Botched butchering!

[Sunny Side Up]

A killing cone is a cone-shaped piece of material in which you place your chickens to be dispatched. It can be bought or constructed, made from metal, plastic or rubber. Their heads stick out of the bottom & their feet & tail stick out of the top. You hang it up, place the chicken in there, and either slit their throats or cut their heads off. The cone holds them in place while they bleed out and keeps them from reflexively flapping & running around after they're dead. You could instead use rope or zip-ties to hold their legs together & hang them, and duct tape to secure their wings to their sides.

 

[lovemyprettybirds]

Uhghh! The nasty side of chicken keeping. It wasn't your fault. You didn't make him suffer intentionally. Maybe someone will come up with an excellent reason to keep plenty of roosters someday. I'm working on it, and I hope someone beats me to the punch on this one. However, don't hold your breath! Meanwhile, at least when it comes to dealing death you can be pretty certain that severing the head will accomplish the objective even if it is unpleasant!

 

[buck-wild-chick]

GEEZE ! My have always died immediately.

 

[Cetawin]

I am so sorry. You experienced my worst fear....a botched job. That is why I do the stump and a sharp hatchet/axe. I just cannot stand the thought of missing or something. How horrid for you to go through that.

 

[honeydoll]

My DH tried shooting one and it took three shots and still we turned our backs when we turned aroung it was sitting up in the killing cone. I tmade us feel awful. I hated it. We now use the hatchet always. No coming back to life roos then. That roo was the hardest to pluck, hardest to clean and when I cooked it for dinner the (dead and cleaned, I assure you) crazy thing kept popping it's legs out of the pot. He was our zombie, my boys said he was paying me back.

 

[jessierose]

I am so sorry! I had one that would not die the other night. It really is an awful feeling!
Mine got her head stuck in the one kink in the chicken wire of my new coop, IN THE MIDDLE OF AN ELECTRICAL STORM, no less!!! She had about pulled her own head off by the time I heard her and got out there. Then the other little dummies went to town pecking her. I was shouting at them and couldn't reach her to get her unstuck without letting all 49 of the others out. So...I ran and got my gun as fast as I could and shot her. Got her right below the base of her neck and she was still looking at me, cheeping away! I had to do it again before she went. All the while I am just about cursing the others for pecking her and her for finding the one place to get stuck where I can't help her!
I know it's part of farming but it's the least pleasant part!

 

[Tala]

I put a broomstick over their heads and yank their feet up. I like it better than the hatchet, and a chicken head is a mighty small target even for a .22
You can kinda feel/see the life go out of them, which I guess is a little creepy but I just like to be SURE. To me picking them up as "dead weight" is worse than the actual killing part.

I did once shoot a possum that lived through the night. As much as I hate predators I didn't intend for him to suffer unnecessarily - dang things pretend to be dead it's believable!!!!