Best way of snapping a chickens neck?

[ronott1]

I mean the area between the wattles. I've had them twist like that too.. still works fine, I just thought it might have taken a couple extra seconds to quit flapping.

I usually pull them up until they stop flapping. They will flap even with the spine cut. The muscles in the legs do that even without a brain connection. Sympathetic nervous system?

The time to stop flapping seems to correlate with health and size of the bird.

 

[aart]

The time to stop flapping seems to correlate with health and size of the bird.

Indeed it does.

 

[BantyChooks]

I usually pull them up until they stop flapping. They will flap even with the spine cut. The muscles in the legs do that even without a brain connection. Sympathetic nervous system?

The time to stop flapping seems to correlate with health and size of the bird.

I worded that poorly. With some methods there seems to be a second of conscious reaction that isn't there with others. On some occasions there were corneal reflexes three seconds after kill. That's not acceptable to me—some birds seem to just go lights-out immediately and that's what I am aiming for.

 

[ronott1]

I worded that poorly. With some methods there seems to be a second of conscious reaction that isn't there with others. On some occasions there were corneal reflexes three seconds after kill. That's not acceptable to me—some birds seem to just go lights-out immediately and that's what I am aiming for.

along with the best ethical kill, a faster kill is supposed to help with meat quality.

I love that we can chat about this here!

 

[ronott1]

Indeed it does.

I know! Sometimes the big old rooster will bruise me if I do not pin the wings or tie them down

 

[aart]

Sometimes the big old rooster will bruise me if I do not pin the wings or tie them down

Why I use a cone for meat slaughter.

 

[Mosey2003]

For the record, if I *had* a pair of very good loppers, I would also use those with the bird hanging. But I don't, and not really fussed to buy some yet. Dad has a pair of the super nice Fiskars ones, but if he caught me killing chickens with them he'd have a fit

 

[MizCairo]

I can't say I would suggest doing it that way, but if you absolutely want to, there is a slight trick and we call it "ringing" at least when it is a game bird.

If you were looking the animal straight on, facing it, and it's head and neck was stretched toward you, grab the bird like you were shaking someone's hand. This means when you close your hand, your fingers are under its chin and the head will be in your palm. This part is important, grip firmly but also pinch it with your thumb and the side of your index finger. This is going to force the vertebrae to separate during the ringing.

At the same time that you start pinching, move your hand in a circle (pivoting from the elbow) really fast like you are winding up a towel to snap someone in the locker room, or like that 'woop-woop' motion folks used to do on the Arsenio Hall show but down low by your waist (hopefully that hits home with someone). The spinning action isn't like you would spin a sling or lasso with the body stretched way out from your hand. Try it with a rope first to get the action down. You should be able to spin the rope without it touching you.

When you do this with the chicken, keeping a firm pinch on the neck, it will wind up that neck like the locker room towel and you will feel the vertebrae separate and only flesh will be between your thumb and finger. It's a very obvious transition from together to apart and you can stop spinning and let go of the chicken to let it do its death throws or you can cut the neck to bleed it.

The reason I don't like this method is that it makes the neck messy and doesn't get the blood out, which will affect the quality of the meat. If you only do a chicken here and there, then maybe it's not such a big deal to you.

If you have any questions on this feel free to PM me and I can probably put together a little video and send it. Animal welfare at slaughter is a very important thing to me.

Thank you. That was pretty clear instructions. Do you have advice on when you would make the call to cull an injured chicken ? My dogs got into the run and killed two and injured one other ( our favorite). She has some open wounds, none that look like they couldn't heal with tlc and poultry wound spray. I've bathed her and kept in the dark in a crate with blankets and water and wet chicken food. I noticed two days ago she isn't putting weight on a leg and her wing on the same side seems to be down too. I'm not finding any visible breaks and can't feel any. She seems to react in pain when I touch higher up where the leg meets the breast ? area. Her comb is reddish still. She won't drink water and I'm trying to use a syringe to get some in her. She's eaten a few mushed up grapes and some meal worms. I just don't know how long to wait , I'd hate to think of her in horrible pain and not getting better. I haven't had to cull any of my birds yet

 

[Painted Calls]

Thank you. That was pretty clear instructions. Do you have advice on when you would make the call to cull an injured chicken ? My dogs got into the run and killed two and injured one other ( our favorite). She has some open wounds, none that look like they couldn't heal with tlc and poultry wound spray. I've bathed her and kept in the dark in a crate with blankets and water and wet chicken food. I noticed two days ago she isn't putting weight on a leg and her wing on the same side seems to be down too. I'm not finding any visible breaks and can't feel any. She seems to react in pain when I touch higher up where the leg meets the breast ? area. Her comb is reddish still. She won't drink water and I'm trying to use a syringe to get some in her. She's eaten a few mushed up grapes and some meal worms. I just don't know how long to wait , I'd hate to think of her in horrible pain and not getting better. I haven't had to cull any of my birds yet

I'm sorry about your birds.

Might be better to ask this question in the Health/Emergency forum.