BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Beekissed]

I have a somewhat gruesome question but it's to ensure the most humane method of killing for eating while getting the best meat quality. I'm doing as much research as I can so the rooster has a stay of execution until I'm sure about all this. In the meantime he has started to crow :-/ so it's almost time.
I've been reading that when you cut the veins and let the chicken bleed out, you get more blood out of the meat than if you chop the head off. I also watched a video where someone cut the throat and then immediately stuck the knife into the brain through the mouth, killing the chicken instantly so they didn't wait to die by bleeding to death. That looked pretty humane for the chicken.
I really have to do a good job with this first chicken, the meat cannot be gamey and in fact the more it tastes like commercial chicken the better, or it will be tough to get my husband to eat any more of our chickens.
Does killing the chicken instantly after cutting its throat ensure less blood in the meat, or is that about the same as just chopping off the head? My guess is that just bleeding gives you the best meat, is there really any difference?
Does brining reduce gamey taste?

Since feeding fermented feed, I don't ever taste any gamey or barnyard flavor in my chickens, so not sure that it has anything to do with brining or bleeding so much as what they have to eat. What I consider as "gamey" is that taste of their feed, but after fermenting it, it doesn't seem to impart that chicken feed flavor any longer.

If you have to brine meat to remove a bad flavor, it's got to be pretty bad meat. I've never had to brine a chicken, nor any meat we've processed here, though we have marinated them in a good BBQ sauce and lemon juice prior to grilling before...that seems to add a wonderful dimension to their tenderness and flavor on the grill. Will be doing that with some cockerels come Wed. night here.

I've tried the pithing and it was gruesome and not even close to being humane...the birds were still alive as brainy gore rolled out of their mouths. I scrambled every brain cell they ever had and it still never killed them...finally had to cut the throat and give them mercy. Never again.

I just cut one side of the throat and let it bleed out, then cut off the head and proceed with the butcher. Leaving the head on seems to add weight to the neck and direct the flow of blood downward, even if they move around a bit....cutting off the head entirely seems to result in a lot more blood spray as the stump of the neck moves about in the death throws and gets more blood on the neck feathers by the time it's done bleeding out. I've tried nearly every method you can use to make a chicken dead over 40 yrs, short of shooting one, and have found the cutting of the neck with a sharp knife to be my favorite for a quick kill and less mess.

There truly is no way to calculate which results in a better bleed out as chickens don't really have that much blood in the first place and it's not likely you'll encounter any in the muscle tissue when it's all said and done. I've killed hundreds and hundreds of birds and never encountered blood seeping from the muscle fibers when cutting them up later on.

I use a 2 gal. bleach jug killing cone tacked to a tree...makes for nice, hands free working. Fits any size bird, even the big ol' overgrown CX.

A sharp knife is your best and most simple tool for the butchering, from start to finish.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Since feeding fermented feed, I don't ever taste any gamey or barnyard flavor in my chickens, so not sure that it has anything to do with brining or bleeding so much as what they have to eat. What I consider as "gamey" is that taste of their feed, but after fermenting it, it doesn't seem to impart that chicken feed flavor any longer.

If you have to brine meat to remove a bad flavor, it's got to be pretty bad meat. I've never had to brine a chicken, nor any meat we've processed here, though we have marinated them in a good BBQ sauce and lemon juice prior to grilling before...that seems to add a wonderful dimension to their tenderness and flavor on the grill. Will be doing that with some cockerels come Wed. night here.

I've tried the pithing and it was gruesome and not even close to being humane...the birds were still alive as brainy gore rolled out of their mouths. I scrambled every brain cell they ever had and it still never killed them...finally had to cut the throat and give them mercy. Never again.

I just cut one side of the throat and let it bleed out, then cut off the head and proceed with the butcher. Leaving the head on seems to add weight to the neck and direct the flow of blood downward, even if they move around a bit....cutting off the head entirely seems to result in a lot more blood spray as the stump of the neck moves about in the death throws and gets more blood on the neck feathers by the time it's done bleeding out. I've tried nearly every method you can use to make a chicken dead over 40 yrs, short of shooting one, and have found the cutting of the neck with a sharp knife to be my favorite for a quick kill and less mess.

There truly is no way to calculate which results in a better bleed out as chickens don't really have that much blood in the first place and it's not likely you'll encounter any in the muscle tissue when it's all said and done. I've killed hundreds and hundreds of birds and never encountered blood seeping from the muscle fibers when cutting them up later on.

