Butchering

[jrmewag]

Novice question....
Would there be a reason against snapping the birds neck to kill it before blood letting? Does or would it compromise the meat?
Not opposed to cones or flat out removing the head but not a fan of letting the bird bleed to death (i.e.; a cut that won't instantly kill the bird)

 

[QueenMisha]

It won't get as good of a bleed; nowhere near as good, actually. The amount of blood which drains in birds which are decapitated vs. exanguinatated is actually pretty significant; decapitation seems to get only about 2/3 as much blood drained. Having the heart pumping really does make a lot of difference.

Also, depending on how strong you are, it may not be easy to simply snap the bird's neck. I'm a 5'4" female who throws 50# feed bags around for a living and I have trouble breaking the neck of anything bigger than a large hen or young rooster; old cocks, very large hens, big CX, and any species larger than that, I am hard pressed to snap the neck with any kind of ease.

 

[jrmewag]

Never thought about the heart pumping pushing the blood out.

Does Decapitation work with their involuntary muscle contractions afterwards? I.e. Running around like a chicken with its head cut off. We have seen the cone methods and most likely will be using that. However we had seen some with the slitting the throat to bleed out and some complete decapitation. And we were leaning more to decap method, so we wondered.

 

[blucoondawg]

Decapitation isn't likely getting as much blood out as slitting the neck in a kill cone however it has been done for hundreds of years that way along with wringing their necks. One thing to consider is when using the kill cone and bleeding is that the bird very quickly lose consciousness from the fast loss of blood and die very quickly after you will notice they start kicking about much like when they have their head severed. A quick slash with a very sharp blade is pretty painless, the bird in my opinion is not suffering by bleeding out.

 

[blucoondawg]

I would think putting the birds on a cone and severing the head would be a pain and also cause more stress to the bird than a quick slice to the neck or using the ax and chipping block. Unless you use A large pruning shears to make the head sever very quickly I would not put a bird in a cone and sever the head with a knife

 

[jrmewag]

I certainly appreciate all of the input and advice!!! You guys are awesome

 

[rottlady]

I read recently that bleeding is better for meat quality and that decap causes the meat to be tougher. My family has always killed chickens via ax and chopping block but we will be having meat birds this fall and trying to decide A) what is best for quality meat B) best for the bird and C) best for the person doing the killing

 

[eviemethugh]

I would think putting the birds on a cone and severing the head would be a pain and also cause more stress to the bird than a quick slice to the neck or using the ax and chipping block. Unless you use A large pruning shears to make the head sever very quickly I would not put a bird in a cone and sever the head with a knife

To calm chickens people often hold them by their feet and let their head hang. The cones are very calming. Last year out of 100 chickens we had maybe 3 that acted like it was so awful...1 of them became an expert at escaping the cone. Ha! Otherwise they calm down and poke their heads right out. I would say they die in just a few seconds with a small quick cut to each side of the neck. Much calmer and nicer than when we decapitated a 30lb turkey who then proceeded to "swim" around our yard for 5 minutes...headless! I think using the chickens own systems to facilitate a quick and easy death is very respectful to its life.

 

[blucoondawg]

Most of mine didn't calm very well in the cone I had to grab their comb and pull their head down out of the cones to make the slice, some were much more clam but I'd say it was half and half