DIY HUMANE way to Kill Slaughter Chicken (Stun-kill, Gas)

[justachick]

the more I think about it the more I think Im gonna lop their heads off with my lopper next time. Not sure what Im going to to about needing an extra hand as the lopper is a 2 hander. Any suggestions?
If I have a extra hand handy I think I'll hang him up by his ankles in a garbage bag and have the extra hand hold the head and Bob's yer uncle and Fanny's yer aunt!
Hey, maybe a cone in a garbage bag with the chicken in the cone? Might work.
Have you seen this? http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/grim79.html
I used this method last week and it works pretty well. No mess to clean up and if you are quiet and quick, after the chicken is in the bag it's calm as can be. The added bonus is that you dont have to see her at all while you're doing the deed.
BTWay, The best way to get over the first few times is to pick a chicken (preferably a roo) that has crossed the line or peed you off. OR let someone else do your chickens and you do theirs! Its much better with more than one anyway!
If you dont care about the roast chicken as apposed to chicken parts then try this method. Id have to roast 3 chickens at a time anyway.
justachick
ps make sure you have good sharp knives for each chicken as they dull quickly and I was tired after 2 roos.

 

[chookhead]

when u kill it make sure the blood goes out with it thats why slicing its head off is best they are immeadaltly dead and they just flapp around and go crazy around the backyard and that it the rest is up to u and use an axe if u want it to be super quick

 

[EweSheep]

Ding Ding Ding!!!!!!!

Winner!

Cut to the chase, no drama, no ying yang balonga.

And well stated too!

I can't believe you guys were debating the merits of CO2 verses CO verses argon, can it get more complicated?

x4 (or whatever order it came in LOL!)

Wouldn't you worry about the CO2 affecting the quality of meat as well? Those tissue cells may affect texture or you be eating the byproducts? I don't have enough information to find out if it does.

 

[galanie]

Wait...PETA said that gassing them was more humane than the near-instant death of just chopping off the head? Given the things I know about PETA, I would not trust anything they say about how to kill an animal. I've seen an animal die of suffocation. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't fast. I've seen animals die from decapitation or cutting the throat. Even with a large animal like a full-grown bull, it is over in seconds. The animal doesn't even know that happened. We routinely slaughter young goats by holding them between our knees and making a deep cut to the throat. The animal doesn't even make a sound, it just falls over and is gone, the heart stops in maybe 5-10 seconds on a goat or chicken. That's about as instant as you can get.


I love my livestock, and I treat them like family. But they are not pets. Some of them have names. But when they are no longer able to pull their weight around the farm, they end their life in a useful way in the soup pot. Some are destined for the table from birth, and I don't treat them any different from those that will be around for years. My meat goat babies are bottle-fed along with the keepers. But I KNOW that their purpose is to become my food, and so I don't get attached. Sure, we'll remember that animal, even while we eat it. But we don't agonize over it, we know it had a good life, we had fun raising it, and it died quickly and relatively painlessly. We butchered two beef cows, and we gave them names. When I'm cooking beef for dinner, it isn't unusual for my husband to ask me if we are eating Norman or Cowzilla and compare the flavor of the two.


I honestly think that the original poster is not cut out to be raising animals for meat. If you are still constantly worrying about a cat that you gave away a year ago, then you are not going to be able to handle killing a chicken. If you are bothered by the thought of hanging it upside down AFTER it is dead...you should probably not make your own meat. You're not strong enough emotionally to do it. I think even if you were to put it in a gas chamber or electrocute it or even have a veterinarian euthanize it and hold a funeral and bury it in a little coffin in the backyard with a gravestone, you would still feel sad about it for a very long time, right? But you also ought to know that the animals used to make storebought meat are not treated humanely in feedlots, poultry houses, or processing plants. So, as for the "future PETA member daughter" who won't let her parents kill their birds but still eats storebought meat...she needs to watch a few videos of what goes on with commercial food animals, I think. /img/smilies/hmm.png

Yep. Exactly. And PETA is a nut club if ever there was one. Imagine the suffering they put animals through in the name of being "humane." For instance, when a known fighter of roosters is busted, do they humanely and sweetly find these guys homes? NO! They put them in a gas chamber and suffocate them to death, multiple chickens at a time. Only burning alive sounds more horrible than this.

 

[GBov]

I find it amazing that y'all seem to be thinking the same things as I am, and at so close to the same timing. Today, one of our many (TOO MANY) Black Australorp roos "attacked" ds. The BA's are really my father's, but ds takes care of everyone. He was spreading corn and decided to take a handful to one of the hens, Blue Belle. This roo must have wanted the corn, even though there was a lot on the ground, and I was spreading more because he jumped up on ds, scratching his thigh. It didn't help that ds didn't follow my directions and put on clothes, it takes a lot to get him to put on clothing these days. Anyway, we have a small run that was used for our chicks and this roo ran in there. Ds locked the door and decided that he was going to have this one for supper.