I use a 2 gal. bleach jug killing cone tacked to a tree...makes for nice, hands free working. Fits any size bird, even the big ol' overgrown CX.

A sharp knife is your best and most simple tool for the butchering, from start to finish.

Thanks Beekissed for your insight. I don't know what it is about chickens, but they do not die easily :-( . I doubt if shooting would make it any faster.
Interesting about the feed, that makes perfect sense........ that chickens would pick up the flavour of what they are eating. I wonder if feeding oregano and garlic would pre- season the meat? ;-) Just kidding! But actually I've read that oregano has some very good properties and it's used in chicken feed in Europe.

 

[Mini Meat]

I got a prompt reply from S&G regarding the Naked Necks.


"Thank you for your email. We are not sure at this time if we will offer the Naked Neck next season. Please check back in January. We will not ship less than 100 chicks.

Thank you..."

So, while not surprised that they said no. I am feeling a bit concerned that the resource may be lost at any volume.

Hmm, thinking....

 

[ronott1]

I got a prompt reply from S&G regarding the Naked Necks.


"Thank you for your email. We are not sure at this time if we will offer the Naked Neck next season. Please check back in January. We will not ship less than 100 chicks.

Thank you..."

So, while not surprised that they said no. I am feeling a bit concerned that the resource may be lost at any volume.

Hmm, thinking....

This is normal for breeding chickens. Most Breeders stop hatching now and start back up in January.

 

[Beer can]

I got a prompt reply from S&G regarding the Naked Necks.


"Thank you for your email. We are not sure at this time if we will offer the Naked Neck next season. Please check back in January. We will not ship less than 100 chicks.

Thank you..."

So, while not surprised that they said no. I am feeling a bit concerned that the resource may be lost at any volume.

Hmm, thinking....

Quote:

This is normal for breeding chickens. Most Breeders stop hatching now and start back up in January.

I imagine at some point they work at building and improving their own stock also.

 

[ronott1]

Quote:
I imagine at some point they work at building and improving their own stock also.

Yes and many are starting the show season--That take up a lot of time. When the light goes low and egg production drops(Cock birds lose fertility too) they stop for sure in the Fall. With the recent heat wave, many cannot get fertile egg because of that.

We are not talking about big hatcheries here though. The do a lot of artificial things to keep breeding going.

 

[DesertChic]

Thanks Beekissed for your insight. I don't know what it is about chickens, but they do not die easily :-( . I doubt if shooting would make it any faster.
Interesting about the feed, that makes perfect sense........ that chickens would pick up the flavour of what they are eating. I wonder if feeding oregano and garlic would pre- season the meat? ;-) Just kidding! But actually I've read that oregano has some very good properties and it's used in chicken feed in Europe.

Oregano is an awesome anti-viral with natural antibiotic properties. Anytime anyone in my family starts to show signs of illness I whip out the oregano oil capsules and the illness disappears very quickly. I add both oregano and hot chili pepper seasoning to my chickens' fermented/soaked feed multiple times per year just to help boost their overall well-being. I've heard that oregano increases egg production, but I'm not sure if that's true or not. All I know is that I've very rarely had any sick chickens. Heat stroke is the only the only real killer on my little farm.

 

[lcertuche]

I too hate the thought of any animal suffering. I've never stabbed a brain, never even heard of it until I saw it on YouTube. I actually just hung them by their feet on a string from a tree and cut their throat. I may try the cone thing though. I hate that flopping.

 

[DesertChic]

We're having a ton of rain right now. It was 80* with 80% humidity at 7:00 a.m. this morning. My chickens are loving it, but it's making it hard for me to get everything done I need to do so...I'll just share some cute chick photos from this past weekends hatch.


This little guy is the only egg I hatched from my own birds. It's a Bielefelder/White Rock mix and I'm really curious to see how it will feather out.

The rest of the chicks came from eggs I bought from @lpatelski . I can't believe how quickly they're growing!






This last one is a bit more colorful, so I'm including a shot of the top of it too.

 

[DesertChic]

I too hate the thought of any animal suffering. I've never stabbed a brain, never even heard of it until I saw it on YouTube. I actually just hung them by their feet on a string from a tree and cut their throat. I may try the cone thing though. I hate that flopping.

The cone helps a lot, but you still may want to secure the legs. I had one bird contort itself and escape the cone before I started tying their legs to the post the cone is attached to.