Butchering single chicken without cone, needing advice

[Ninjasquirrel]

"Can I do this correctly? What if I mess up and cause the bird to suffer?"

Getting better at it can make that particular emotion go away--at some point you do trust that you can do it right. But I think you're right that other emotions about chicken killing don't go away over time.

Very well put. When I've had to kill them its because they were roos that I had no room for and could not be rehomed. I have yet to do so specifically for food but it is in the 5 year plan. When that happens though I will love my egg layers and distance myself from my food. We plan to have 2 coops just for that purpose. Right now its just the one. We've only had to put down one egglayer because she was slowly dying and suffering

 

[Ridgerunner]

My commercial poultry neighbor said bleeding them out yields the best tasting meat where cervical dislocation methods are more humane for killing, but they don’t make the best tasting meat.

Some people let the pursuit of perfection stress them out to a ridiculous degree and prevent them from doing something that is better than the majority of the alternatives. I generally agree with your neighbor, bleeding out is a good thing. But you can still get great meat by other methods. "Best" is pretty subjective by itself. "Best tasting" is really subjective. We all have out own opinions.

 

[Winter Creek Coop]

Does anyone wring necks anymore? I still do for singles. It breaks the neck and often bleeds them as well of the head pops off. Grab by the neck, spin it a couple or three times, raise, lower, raise quickly like cracking a whip to snap the neck and maybe remove the head.

All of that said; just get a little help from someone and then you don’t have to try the single person methods.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

All of that said; just get a little help from someone and then you don’t have to try the single person methods.

I may be a woman, but when it comes to meat chickens I wear the pants in the family lol. I don’t want to, but I understand it’s necessary.

 

[Winter Creek Coop]

I may be a woman, but when it comes to meat chickens I wear the pants in the family lol. I don’t want to, but I understand it’s necessary.

Hey, where did you find meat chicken pants? Hehe just kidding.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Hey, where did you find meat chicken pants? Hehe just kidding.

I had to dig pretty deep in the closet but they were there

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I keep mine in the barn, next to the chainsaw chaps, and the paint splattered blue jeans...

 

[Winter Creek Coop]

I keep mine in the barn, next to the chainsaw chaps, and the paint splattered blue jeans...

I may not accomplish much in 2021, but by gosh I will have me some meat chicken pants this year.

 

[3KillerBs]

I may not accomplish much in 2021, but by gosh I will have me some meat chicken pants this year.

I was actually thinking that some kind of smock or butcher's coat might be useful when the time comes.

 

[Kiraeh]

I've used zip ties around the legs and a bungee cord around a tree branch for mine, bungee isn't ideal but it worked.

I need to build a little stand for it next summer, none of my good tree branches are out of sight of the coop and letting the flock watch is too morbid for me.

Emotionally, I make sure my knife is really sharp, and remind myself that every animal I eat has to die, and most don't live as well or go as easily as even my imperfect attempts. They're all individual sparks just like my favourite rowdy cockerels and they live and die and suffer, people get sick in meat packing plants or are underpaid/abused farm labour, and there's very few things I consume that don't have knock on effects of suffering and environmental damage, even if I don't ever know the detail, but meat I raise and slaughter myself, that's the smallest amount of suffering I can put out into the world, even if sometimes I make a mistake and there is some.