Can I kill my birds without taking away their food?

[Scooter&Suzie]

So I know in an ideal situation you should remove feed anywhere from 12-48 hours before butchering them. However DH and I are currently living with relatives and they would like them gone. Like really want them gone, which is why I don't even want to wait until tomorrow. It's very kind of them to let us live with them until we find a house so I'm trying to be as little of a bother and as helpful as I can be.

I have coturnix quail, not chickens, but I thought it is probably better suited here since I imagine quail and chickens are similar enough for this. If I'm incorrect I'll go to the quail thread.

 

[sourland]

Yes you can. It's just that's it's generally cleaner to process birds without full crops and guts. Just gut carefully.

 

[Scooter&Suzie]

Yes you can. It's just that's it's generally cleaner to process birds without full crops and guts. Just gut carefully.

Thank you so much! I will be very careful

 

[Molpet]

Yes you can. It's just that's it's generally cleaner to process birds without full crops and guts. Just gut carefully.

x2

 

[Ridgerunner]

I never withdraw food from my chickens before I butcher them. People that hunt birds never withhold food before they shoot them. If I nick something and get a spill, I rinse well and keep going.

 

[Scooter&Suzie]

Just to update it went very well with no incidents. By the end I was getting rough removing the insides and they still came out without a mess.

 

[BarnGems]

Withholding food helps reduce the amount of possible poop and semi digested food mess during butchering. Choosing a best practice that doesn't involve using a knife too close to the intestines will help minimize risks too. Such as with quail just pulling apart the rib cage from the back. As animals pass away they can defecate and you could cause some to come out during butchering possibly contaminating your work surface and the meat. Not ideal to do it but if you have no choice, have some bleach and paper towels on hand and be ready to clean should any poop show up. It is definitely doable.

 

[BarnGems]

I never withdraw food from my chickens before I butcher them. People that hunt birds never withhold food before they shoot them. If I nick something and get a spill, I rinse well and keep going.

Hunted animals don't normally have access to the huge amounts of food we feed our domestics and normally don't have the volume of waste our food animals do. It's similar but not really the same thing. I think it's a waste to give that feed the last day. They won't get to process/digest it so it's like throwing money away.

 

[MelissaRose]

Just to update it went very well with no incidents. By the end I was getting rough removing the insides and they still came out without a mess.

Glad to hear it went ok.

 

[BarnGems]

Just to update it went very well with no incidents. By the end I was getting rough removing the insides and they still came out without a mess.

Enjoy those yummy quail