I looked the internet over for the best, most humane, easiest way to euthanize our dear 4 year old pet hen, Henny Penny. I had been fighting disease for too long and didn't want her to suffer any more. All the methods I read online seemed just so difficult to carry out. I even called the vet who said it would cost me $40. Then I remembered that chickens become unconscious when you hold them by their feet hanging upside down after only a few seconds. So I asked my husband to sharpen his hunting knife very very sharp, hang her upside down until her eyes shut, and take her head off. After she was unconscious, he held her in place upside down against the flat end of a large log and with his sharp knife, and he quickly severed her head against the log. I could not watch, but he said the process went very well with no flopping around afterward and little blood.
I'm very sorry to hear about your loss. It sounds like you and your husband used a good method. Another method that I've heard works well is taking a .22 LR revolver, point blank range, to their heads. While it is messy, they don't feel anything at all. However, that is probably not the best method for a pet chicken. I will have to keep your method in mind just in case any of my pet chickens reach a point where I have to euthanize them.
I have had to dispatch several roosters with my children watching. I call my method "putting them to sleep". one at a time I held them upside down until they became disoriented and then took a thick "brocolli type" rubber band and pulled it tight around the neck and held it tight for several minutes. no blood, very little movement, a lot less traumatic for the kids than the old nail in a stump approach my father used when I was a kid.
