Can you stun the bird before you cut its throat?

[awesomefowl]

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I hate doing it. But that is what I do. I tie them upside down, and cut their throats. They are dead within thirty seconds.

 

[BarefootMom]

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agreed. we just stepped on their head and pulled. it was quick for us and for them. That way you can do 2 at a time.

 

[Clay Valley Farmer]

Given the chicken is being raised with the purpose of meat, the quality of meat does matter and one of the keys to getting good quality meat is proper bleeding. Chopping the head off is not the absolute best in that respect. If the circulation to the brain is cut off by quickly severing the main blood vessels in the neck unconciousness should set in very quickly, well before the heart stops. Having no blood flow to the brain and the head physically detached will have very much the same effect with the slight difference that control signals from the deep brain will keep the heart pumping a little longer.

Certainly this is an individual thing and everyone will have their own standards of what is acceptable, but the practice of bleeding out through the neck has been proven effective and practiced for centuries on may different livestock and game animals.

Also IMHO slittling a chickens neck while in a cone is going to be safer and less messy than the axe and chopping block. Memories of having headless chickens flopping about can be improved upon.

 

[Buster52]

Yeah, well, while I will slit birds meant for others, I will continue to chop when processing solely for my own table. I don't mind the blood (nobody has been able to prove to me that it is detrimental to the taste) and am convinced it is the quicker, more humane (if only slightly) option. I'm better with an axe than with a sharp knife, anyway, so it is actually likely safer for me.

And if the bird is flopping all over the ground, you aren't doing it right.