the head off." - The John Seymour way.

That's the way I was shown a long time ago, and it's less of a strain on the chicken or the person who has to do it!

Do we really need all that blood, cones, Spanish inquisition stuff, etc?

I suspect that most people have no idea that it's possible.

I've heard of it, but don't know anyone who can train me to do it live and I doubt that my arthritic hands are strong enough. Therefore I use the broomstick.

I'm curious about the cone and knife because I've been told it produces a superior carcass due to better bleeding and because I find it a bit difficult to hold onto the wildly-flapping bird by it's ankles -- again, arthritic hands/wrists.

 

[high5]

I suspect that most people have no idea that it's possible.

I've heard of it, but don't know anyone who can train me to do it live and I doubt that my arthritic hands are strong enough. Therefore I use the broomstick.

I'm curious about the cone and knife because I've been told it produces a superior carcass due to better bleeding and because I find it a bit difficult to hold onto the wildly-flapping bird by it's ankles -- again, arthritic hands/wrists.

I understand what you're saying. Do what you can.
The way I quoted, in my opinion, is pretty humane, though.
I couldn't bring myself to cut off a chicken's head and have to sort out what to do with the blood, especially if i knew it!

 

[3KillerBs]

I understand what you're saying. Do what you can.
The way I quoted, in my opinion, is pretty humane, though.
I couldn't bring myself to cut off a chicken's head and have to sort out what to do with the blood, especially if i knew it!

I'm sure it is -- just the manual version of what I do with the broomstick.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

I'm not sure what cone method everyone is thinking is complicated or takes a long time?? I must be missing something. When I had a cone, I had it nailed to a beam with a bucket under it. I put the chicken in, the head and neck come out the bottom. I took a machete and decapitated it. Exactly the "hatchet" method, but no fussing with stumps and nails and aim and flailing, just whack and done. Honest truth, I usually wrap the head in a paper towel as soon as the bird is in the cone - it never sees anything and I don't have a head staring at me from the bucket.

Lacking a cone, and having enough hay twine to macrame the entire farm, I take a loop of hay twine, put one end through the other, put it around the chicken's ankles (individually if it's a large bird) and hang the twine from a hook on a beam and do the same thing, but without a cone. There's not a huge amount of flapping, but if it disturbs you, cones are easy to make. Before they were a thing you could buy, people used old traffic cones and corners of sturdy burlap feed sacks before that.

The way you describe interests me because it pretty much covers all the bases of what I want: quick, humane, and less messy.

I've never heard of people beheading the chicken in the cone, just cutting the jugulars. But to me, that's always sounded difficult because the chicken's just staring at you as it slowly (not THAT slowly,but a minute or two) bleeds out and dies. I lean towards a method that involves beheading because it instantly kills the chicken, or at least severs the brain/body/nerve connection so the chicken doesn't process the pain if there is any.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Wow! You guys are blood-thirsty!
Why not just...

"Grab the legs with your left hand, and the neck with your right hand so that it protrudes through the two middle fingers and the head is cupped in the palm. Push your right hand downward and turn it so the chicken’s head bends backward. Stop as soon as you feel the backbone break, or you will pull the head off." - The John Seymour way.

That's the way I was shown a long time ago, and it's less of a strain on the chicken or the person who has to do it!

Do we really need all that blood, cones, Spanish inquisition stuff, etc?

I'm not blood-thirsty. Far from it. It's just that these are meat birds and I will need to drain the blood anyway. I've considered this method, and the broomstick method which is similar, but if I have to bleed it out anyway that just seems like an extra step.

Do you use this method when processing a bird to eat?

 

[3KillerBs]

I've considered this method, and the broomstick method which is similar, but if I have to bleed it out anyway that just seems like an extra step.

You don't have to bleed out a broomstick-killed bird. The act of severing the spine also severs the blood vessels in the neck and the bird bleeds into the loose skin as you hold it upside down and wait for the flapping to stop.

Then you cut the head off at the body end of the gap in the spine and the blood all drops neatly into the trash can along with the head.

You'll see I started this thread considering other methods but went back to the broomstick method I understand and then I documented the process as best I could with no one else to take photos: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/one-cull-cockerel.1512131/

 

[Karasu]

I've done the pipe cutters, broomstick method, and manual cervical dislocation for meat birds. Pipe cutters work alright, but it takes some coordination and is messy. I use the broomstick for larger birds, and manual CD for smaller hens. (Roosters are tougher). I don't get a perfect bleed with a broomstick, but it's good enough for consumption.

You do have to be careful with how much force you use with the broomstick, or you'll rip their head off entirely and make a mess. Additionally, a broomstick makes it (in my experience) easier to botch than manual CD. I've accidentally dislocated their neck after the first vertebrae before which results in a slightly slower death as to the best of my knowledge based on the studies I read it doesn't cause the same recoil and damage to the back of the brain. However, when I tested their corneas immediately after, they still were gone pretty darn fast. Still, I have never done this with manual CD, as that doesn't rely on placing a stick exactly right.

All this to say - there are many ways to skin a cat, er, chicken, and I wouldn't brand one as 'the best way'. Whatever you can carry out confidently and humanely is the best. Especially for anything involving cervical dislocation, whether manual or via broomstick, watching a lot of videos helps with figuring out how to position yourself and the bird so that the job is done properly.

 

[Morrigan]

I think it all comes back to the advice that @Ridgerunner always gives -- the best way is the way that works best for you.

@RiverOtter -- when you machete the chicken in the cone, do you just sweep the machete through like a sword stroke, or is the bird hanging near a wooden wall/board that you smack the machete into? You holding on the head as you do this?

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

You don't have to bleed out a broomstick-killed bird. The act of severing the spine also severs the blood vessels in the neck and the bird bleeds into the loose skin as you hold it upside down and wait for the flapping to stop.

Then you cut the head off at the body end of the gap in the spine and the blood all drops neatly into the trash can along with the head.

You'll see I started this thread considering other methods but went back to the broomstick method I understand and then I documented the process as best I could with no one else to take photos: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/one-cull-cockerel.1512131/

Thanks for sharing this! Reading that was helpful. Also that's kind if nice to know how neatly things go for you with the broomstick method. Maybe I'll bring to us to my husband to see if he would consider that method.