butchering without bleeding out?

[Rizingfire]

I did turkeys with a family friend when I was like 12yrs old & as an animal lover it was kinda traumatizing tbh. We stuck a blade through their eye socket to lobotomize them after being put in a upside down cone then slit their throat & let em bleed out.

I want to get into homesteading so the quicker, less traumatic "off with their head," method seems far quicker & more humane. I'd think once the head is off you could squeeze a lil like cpr to get what's left to pump out...im thankful for this thread cuz I was kinda having 2nd thoughts after thinking about the process as I knew it.

 

[Berd Man]

Out of curiosity, did you notice that there was blood in the meat? I have had birds die naturally and I don’t waste them, whenever I’ve not bled a meat bird there is blood still in the vessels within the breast meat. When sliced the capillaries or veins will be full of blood. It doesn’t “ruin” the meat but it is blood so it’s more irony tasting IMO

 

[Themellowyellows]

Breaking the necks, doesn't that make them suffer? As you mentioned they flap there wings...

 

[Ridgerunner]

Breaking the necks, doesn't that make them suffer? As you mentioned they flap there wings...

I consider that a good question. This is the meat bird part of the forum where we discuss raising, butchering, and cooking poultry. The vast majority of us do not want the bird to suffer. Our goal is to give the bird a good life and then one bad moment. And we try to minimize that bad moment. That is a very common topic in this section of the forum.

When the nerves are severed, by cutting or breaking the neck, the pain cannot get to the brain. The nerves are disconnected. Hopefully that is instantaneous. That is another thing we discuss, the techniques to minimize or eliminate that suffering. There is often a learning curve in how to do it properly so unfortunately it may take practice. But the goal is to minimize or eliminate that suffering.

With those nerves disconnected the brain cannot send out any signal to the nerves in the rest of the body. So yes, the bird will flop around but that is nerves reacting without any central guidance. It does not mean the bird is suffering but it can be hard to watch.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

We stuck a blade through their eye socket to lobotomize them after being put in a upside down cone then slit their throat & let em bleed out.

That sounds horrifying. I use the broomstick method which is significantly faster than decapitation or neck cutting