Butchering Quail Without Beheading

[coyotelaughing]

So, I've a dumb question for y'all. I need to butcher a quail tomorrow, an aggressive and poorly behaved rooster that I can't afford to keep with the rest of my little flock. He'll go in my freezer and be delicious once I cook him. However, he's beautiful, and I'm pretty experienced in skinning and preserving hides of all sorts. I figured it would be nice to keep his whole skin once he's dead. It's just getting him dead that's the issue. The only way I know to butcher birds is to behead them which runs contrary to my desire to keep the whole skin, head and all.

Is there a way to kill my rooster that is both humane, newb-friendly, and keeps the head skin intact? I don't need the skull so I'm not opposed to shooting him with my air rifle if needed but I'm really nervous to try as this is my first time killing a quail, let alone one of my own birds. I want to do this right. If killing him by beheading is the best way, then that's what I'll do. Just hoping there were some other methods out there for this time.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Could you behead him and then just stitch the skin back together? If you don't cut through all the feathers, they should hide the stitching.
If you think you can hit him with an air rifle, that'll work. The goal is to destroy the brain as quickly as possible, and shooting something through the head with a comparatively large projectile is absolutely humane, possibly more so than beheading. It's not known if the brain of a bird is still aware for any length of time after beheading.

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

Tie the birds feet, hang it upside down. Use a sharp short blade knife and cut the throat at the base of the neck being sure you sever the jugular vein. Immediately insert the point of the knife into the birds mouth and force it through the roof of the mouth toward the brain cavity. Give the knife a quarter turn. Beheading is quicker for a newbie though.

 

[le_bwah]

Beheading is definitely the most newb-friendly and (IMO) the most humane conventional method.

Oxygen displacement is cruel to anything bigger than a chick, and an overdose is unrealistic unless you have the tools and barbiturates on hand.

If you have someone else hold the bird for you, you can part the feathers on the neck and try to make as precise a snip as possible with sharp shears—kills quickly and can avoid destroying the feathers.

 

[le_bwah]

I've never preserved a whole skin, but I did dehydrate some of the wings of the more gorgeous roos I've had to cull. Kinda feels like a serial killer taking trophies, but it's not like they're using them anymore.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Bird taxidermy is tricky, it's hard to get the feathers to look right without the bird available to de-rumple them. It's certainly worth a shot, though.

Clearly you wouldn't do this with the ones you keep for appearances, but dried bird wings make AMAZING cat toys. Just leave them somewhere hot and dry for awhile, and they'll dehydrate enough to preserve them as long as they aren't left somewhere really wet. It smells like birds, it's textured nicely, it's too soft to hurt any claws or teeth, and all of it is edible.

 

[le_bwah]

Bird taxidermy is tricky, it's hard to get the feathers to look right without the bird available to de-rumple them. It's certainly worth a shot, though.

Clearly you wouldn't do this with the ones you keep for appearances, but dried bird wings make AMAZING cat toys. Just leave them somewhere hot and dry for awhile, and they'll dehydrate enough to preserve them as long as they aren't left somewhere really wet. It smells like birds, it's textured nicely, it's too soft to hurt any claws or teeth, and all of it is edible.

Never thought of that! (But I'm too sentimental to let my cats have them)

I used a box with salt in the bottom and holes poked through the lid—took about a week for the muscle and skin to firm up. I've got some taxidermy pheasants that are pretty well done—I'd totally commission somebody to preserve my quail if I knew anyone locally!

 

[fire370]

I can show way easier than probably explaining. Hold bird in nondominate hand, with the dominant hand place the neck right below the head in the the second joint from the fingernail of the index finger and pinch with the tip of your thumb. You will feel the neck sever without breaking the skin and you’ll have a dead clean quail. I cull chicks and quail this way when I don’t want a mess. Here is a crappy pic with a chick trying to show you kind how to to do it. Nobody else here and not going out to the pens for a grown bird.

 

[le_bwah]

I can show way easier than probably explaining. Hold bird in nondominate hand, with the dominant hand place the neck right below the head in the the second joint from the fingernail of the index finger and pinch with the tip of your thumb. You will feel the neck sever without breaking the skin and you’ll have a dead clean quail. I cull chicks and quail this way when I don’t want a mess. Here is a crappy pic with a chick trying to show you kind how to to do it. Nobody else here and not going out to the pens for a grown bird. View attachment 1661616

Cervical dislocation is better for chicks (or mice/rats, if you work in a lab). If you're gonna try it on adult quail, just make sure you do it decisively—otherwise you've got a paralyzed/agonized animal you'll have to do in another way.

 

[fire370]

Cervical dislocation is better for chicks (or mice/rats, if you work in a lab). If you're gonna try it on adult quail, just make sure you do it decisively—otherwise you've got a paralyzed/agonized animal you'll have to do in another way.

I was taught to do it that way by my dad when I was a pup. Been killing adult quail that way for 40+ years. Fast and easy but I suppose doing it so often makes it become second nature.

But hey, what do I know. Just a dumb ol farmer. LOL