Deformed chicks I need to cull.

[TheOddOneOut]

Those chick’s wings are okay.
A little split wing never killed anyone.
This hen has lived with it her whole life.

The chicks have something else going on. Wing issues would NOT affect them that way - they would not cause lethargy and illness.

 

[ChookieG]

I copied the whole thing, I hope this isn’t plagarism
thanks @Redhead Rae
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*No chicks were harmed in the writing of this article*

Whether you hatch your own chicks, order them from a hatchery, or buy them from a feed store, sometimes, something just goes wrong.

The chick doesn't thrive and just goes slowly downhill despite efforts to help.
View attachment 2962241
An injury or genetic malformation compromises a chicks quality of life or mobility



Or the chick just gets sick.

No matter the cause, you decide you need to cull the chick to save it from suffering.

Most experts agree that cervical dislocation (when done effectively) is the best way to cull a chick. The question is how do people who are squeamish about the blood, or nervous about not being able to complete the task quickly and effectively do this. I've found a good way to do this that both helps with my squeamishness and contains the mess.

Your tools are a paper towel, a plastic sandwich bag and a heavy duty pair of kitchen sheers (scissors) or as you see in this picture a sharp pair pruning sheers. You don't want flimsy paper scissors, because the blades will bend and not do the job effectively.

For this article, I'll be using a stuffed Peep bunny as a stand in for a real chick

You take the chick (or Peep), and roll it up snugly in the paper towel, making sure you can feel where the chick's neck is through the paper towel. This calms the chick and makes the next part easier.

You place the chick/paper towel roll half in the sandwich baggy leaving the head and neck out.

Take the scissors and place them over the chick's neck, making sure of your positioning.
View attachment 2962242Take a few deep breaths to steady yourself and swiftly snip through the chicks neck and the paper towel. At this point, the chick's body will start quivering. This is completely normal. It is the nerves in the body going haywire when they are disconnected from the brain.

It will take a few seconds but you will start to see blood on the paper towel. This proves that the sheers did their work.

Once you see the blood, you can push the paper towel/chick all the way into the baggy and seal it to contain any mess. After the bleeding is done, you can throw it away as is, put the chick deep in a compost heap, or give the chick a burial.

NOTE: This method of culling chicks works best on chicks younger than 3 weeks. If the chicks are any older than that, it may be hard to get the scissors through the neck in one smooth motion, causing the chick unnecessary pain.

Hey @Sara S, it's very nice of you to post a detailed instruction of euthanizing the chicks but I'm afraid that your method is not Cervical Dislocation. Your method is more a guillotine method and with that, the poor chick can still remain alive for a few good minutes even with the head removed from the body.

With Cervical Dislocation, you need to hold the head steady while pulling the body away from the head - this essentially stretches the nerves located along the neck and renders the chick unconscious. This is a gold standard done in most (if not all) research labs that works with animals such as rodents but can also be applied to other animals.

 

[Sara S]

Hey @Sara S, it's very nice of you to post a detailed instruction of euthanizing the chicks but I'm afraid to tell you that your method is not Cervical Dislocation. Your method is more a guillotine method and with that, the poor chick can still remain alive for a few good minutes even with the head removed from the body.

With Cervical Dislocation, you need to hold the head steady while pulling the body away from the head - this essentially stretches the nerves located along the neck and this renders the chick unconscious.

Ohhhh, thanks for informing people and me! Someone told me that way but it’s good to know that, thanks again!

 

[ChookieG]

Ohhhh, thanks for informing people and me! Someone told me that way but it’s good to know that, thanks again!

no worries!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Hey @Sara S, it's very nice of you to post a detailed instruction of euthanizing the chicks but I'm afraid that your method is not Cervical Dislocation. Your method is more a guillotine method and with that, the poor chick can still remain alive for a few good minutes even with the head removed from the body.

With Cervical Dislocation, you need to hold the head steady while pulling the body away from the head - this essentially stretches the nerves located along the neck and renders the chick unconscious. This is a gold standard done in most (if not all) research labs that works with animals such as rodents but can also be applied to other animals.

Out of curiousity (morbid?) how is it that a chick can be described as "alive" when I have its head in one hand and its body in the other, with two feet of empty space between them, but somehow "not alive" when the two remain attached, but the neck lengthed by a cm or two?

Perhaps the body stops moving more quickly via the second method? I don't know, I've not tried it. But I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of "alive" when there's no head on the beast. It seems to me to be "alive" in the way a lizard's tail is "alive" after its dropped it in an effort to excape a predator...

Do you have a good reference material on the subject I might read???

 

[Cara83]

Those chick’s wings are okay.
A little split wing never killed anyone.
This hen has lived with it her whole life.
View attachment 2962909

The chicks have something else going on. Wing issues would NOT affect them that way - they would not cause lethargy and illness.

From a selling and breeding pint of veiw it's not okay.

They are not Ill, the 2 with significant wing issues just seem a little more tired exhausted lethargic whatever you would like to call it.

 

[Cara83]

If you have a local zoo, you can contact them and see if they take donations. I only skimmed through these responses, so sorry if that’s already been mentioned, but my zoo does take donations to offset their predator feed costs. That saves you from the unpleasantness of culling the chicks and helps them out too.

I called a few and no they don't, I had the awful task of doing it myself.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

From a selling and breeding pint of veiw it's not okay.

They are not Ill, the 2 with significant wing issues just seem a little more tired exhausted lethargic whatever you would like to call it.

Then don’t sell them. There’s nothing wrong with giving away chicks for free if you can’t bring yourself to cull them.

 

[NatJ]

Out of curiousity (morbid?) how is it that a chick can be described as "alive" when I have its head in one hand and its body in the other, with two feet of empty space between them, but somehow "not alive" when the two remain attached, but the neck lengthed by a cm or two?

I've seen some things that discuss how how long it takes the brain to lose consciousness with one method or another. A conscious brain might be one measure of "alive."

I do not know whether that is what @Alkara meant or not.

 

[Juliesflock]

I have to cull my chicks I recently hatched, their wings are deformed some worse than others and I can't on sell them obviously. I have spent a few days reaserching and trying to tape the wings to no avail only distressing them and me further.
Whats the most humane way they are a week old now.

I just had to cull a 12 hour old chick. I found a great site for other alternatives to snipping off heads with garden clippers. Look under "culling". Making carbon monoxide via baking soda and white vinegar a plastic container within a container. Also, there is a YouTube channel called, Cogs Hill. They have chickens and ducks with deformed wings and they are great egg layers. Unless you are going to use them as breeders you may not have to cull them.