Botched butchering!

[Hens_And_Chicks]

You do realize yesterday was a full moon - the weirdest things happen on a full moon!

 

[Julie_A]

If it had been one you wanted to keep... well, you know the rest!

 

[canada-goose]

Scary! Poor rooster just didn't want to die!

 

[ducks4you]

I'm sorry!

I decided that a sharp hatchet is more effective, at least for me. I made the wooden board with the nails for the head and legs. I used a hood to quiet to bird and keep him still. It took one chop, and I knew that he was gone. Let it go--we've ALL done things that we regret. We learn and don't repeat.

 

[CoopmasterK]

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. There really is no good answer to the unwanted roo problem. Even when we order pullets from the hatchery it results in day old roos being tossed into a grinder, some 200 million a year. It would be awesome if some genetic test could be discovered to tell "male" eggs from "female" eggs. The male eggs could be sold for food while the female eggs could be incubated and hatched. Until then we'll have to keep butchering unwanted roos for the table. Be sure to forgive yourself for the mishap, things like that happen from time to time when you're dealing with livestock. Look at the case of Mike the headless chicken.

 

[cassie]

I cannot manage a hatchet and I am a menace with a firearm. I use a LARGE pair of pruning shears to dispatch chickens. I hang the chicken up by the feet and lop off the head with the shears. Works for me and I am a real wuss.

 

[TexasVet]

I remember the headless chicken, and I'm thinking I missed just enough of the brain stem for the body functions to keep working.

More bad news... Three of my remaining roos were slated for breeding stock - a cuckoo maran, a welsummer, and a polish tophat. Because I've been culling, they've been sparring over the King Roo position. The cuckoo was really being picked on, so I moved him to an adjacent pen, along with a couple of hens. He freaked out every time another roo got near the fence, but was eating and drinking and seemed perfectly fine. This morning I found him dead in the dogloo that they bunked in last night, without a mark on him.

This roo was less than a year old, and displayed no symptoms whatsoever before dying. He seemed to be a perfectly happy and healthy boy... nice feathering, bright eyes, active around the ladies. A hen died a couple of weeks ago, but she was nearly four, so we attributed it to old age plus the stress of having gone through one of the hottest/driest summers on record. Egg production is way down, but I have a couple of hens in molt, one tending chicks, one brooding, combined with shorter days.

Some of the hens have runny poop, but I'm not seeing any round worms in it, so I'm not sure of the cause. Could be because we've been feeding them a lot more table scraps lately. Anyway, I sure hope this was just bad luck and not something happening to my flock!

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.CountryChickens.com

 

[Brick243]

I use a hatchet. I feel that it is quick and as humane as I can do.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Awww, I'm sorry for the trouble you had with this roo. We live & we learn, & often have to learn the hard way. I usually learn something new with each butchering session that makes the next one go even better, smoother, faster, more effecient, more humane. Your next session should go much better for you & your roos.

But don't blame Ma Nature for the 50/50 gender split in chicken populations. It's really a good thing, where half your chickens make breakfasts, the other half make dinners. It's the humans that have screwed things up by developing single-purpose breeds like White Leghorns, where only the females are useful and the males must be culled right after identification.

 

[drumstick diva]

Chickies moma, what is a killing cone? Is it really humane. I've never heard of them.