Culling - Break Neck Method - BEWARE - NOT A PC JOKE - NOT KIDDING

[lacyloo]

guess you want be ringing any more necks in the next few days..

 

[jackiedon]

PC,

I'm sorry it happened because I know it had to be a hard thing to see.

We culled 4 roos this afternoon. I had been thinking dd and I could do this some weekend while DH was a work. I was fussing about how the polish roos all gang up on one hen. Which I fuss every time I see it. So DH said "I'll get my hatchet and ya'll bring 'em to me" I just couldn't look when he whacked them.

One thing I learned is I will never put them in boiling water again before plucking. The plucking was just as easy and it didn't smell until I dipped them.

jackie

 

[Screebert]

I'm so sorry.

I made the same mistake.

The rooster looked at me funny while I twisted its neck. I knew death wasn't "happening" as quickly as I thought it would, so I ran for a kitchen knife I could find, and just started sawing. Only because I didn't want to leave the job unfinished. Killing was a lot more difficult than I expected. If had known, I wouldn't even have tried.

It was upsetting.

 

[silkiechicken]

Sorry for everyone with the troubles with this method. I have never used it for a bird older than a few weeks. Their neck bones and ligaments get so tough it's hard to get a good cervical dislocation and then even harder to try to finish it.

Jackiedon, did you use boiling water or 140-160 deg "scalding" water? Boiling water will make plucking a nightmare as it cooks the skin... that is the mistake I made the first time I plucked a chicken... I was 13 or 14 at the time.

 

[jeaucamom]

PC, so sorry you had such a horrible experience

At least maybe your telling it here will prevent someone else from having to go through that so thanks for sharing. Hopefully it was cathartic for you too. :aww

 

[TechEdFireman]

I was attacked a few times when I was younger and did things to the roos that I thought would kill them but they kept coming back to life. So here is how we butchered all our birds and it was not messy and gruesome. I did post this on the Sticky on the Meat Birds page so it is a repeat if you have read that topic.

When we would butcher when I was younger, we never chopped the head off and let the chicken run around. We hung the chicken from a piece of heavy copper wire shaped in a W. To keep the chicken's head from moving around too much we then took a piece of that same heavy gauge wire and had in the shape of a hook connected to a gallon jug half full of water to weight the chicken down this went through the nostrils, so all that could move would be their wings. To dispatch them we would take a sharp knife and cut the artery going to the brain in the back of the throat. They would bleed out this way with little or no mess. Then dunk them and pluck.

 

[jackiedon]

Silke,

It was almost boiling when I left the house and took it outside. All this is new to DH and I.

jackie

 

[cockadoodlemom]

So sorry PC

 

[MRNpoultry]

I got a question how come everbody talks about when they where young they whould go out there and ring a chickens neck for supper. If it worked then how come it doesn't work now?

Sorry about what happened to you pc.

 

[cresty]

I definitely remember my great grandmother just picking them up and whirling them around her head to kill them. Worked too. Practice, I guess.

I, too, read in a book that you could kill birds by breaking their necks. I had a one week old chick that I couldn't seem to help get any better so I thought it was time to put it down. I figured I could just break it's neck like the book said (I couldn't find my hatchet). It didn't work and the porr thing was chirping at me. I had felt the bones crack but it didn't die. I was squawling as I tried to finish the job. Haven't tried since. Fortunately, I've haven't needed to either.

Cresty