Culling.... what do you do exactly?

[ArizonaNessa]

Unfortunately some just can't survive and it is a necessary evil that some have to be culled to end their suffering. While I do not breed birds I do raise them and some are just messed up. I usually give them a good home if they are not suffering. I won't cull them just cause they look funny. If they get along just fine I let them live out there happy little lives. Lives of which are usually shorter than most other birds. I have a cross beak EE and a large fowl buff cochin with what I call chicken scoliosis. Nothing really wrong with her except she is bent in the middle. She gets along just fine with the other birds and they almost yield to her because they know she is different. I love her and she will stay til her dying day. Her name is Twisted Sister.

Now having said all of that if you are doing a breeding project you have to get rid of or cull out the less desirable birds. Personally if I were going to do a breeding project I would just rehome or sell the less desirable ones. Again why kill it for being ugly? I wouldn't want to die because my nose is bigger than everyone else's...would you?

When we do have to end their lives to end suffering for whatever reason my husband does it and he uses the dislocation method. You just hold the body in one hand and the head in the other and pull hard and fast. We have used this method for years UNTIL RECENTLY. The last bird I asked him to cull, he went out and did the deed and placed the bird in an empty feed sack and put it in the back til he got ready to dispose of it. Well he spaced it and I went on with my life and three days later... I had this strange bird show up in my yard. It never crossed my mind. I asked him about it when he got home and he went out to look at this bird that we thought got dumped off. He come back in the house mortified and said, "That is a zombie chicken!!" " I forgot about it and it came back to life!!" He told me it was dead but I guess it really wasn't. On the bright side the chicken lived and I wouldn't let him try again. I nursed that thing back to perfect health and a friend of mine took zombie chicken to free range on a huge farm.

So the lesson learned after years of raising chickens is....cut it's head off!!! Quick and clean with no hesitation. I personally just can't do it no matter how much I know it has to happen. It causes me a great deal of heartache and I usually have a panic attack at just the thought of it. Not everyone is like me though. I would suggest that you at least try once before you decide you can't. My issues are with the birds eyes. Yep I am a loo loo I suppose

Anyway if you find you have to do it and you just can't then try to find a friend or family member that can.

Good Luck and

 

[Beekissed]

I cull for nonlaying or for extra roos. Haven't had to cull for sickness, or unhealthy/deformed chicks yet.

For my adult birds, I process for eating. I place them upside down in my homemade killing cone (2 gal. bleach bottle nailed to a tree), slice quickly across the neck under the wattles but not through the spine itself. It seems to cause more neurological symptoms when severing the spine~such as quivering, spasms,etc.

The birds bleed out quickly, die quickly and without struggle and then are processed for eating.

If I had a sickly or deformed chick I would hold it by the legs, give it a swift downward swing on a hard surface to crush the skull/break the neck. It works for other small and fragile-boned animals, so I would assume it would work well for chicks.

 

[RocketDad]

I have a friend who tells me about her chickens. She has many more than I, living in the boonies. She says she uses a 9-iron to dispatch unpleasant roosters. The flock scatters when they see her come in with the nine over her shoulder . . .

 

[dichotomymom]

Yes, sorry I wasn't clear with that. I cut the head off. It's incredibly quick.

 

[LampreyGirls]

We need to cull our hen and I've read the thread here. We're also worried about blood in the snow attracting coyotes. Is this a possibility?

 

[dichotomymom]

They will know your girls are there, blood or not but yes, it will only "exacerbate" their senses. Just put down some newspaper or plastic bags wherever you're doing the deed.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

If you are just breaking the neck there should be no blood at all. If you slit her throat you can hang her over a container, a bucket or a garbage can, and hold her head to direct all the blood there. I hold the birds' heads in place for the minute or so it takes for them to stop thrashing around, then let them continue to bleed in the container. I don't like the blood to spatter around and attract predators either.

 

[Criskin]

Quote:
I use this method too. Hubby and the neighbors think I'm crazy but for me it is so much faster than the alternatives.


So far I have only had to cull 3 birds and did each one differently. One was a rooster who was injured when dogs got into my coops. He was in a lot of pain so I put him down myself using the axe on the block method (which I didn't like). The second was a rooster who was getting mean...I dispatched him with the hedge clippers. I did not enjoy it, but it was fast and I think painless for him. We had him for dinner that night. Today I had to cull a blue cochin roo that was getting brown plumage on his wings, making him unsuitable for breeding in my flock. I've always been fond of him, though, so I put him on Craigslist and found a nice lady who was willing to drive an hour to pick him up and give him a good home.

 

[patandchickens]

For chicks -- snip head off, bury under hazel or other bush where it can at least help the plant to grow.

For grown chickens -- if I just want to get rid of an individual(s) of a rare-ish breed because they do not meet my needs although there is nothing particularly wrong with them, I try to sell them. Otherwise, I eat them unless illness/infection is suspected... some of the birds killed for the table I've done with an axe, some by separating their neck. The two I've had to kill because they were suffering from conditions likely to make them unsuitable for consumption, I killed them as per above and buried them up top the hill at the back of the property under a honeysuckle bush.

It is good that you are confronting this subject now, without any particular pressing need... pretty much everyone will eventually be faced with at *least* a chick/chicken that is Clearly Not Going To Make It and perhaps needing to be put out of its misery in a prompt way.

Best of luck,

Pat

 

[Ibicella]

I try to sell first, but I do butcher for food or suffering. I don't mind deformities if the animal is otherwise healthy and not showing pain. I wouldn't breed them, but I don't see it as being necessary to kill them just because of deformity.

Normally I turn the chicken on it's back so it's "hypnotized" and they go limp (they aren't actually hypnotized, but it's a peaceful state for them) and then pith them by inserting a long thin knife through the mouth into the brain and giving it a twist. The chicken dies instantly and never knows what happened.

Just so you know, its ok to feel a bit sick about the idea. Even the most seasoned of us will still feel sad about this rather unpleasent side of our jobs as chicken owners. It means you have a warm and compassionate heart. It hurts when we have to do something seemingly against that kind of a heart, but it doesn't mean that when the time comes for you that your doing anything wrong, so long as you always work from that warmth and compassion that you have. So try not to beat yourself up, 'k? Your chickens are going to have wonderful lives with you.