Best way of snapping a chickens neck?

[MairyMai]

I use loppers.

 

[PolarBerry]

I recently had to cull an 8 week ranger meat bird (had a very sour crop that wouldn't resolve; chest skin was ripping and was starving out) so I did the broomstick style method. I would recommend it, it was very quick. I held the bird upside down football style for a few moments beforehand to calm it, laid it down head first and kept ahold of the back legs, laid the stick across the back of its' neck and put one foot on the stick, then put the stick fully across right behind it's head and as I stepped down on the other end I pulled firmly up on both back legs. I felt the pop, the bird flapped for maybe 20 seconds, defecated, and was confirmed dead. Lots of youtube videos illustrating it. You can then cut the head off to bleed out, but in this case the bird had no meat on it's carcass so was no reason to do so for me.

 

[BantyChooks]

I don't recommend the 'helicopter method' as it is inexact and can result in a break farther down the neck. Manual cervical dislocation is also hard to do on large roosters. The broomstick method works on the larger boys, it's fast, and it is easy to do. Pipe cutters or loppers are also good ways to get enough leverage to cut through thick necks quickly. I have done the three latter methods and all went smoothly.

 

[danceswithronin]

If I was going to snap a chicken's neck I'd do the broomstick method, but if I ever have to cull I'm going to use the milk jug bleed-out method instead. Just seems like there's a lot less room for error and since the carcass is already hanging upside down it bleeds out quickly.

 

[ronott1]

 

[BantyChooks]

View attachment 1750780

Agree, but the throat should be on the ground rather than the head being tipped so that it dislocates cleaner.

 

[BantyChooks]

https://the-chicken-chick.com/how-to-humanely-euthanize-chicken-by-dr/
Cervical Dislocation

Cervical Dislocation

Euthanasia

A few links.

 

[ronott1]

Agree, but the throat should be on the ground rather than the head being tipped so that it dislocates instead of breaking the bird's neck.

The picture is from Stoey's Guide to raising chickens. If you look closely, the head is neck down(throat is on the ground) but the body is twisted as pulled up. It is like you said!

I do this and it works very well

 

[aart]

I use a cone and jugular/carotid slit for killing birds to eat.

For euthanasia of a sick bird...
Cervical Dislocation is shown in this video at about 1:00,

it's the only CD video I've found that doesn't remove the head.

-Notice the slight divot in the ground under the stick and neck, this will keep the bird from being choked.

-Notice that she slowly stretches out the neck and legs before giving the short sharp jerk that breaks the neck close to the skull, this is key to success IMO.

I've found this technique to be very effective

 

[BantyChooks]

The picture is from Stoey's Guide to raising chickens. If you look closely, the head is neck down(throat is on the ground) but the body is twisted as pulled up. It is like you said!

I do this and it works very well

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.