Now, the question is: How do we do it? I don't think there is a place that will do chickens, although there is a place in town that will process deer and such. I'm looking in books and back issues of Back Yard Poultry because I know I saw something, somewhere.

Wish us luck!

Tie it by the legs, hang it up - either on a fence or tree branch or arbor or what ever you have - and take its head off with loppers or pruning shears. Even if the head doesnt come off with teh first snip the jaws will sever the spine. If its an older rooster after you close the jaws on its neck, if the head doesnt come right off - lean down HARD on the handles. Older roos have VERY VERY tough necks!

If the flapping about is worrying you, get some sticky wrap bandages and wrap him up good so his wings are snug to his body and if you are worried about "Looking him in the eye" put a sock on his head. The dark and snug feeling will put him to sleep nicely and he will be quite content just hanging up. I do this with turkeys always because they are so strong and heavy.

Then just pluck the feathers off, pull out the guts and set it, covered, in the fridge for four or five days and then cook it. Slow cooking suits roosters really well.

Its increadably satisfiying to provide food for your family and starting on a rooster that hurt your son is a great way to start. TAKE THAT you HORID thing! instead of Oh fluffy, I will miss you so! LOL

 

[gg706]

You need to research Humane Societies in this country. Some of them use gas. The cats and dogs fight to the death in the gas room as the oxygen runs out .I would think this is a VERY INHUMANE way to kill an animal. Also you are saying that you dont have any money. WHY would you want to go buy a bunch of gases to kill your food???? Have you thought about eating this meat after you have gased it to death? Doesn't sound smart to me! Do yourself a favor and make a killing cone out of sheet metal hang it from a tree that you can reach to adjust height. Get a tall trash can and line it with a black trash bag. Put the bird in the killing cone slice the throat to get the blood going lower the bird into the bag a bit and walk away. Come back after a few minutes. This is your food, you are raising them to eat. If you cant afford food you have no choice. GOD put animals here for us to eat.

 

[gg706]

I thought that when you cut the head off directly, the heart stops. therefore the blood doesn't get pumped out and ruins the meat?? Confused? Please explain as I was planning on slitting the throat and bleeding them out.

when u kill it make sure the blood goes out with it thats why slicing its head off is best they are immeadaltly dead and they just flapp around and go crazy around the backyard and that it the rest is up to u and use an axe if u want it to be super quick

 

[EweSheep]

When you slice the throat, it will bleed out. the heart will continue to beat a few more times. It is natural reflex for the heart to keep beating and the blood does not have the chance to clot somewhere to ruin the meat. I don't know if it does but we always had to slice or chop the head when we butcher it.

Slit and bleed them out. Walk away and then come back in five minutes to finish the job.

 

[gg706]

Thanks!

 

[oesdog]

Tommy,
It gets better after the first time you slaughter one of your birds. We bought chicks ( cornish-rock) for the express purpose of raising them for meat. We chose not to give them names unless it has something to do with food (after a while they all looked the same anyway). It is easier if you try to distance yourself emotionally from them and realize that you are raising this bird for food, that he is living a much better life than the one you would buy at the grocery store, and that YES, he will die a much more humane death at your hands than that grocery store bird.

I have children between the ages of 6 and 10 and they helped with the whole process. It was an educational experience for us all and while it could not really be called fun, they know where their food came from, cared well for it while it was growing and appreciated it greatly when it was on the table. They prefer our birds to what we now have to buy since we ran out of what we raised. Now we have to wait until it is cooler to raise some more.

We used the killing cone method and slit their throats. I think next time we will use the ax and just be done with it. I think that method is faster and probably more humane. What ever method you choose, you want to be sure to get the blood out of the meat quickly which makes for better quality meat. Get someone who is experienced at this or atleast willing to be there with you and give it a go. Choosing your orneriest rooster might make it easier.

I think this is the best way to go.
I am going to get light sussex eggs to raise for meat. They probably will get names like korma and curry and buffalo wings type of thing but again they will all look the same so the names don;t really matter. I am getting these because they are a very different bird than my egg laying girls. They will not be living with them or free ranging with them. I am just going to get a cone push the bird down it and off with its head. Then I am going to throw the whole thing in a plastic bin so I cannot see any movements etc. After that I am fine because I have processed one of our chickens before who accidently broke her neck and also quite a few pheasents so its much the same. I think it is better not to get attached emotionally and I am going for the light sussex because they will all look the same as eachother and very different to my laying hens.

If you use Gas you wont be able to eat the meat - !!!! It is quicker to lop off the head.

Oesdog