Do you slaughter your birds in front of the flock?

[EweSheep]

I agree that chickens don't care. Here, the birds that are waiting for slaughter are far removed from the other meaties. My kids go get about a dozen at a time from the pasture and they are held in 5gal buckets (with plenty of air holes of course), until they are put in a cone. That is simply how our property is set up though, not by design to keep them out of sight of the processing area. Our layers are free-range though and they love it when it is processing day. I always have to chase them away from the gut bucket, otherwise they spend their whole day chasing each other around for whatever goody one of them managed to snatch. I figure if a chicken will eat its kin in nature, it won't much care about the ones I am processing other than as a source of food.

Yep I agree with that!

I agree with Buster52 in Post 15.....yep, we see "humanizing" going on...chickens DON'T CARE about eating their own kin, they are roaming opporunitists!

 

[crazychickenwom]

I just processed 20 meat chickens, and did them one at a time very near the hen house, and the pen for the meats. No one was sad, upset, or even cared, until I walked into the hen run with the bucket of goodies! Now whenever I come near the coop or run with this bucket they ALL come running! I even let one bucket of "slop" freshen overnight and there were some bonus bits of protein growing in there for them to eat. They absolutely had NO problem with what I was doing because it only meant more treats for them!

When processing I wanted a cone, but alas I didn't have on when the time came, wanted to get them done before this major heat wave. Instead I used some bailing twine and hung them upside down from some cloths line we strung between 2 trees. We had to move it closer to the ground a little so the little buggers wouldn't spray blood everywhere, but other than that it worked perfectly. Just took a very sharp knife and off with their heads. Very quick and straight to the point. Even my 11 year old daughter helped. Everything we needed was already ready to go and I would say it took us about 1 hour for the first bird, and by the time we were done we had that down to about 30 minutes. I did skin a few and found that much easier than plucking.

Good luck with doing your birds, and don't worry about the others, they will only hope to get the treats!

 

[mstricer]

Seriously they don't know what you are doing. I've had them come all around to eat the feathers as we were plucking. It will be okay, they won't have nightmares.

 

[AbbyDog]

I think that they can pick up on what is going on. I just slaughtered my first 3, and I do have to say that after one of them made a LOT of squawking, the remaining 7 looked very subdued back in their pen (about 10 yards away). Even my boyfriend mentioned that they seemed to be "affected" by it. So, I don't plan to do any killing in front of the rest of my birds. I had a hen have a siezure and die in front of the other layers, and they were really freaked out by it. Later, I carried the body past them and they got upset. But, that's my chcikens...yours could be different.

 

[downsm75]

I must have a sick sense of humor because some of these responses almost made me spit milk all over my laptop.

I apparently have the same sick humor

 

[LilyD]

I think that they can pick up on what is going on. I just slaughtered my first 3, and I do have to say that after one of them made a LOT of squawking, the remaining 7 looked very subdued back in their pen (about 10 yards away). Even my boyfriend mentioned that they seemed to be "affected" by it. So, I don't plan to do any killing in front of the rest of my birds. I had a hen have a siezure and die in front of the other layers, and they were really freaked out by it. Later, I carried the body past them and they got upset. But, that's my chcikens...yours could be different.

Of course they are going to react to the sounds of another chicken being afraid. They are looking to see what the danger is. We process first thing in the morning and the chickens are very quiet because it's still very early. I don't think that they say to themselves Oh no here comes farmer John with a knife he's going to kill us all. Their reactions are instinctual and not human, but being human we tend to assign human emotions to what is going on. I had a hen die in the nesting boxes the other day of natural causes and life went on as normal all around her. The only time anyone took notice was when I found her and was burying her in the yard. But once they saw that I didn't have any treats it was no longer interesting and everyone took off.

 

[galanie]

Interesting to note those who do a lot of processing don't see a problem with it, and those who don't, do.
So what's that tell you?

I was thinking that exact thing. hehe.

 

[Tena03303]

I've got 10 roos destined for the freezer, and plan to do all the messy parts down in the woodsy section of our property, mostly so I don't have bother too much about cleanup. I plan to leave the gut pile for the crows, wild turkeys, raccoons, foxes, coyotes or whatever else happens to wander by first. I really don't want that mess any too close to my house or henyards, so the fact that my preferred spot is out of sight of the hens could be a bonus of sorts.
I have seen a reaction on the part of the remaining birds when slaughtering - the rest of the crew seemed to get quieter. Not sure it meant anything or not, or if it was just that the humans got quieter as well. I'm not sure if the birds were reacting to each other or to us...

 

[Poultrybonkers]

I dont as mine free range i dont need them poking at dripped blood or etc. so when the day comes i pent mine up for a day.

 

[Henery Hawk]

Well, I butchered a few in front of the flock today. If I had to assign a human emotion to the chickens as I butchered their flock-mates, it would be the same exact emotion that I feel as I dig in to an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. I had chickens at my feet as soon as the first bloody feather hit the ground. The only time any of them freaked out was when I first grabbed and hung a chicken upside down. Most of my roos came running to see what was going on each time but once the upside down chicken stopped flapping, it was business as usual. I would bet that the flock would go nuts if I removed a head and let it run and flop around but the way I did it, the meaty barely moved at bleed-out. I'm going to continue it this way since it appears that my flock had the best day ever. I think it may be cruel to deprive them of this.

By the way, I'm loving my Murray McMurray meaties. I didn't experience the problems that so many share with "cornish x rock"s. I had no losses and they grew very fast.