Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Beekissed]

And in just a few posts, the fine line...that isn't so very fine...between pet owners and chicken owners can be defined, whether you are doing it for a hobby or for an income/supplementing the family food supply.

It all comes down to money and time. A wise person wastes neither unless for a good cause...chickens just ain't one of those "good causes" to the practical person.

 

[donna8424]

When prosing a bird for meat is it easier on the bird? Decapitate or cut the throat.
Thanks for all the valued info OT’s

 

[halo]

You might want to post that on the meat thread. Theres a lot of good information there about the different ways to kill chickens.

 

[Marthab1953]

Quote:
How can this be true? Corn is a plant native to the Americas. European explorers got it from the native Americans and took it back to Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, and from there spread it throughout the known world. Here is a reality check: the native americans already had rotted teeth and poor nutrition (as did the rest of the world...thank the Lord for Crest toothpaste and vitamin supplements). Corn already was THE staple food of Native Americans, and their gift to the "whiteman". At that time there were known varieties of corn, two major groups being what we now call field and sweet corn. In 1779 the Iroquois introduced European settlers to sweet corn (what they called Papoon). The only varieties known in Europe at that time were field corn (which the got from the Americas via Spanish explorers a century earlier).

Corn gets a bad rap today, and corn-haters float many myths. It is truly the wonderfood (though I am not a big fan of Round Up ready corn). When kept within its proper use, of course....and when properly supplemented. Interestingly, many colonists suffered negative health cosequences because while they incorporated Native American corn into their diets, they ignored tradional Indian practices when cooking with corn, resulting in serious health deficiences. For example, when cooking corn and cornmeal, Native Americans had developed a practice of incorporating ash from the fire into the food, and the mineral mix in this ash increased the availability of vitamin B3 from the corn. Colonists thought the practice barbaric, and thus sufered unknowingly from poor nutrition.

Of course, I'm almost old enough to remember some of this history first hand.

At least someone remembers the history of the Indians and the Pilgrams.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
I have no idea which is easier on the bird, but the way we do it is we have a cable with a slip loop hanging in the plum tree. I catch the bird, hang it by it's feet in the slip loop, take my kill knife and firmly grab the head, extend the neck and very quickly just remove the head. In about a minute it's bleed out and I dip it and start plucking.

 

[RHRanch]

Okay - Here goes...and I'm sorry if I come across as a bit curt, but I gotta say it:

If you don't want to end up every week on the "Pest and Predators" message board, do yourself and your birds a favor and come up with some secure housing, especially for at night when most predators are active. It may take some money, it may take some time, but not as much as it takes to constantly whine about how "another one of my birds was killed by that evil (insert predator name here)!" (Also takes up so much of my time to try to "gently" suggest the most obvious fix in most cases, building good housing.

Depending on trapping isn't a sure way to keep your flock safe, and really is more like a band-aid. If you have done everything you can to keep your birds safe, then by all means post your question, but if your birds just live like "sitting ducks" - I think you know who to blame.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Dispatching.

There are cultural, heritage, handed down differences in the proper killing of the chicken. I was taught VERY carefully, very strictly and here is our heritage. Realizing it is just one of many handed down methods, taught from father to son, grandmother to grandson for thousands of years, down through countless generations.


Gather the chicken and grasp the wing tips, gathering the wing tips down to ankles of the chicken. The chicken calms. With this grip of two wings and two ankles, transfer this grip into one hand. If you lose a wing, start again. Holding the chicken with the one hand grip, the other hand is free. Lay the chicken's neck and head on the chopping block. In our case, that block was solid, aged elm and 20" in diameter. Taking the hatchet, sharpened to a razor edge, wait for the chicken to extend it's neck, giving a long, no miss target. With a swift, purposeful strike... chop. Clean kill every time.

Continue to hold the chicken. No wing flapping. No letting go. Do not want the meat bruised. In a few moments the impulses will cease. Stick this chick, neck first into tapered pail. Do another and another until the bucket is filled with 4 or 5 birds. Take the bucket to scalding/plucking station. I was too young to scald.
I had dispatched over a 1000 birds before my 12th birthday.

 

[Clay Mudd]

Fred's Hens :

Dispatching.

There are cultural, heritage, handed down differences in the proper killing of the chicken. I was taught VERY carefully, very strictly and here is our heritage. Realizing it is just one of many handed down methods, taught from father to son, grandmother to grandson for thousands of years, down through countless generations.


Gather the chicken and grasp the wing tips, gathering the wing tips down to ankles of the chicken. The chicken calms. With this grip of two wings and two ankles, transfer this grip into one hand. If you lose a wing, start again. Holding the chicken with the one hand grip, the other hand is free. Lay the chicken's neck and head on the chopping block. In our case, that block was solid, aged elm and 20" in diameter. Taking the hatchet, sharpened to a razor edge, wait for the chicken to extend it's neck, giving a long, no miss target. With a swift, purposeful strike... chop. Clean kill every time.

Continue to hold the chicken. No wing flapping. No letting go. Do not want the meat bruised. In a few moments the impulses will cease. Stick this chick, neck first into tapered pail. Do another and another until the bucket is filled with 4 or 5 birds. Take the bucket to scalding/plucking station. I was too young to scald.
I had dispatched over a 1000 birds before my 12th birthday.

You don't even give him a Valium first?

Sorry, couldn't resist! I appreciate your post, as I've got four roosters destined for the smoker very soon.​

 

[NinnyGillaspie]

DH did his first a couple weeks ago. Brought it in to me ready to set in the fridge. I like it that way. lol

 

[Marthab1953]

Quote:
I don't know which is easier on the bird but I have always used my hatchet and made it quick and painless, In all my years I have butchered hundreds of chickens, maybe thousands, I do not know. but I always made sure it was humanely quick and painless. My kids are all grown now and in different states and I can buy chickens for me and my husband cheaper than I can raise them so now I raise bantams for eggs and I enjoy them, but I can and do cull them when need be.