Culled my first quail. Debrief thread.

Date sort Score sort
I have a big very very sharp pair of utility shears and it feels about like clipping a shoelace with them, I never notice the neck bone.

Lavlady went out and bought a pair just like mine, ask her for a ladies perspective on them.

I think they were about 15 bucks at WM.

I'll post a photo so you'll know exactly what to get if you like them.





Note how they are joined with a lug so they can be separated for easy cleaning and sharpening, there's a ceramic sharpener on the scabbard
either side could be used for a knife, very sharp. I won't let anyone touch mine. They only have the one job.
 
T
Quail Jailer said:
I have a big very very sharp pair of utility shears and it feels about like clipping a shoelace with them, I never notice the neck bone. Lavlady went out and bought a pair just like mine, ask her for a ladies perspective on them. I think they were about 15 bucks at WM. I'll post a photo so you'll know exactly what to get if you like them. Note how they are joined with a lug so they can be separated for easy cleaning and sharpening, there's a ceramic sharpener on the scabbard either side could be used for a knife, very sharp. I won't let anyone touch mine. They only have the one job.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the recommendation! So maybe my scissors just aren't sharp enough then? My husband bought a pair of heavy duty secateurs but they are too big for me to hold properly so I had to use my meat scissors. They were the same kind used in one of the tutorials I watched. Is WM Walmart? We don't have that here in Australia.
 
CrazyQuailLady said:
I recognise that video! That's the one that warned about feeling the spine. Didn't realise he was DC from this forum.
Click to expand...

LOL, He's a Bird Murder Celebrity
lau.gif
 
I'm glad to see the videos help people. I wasn't sure how many people would ever see them, but I figured if I made it easier for anyone, it would be a good thing. I have to admit that helping people was actually not my primary goal. I had the idea that if I let people see the act and showed them quick easy ways to do it, it would make them more comfortable, thereby making it easier on their livestock. It's a terrible feeling when you half kill something and have to watch it suffer.

I started helping out processing livestock and game as a kid and my family was very strict about husbandry of the animals we were processing. Every animal was cared for the same as a pet would be, regarding health regiment and general care. Despite having plenty of experienced oversight I still made a lot of mistakes in learning the proper way to handle animals you are butchering. Honestly fowl are the hardest because it isn't sensible to just shoot them. You have to do it with your hands which leaves plenty of extra room for murphy. I'll never forget the first chicken I failed at. It got up and ran blindly around with me crying, chasing it trying to finish the job, it was pretty awful for an 8-9 year old. Since then and even still, it's happened on occasion. Human error is unavoidable. Knowing all that, I wanted to spare you brave souls jumping into processing, as much grief as possible. As a kid I thought it was pretty tough but, you guys have a much harder hill to climb than i ever did. Someone made me do it until it just became a normal part of my life. You guys chose to get closer to your food out of intelligent design or curiosity or lack of extra cages lol. I think that's pretty cool.

Where feelings are concerned, I do not feel bad about processing livestock in any way. I do however have a deep respect for the process and feel that it should always be done quickly and humanely, but I have no guilt to associate with it. At first you will probably be upset by it. This is actually a good thing, it means you aren't likely to become a serial killer anytime soon. After a while it becomes more natural and you begin to treat it only as a job that has to be done.

As far as what method I use; I practice the stone age method of wringing. I believe I mention it but I neglect to show in the processing video how I actually do it, it requires practiced hands, and I didn't want any beginners experimenting. QJ is the only person I'm aware of who's noticed. In the processing video you'll see the birds are all dead but their heads are still attached. After you practice enough you can be sure you are humanely killing the bird and at the same time not remove the head. I do it that way because people help me clean the carcasses and they react much better when I hand them an intact bird vs. a decapitated bloody carcass.
 
dc3085 said:
I'm glad to see the videos help people. I wasn't sure how many people would ever see them, but I figured if I made it easier for anyone, it would be a good thing. I have to admit  that helping people was actually not my primary goal. I had the idea that if I let people see the act and showed them quick easy ways to do it, it would make them more comfortable, thereby making it easier on their livestock. It's a terrible feeling when you half kill something and have to watch it suffer. 

I started helping out processing livestock and game as a kid and my family was very strict about husbandry of the animals we were processing. Every animal was cared for the same as a pet would be, regarding health regiment and general care. Despite having plenty of experienced oversight I still made a lot of mistakes in learning the proper way to handle animals you are butchering. Honestly fowl are the hardest because it isn't sensible to just shoot them. You have to do it with your hands which leaves plenty of extra room for murphy. I'll never forget the first chicken I failed at. It got up and ran blindly around with me crying, chasing it trying to finish the job, it was pretty awful for an 8-9 year old. Since then and even still, it's happened on occasion. Human error is unavoidable. Knowing all that, I wanted to spare you brave souls jumping into processing, as much grief as possible. As a kid I thought it was pretty tough but, you guys have a much harder hill to climb than i ever did. Someone made me do it until it just became a normal part of my life. You guys chose to get closer to your food out of intelligent design or curiosity or lack of extra cages lol. I think that's pretty cool. 

Where feelings are concerned, I do not feel bad about processing livestock in any way. I do however have a deep respect for the process and feel that it should always be done quickly and humanely, but I have no guilt to associate with it. At first you will probably be upset by it. This is actually a good thing, it means you aren't likely to become a serial killer anytime soon. After a while it becomes more natural and you begin to treat it only as a job that has to be done. 

As far as what method I use; I practice the stone age method of wringing. I believe I mention it but I neglect to show in the processing video how I actually do it, it requires practiced hands, and I didn't want any beginners experimenting. QJ is the only person I'm aware of who's noticed. In the processing video you'll see the birds are all dead but their heads are still attached. After you practice enough you can be sure you are humanely killing the bird and at the same time not remove the head. I do it that way because people help me clean the carcasses and they react much better when I hand them an intact bird vs. a decapitated bloody carcass. 
Click to expand...


I think there are a lot of people who just can't and shouldn't kill animals
I'm certainly one of them, the animal would end up suffering if I tried
Because I would panic

Those scissors remind me of an awful news story recently about a Romanian orphanage when midwives were killing new
Born babies by snipping the spinal cord at the back of the neck with meat scissors

My dilemma would be finding someone I trusted to kill and cockerels humanly ,
I've over socialised my chicks they are very trusting so it will be a wrench when they have to go
 
I also noticed your processing video showing birds with heads intact. Was curious how / why you did it. I witnessed as a kid people just slit the throats of chickens and ducks and held it firmly to drain out all the blood. Would that be considered humane? I think with the heads intact the birds could still "feel" the pain, no?
 
Pinkaboo said:
I think there are a lot of people who just can't and shouldn't kill animals
I'm certainly one of them, the animal would end up suffering if I tried
Because I would panic

Those scissors remind me of an awful news story recently about a Romanian orphanage when midwives were killing new
Born babies by snipping the spinal cord at the back of the neck with meat scissors

My dilemma would be finding someone I trusted to kill and cockerels humanly ,
I've over socialised my chicks they are very trusting so it will be a wrench when they have to go
Click to expand...

This actually happened last year in Pennsylvania or Ohio. It wasn't an orphanage, it was an abortion clinic.
 

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