Culling: When and How?

[Matt98]

My rooster attacked me again

I guess I have to face the facts that an aggressive roo is an aggressive roo. Worse still while defending myself I think I broke/injured his leg because he limped off fairly slow...
So here are the questions - When? I'm thinking of just grabbing him off the roost in the early morning but I don't want the girls to be afraid of me when he never comes back haha
And the grislier one of how - I will not be consuming his meat as it is tainted with evil lol but I still want his death to be relatively painless. How should I do it? I've never done it before and am fairly nervous

Anything else I should expect?
Thanks so much

 

[bobbi-j]

Go ahead and grab him off the roost. The hens will have no idea why he doesn't come back - they don't have that much ability to reason things out. The meat is not tainted with evil, it's tainted with testosterone - perfectly safe to eat, but your choice.

We use the stump-and-hatchet method here. Put two nails in a "v" shape in the stump, put the neck between the nails and lop the head off. It's over with in seconds. If you're not comfortable doing that, research killing cones and slitting the neck. Takes longer for the chicken to die since it's hanging there slowly bleeding out, but safer if you're not comfortable or sure of your aim with the hatchet, and there is less flopping around.

 

[Matt98]

Go ahead and grab him off the roost. The hens will have no idea why he doesn't come back - they don't have that much ability to reason things out. The meat is not tainted with evil, it's tainted with testosterone - perfectly safe to eat, but your choice.

We use the stump-and-hatchet method here. Put two nails in a "v" shape in the stump, put the neck between the nails and lop the head off. It's over with in seconds. If you're not comfortable doing that, research killing cones and slitting the neck. Takes longer for the chicken to die since it's hanging there slowly bleeding out, but safer if you're not comfortable or sure of your aim with the hatchet, and there is less flopping around.

I think I'd be okay with your method, but how bloody is it? I don't want it all squirting into my face haha

 

[bobbi-j]

Then you might want to use a cone and a sharp knife. It can get pretty messy my way... (it can tend to spurt)

 

[donrae]

x2 to bobbi-j's post. I use a cone here, for just one bird you can use pretty much anthing large enough to contain the bird's body and shoulders. Bleach bottles, things like that do just fine. They do tend to spurt when you first cut, but not for long. Things slow to a trickle quickly. Just suspend the cone over a trash can with a bag in it. It'll only take a few minutes for it to bleed out. We don't totally cut the head off all the time, sometimes just slit the throat.

There are lots of threads on different ways to dispatch a bird on the meat bird section, if you want to cruise over there.

 

[Matt98]

im not so sure I don't want the place to look like a murder scene afterwards. This sounds really stupid but I better ask anyway - when you wring a chickens neck is it dead? It did not plainly state it anywhere, it sounded like it just left the bird unconscious

 

[donrae]

Properly wringing a neck does leave the bird dead. It's also called cervical dislocation. My honey can do it by hand, but I don't know if I'm strong enough physically. Lots of folks use a broomstick or similar, you could search broomstick method. That might be ideal in your case where you're not looking to eat the bird, so you don't need it bled out.

 

[Matt98]

Thanks! I'll snatch him this evening and do the deed

 

[bobbi-j]

I agree with Donrae - it does sound like the broomstick method would be best for you. Hope it all goes smoothly. I think the biggest thing is to be sure of yourself.

 

[Matt98]

Its done - he's dead. I was steeled to do it, but my dad did it instead(thank god), assuring me he had killed turkeys much bigger than him the same way (wringing his neck). The rooster then flopped all around the place for a few minutes and I was pretty disgusted At least I wont have to worry going into the hen run anymore