Can i use an axe to slaughter meat birds?

[CherokeeCowgirl]

Of course you can. We use a hatchet.

 

[Buster52]

Below is what I use. The blade is broad and flat, thus easier to strike the target and less likely to slip. I use the two nail method and use my fingers to find the exact location of the neck through the feathers before I swing so I'm less likely to miss.

You can pick this Vaughan axe up at Home Depot. Sharpen it well and it should do fine. I've done big turkeys with it and only needed a single swing.

I personally don't like slitting. Takes too long for the bird to die. Decapitation is about as fast as it gets.

PS
As a one time roofer and one from a roofing family, I don't make the distinction others are between an axe and hatchet. Every roofer I ever met called it a shingling axe.

If you tie or wire the feet and hang the decapitated bird over a bucket, there isn't much of a mess. Hanging the bird upside down does in fact relax it.

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

if you hang the bird upside down, then what? You cut his throat with a sharp knife? I have only used an axe all of my life....My Grandmother had me kill a turkey one time and she had me to hang it upside down by it's feet and slit it's throat...only problem is My Grandmother was not know for keeping sharp knives and I had to cut like the dickens to get his head off...I don't think I could do that again.

 

[CoopCrazy]

D'Angelo N Va. :

if you hang the bird upside down, then what? You cut his throat with a sharp knife? I have only used an axe all of my life....My Grandmother had me kill a turkey one time and she had me to hang it upside down by it's feet and slit it's throat...only problem is My Grandmother was not know for keeping sharp knives and I had to cut like the dickens to get his head off...I don't think I could do that again.

My plan is to setup my killing cones with a cutting board attached to the post directly behind them . Then use a sharp knife and remove the head..​

 

[TimG]

Quote:
One of the processors I have used puts a chicken in a cone over a barrel. They hold the head in one hand and slice off the head with a knife in the other hand. At least that's what it looked like to me. Is this possible? I have no idea how hard it would be to slice through the neck even with a very sharp knife.

 

[CoopCrazy]

Quote:
One of the processors I have used puts a chicken in a cone over a barrel. They hold the head in one hand and slice off the head with a knife in the other hand. At least that's what it looked like to me. Is this possible? I have no idea how hard it would be to slice through the neck even with a very sharp knife.

If you have a very sharp knife it will go thru like butter... I cant do Pithing as I feel the animal would suffer.. I will have a bucket attached to the cone to catch the head and blood..

 

[redhen]

We use the broomstick method for killing ours..i doubt that would be good for meat birds though??

 

[Bossroo]

How about using a bazooka... pull the trigger, kill , bleed out, eviscerate, tenderize, and cut up the whole flock all in one step. I use a sharp axe or meat cleaver or slit the throat with a sharp knife one bird at a time.

 

[CARS]

Quote:
Quit being a $mart a$$

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

If you do use an axe= KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN!