Catching Free Range Birds for Slaughter?

[Rin]

I have a free range flock of about 9 Australorp roosters about ready for slaughter. Only problem is they're a lot faster and agile than I was expecting them to be and somewhere along the line they decided they didn't like the coop as much as other places. I've tried setting a trap with cracked corn bait and it only worked to fool 6. The other three refused to go in. I then tried netting them but even in the run trap This was met with extreme difficulty(and two managed to escape with me attempting to net one for butcher). Now. Despite all this effort I just have one roast chicken, 3 in a run trap and 5 completely distrustful roosters who wont let me go near um.

I'm thinking a BB gun with enough pumps might bring them down - maybe not kill but at least stun long enough for me to grab, string um up and finish the deed? Yay or nay? Any suggestions here? I can't afford a real gun and they also run for the hills even when I attempt to grab them at night while they're sleeping. They can hear/see me and wake from a dead sleep to run to the shadows.

 

[inohio]

where do they sleep... they'd be much easier to grab hold of after dark unless they're roosting high up in a tree.

 

[Saltysteele]

do you feed them? if so, stop feeding them one night, then feed them the next night and walk away. when they see you as no harm, they should go to the feeder (hopefully in the coop)

i feed my chickens at night, because otherwise it's a pain in the arse to get all the little buggers in. when they see me coming with the food, they all come running. the teenagers will go to the coop on their own at night, but the tweenagers fart around and make themselves owl bait, so i still have to lock them in the coop and run.

the food is the only way i can get them out from under the spruce trees and in their run without chasing them and sweating my arse off for 1/2 hour.

if you don't feed them, this obviously won't work.

 

[groundpecker]

I would build a temporary small pen. Throw them some food for couple days inside the pen. When slaughter time comes, you can trap them in.

 

[Fool]

Maybe a net trap?

http://www.wildlifecontrolsupplies....01&Product_Code=WCSRC36&Category_Code=NWSBT00

 

[teach1rusl]

Do they roost inside at night??? If so, that's your best bet. Go out around 11 and grab them one at a time and stick them in a pen...

 

[Rin]

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Sadly my property is very thick with brush, they roost up under my AC unit in the frame work and the minute I come within a yard of them they scatter to the nearby brush to effectively hide in the shadows. Not a tree but good enough I can't do squat about it. Even with a flashlight I can't find them.. Not only this but my other birds (not for butcher!) who don't run can't see very well so turn full on aggressive and charge at me thinking I might be a bear. XD


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I feed them daily and always by hand(tossing it around while calling for um) so I can be certain nothing is left laying around to attract bears. I think a huge part of their fear is I raised them alongside cornish X's and had to slaughter all their wimmens one by one until over half their flock was suddenly gone. Even with hand feeding they wont approach me until loooong after everyone else is eating and I've left so hopefully a day of hunger might make them that bit more eager to come to me? Yours sounds like the most plausable thing for me mentioned thus far tbh. XD

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That was the very first method I mentioned trying - 3 were too leery to go and even after capture two escaped during attempts to grab one with a net. :'(

Quote:
Very good idea but I probably should have mentioned I have more birds than these running around. Friendlier ones. Tamer ones. Ones I really really don't want to set off a trap like that but are bound to since they go to bait before the Australorps (The Austras really do sorta use them as a guage for "is this safe?").

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Nope and even if I did they wake up REALLY fast. I'd honestly be terrified of being attacked by all of them if they can't find an escape route.

 

[Fool]

I would probably use an airgun with a scope, firing pellets (no bb's). Team that up with a red light and shoot 'em off the roost. If you gave them a chance to settle down and relax after each shot you may be able to clear the roost in a couple of nights.