For those who have done it both ways: Hatchet vs. Knife

[HobbyChickener]

I am a neck ringer. Plan on doing it to about 10 in the morning.

 

[menageriemama]

We had an awful time with the beheading. It was so traumatic!!!! I will never do it again. We do the hang them upsidedown and slit the throat thing. Just isnt so barbaric, imho.

 

[Alaskan]

I haven't done both.

But when I was a kid we always did the ax and the stump. I thought it was fine (we put the bird in a bucket until it stopped flapping).

But this fall when I do some for the first time in forever, I am going to try slitting the neck.

Even if they are aware for the entire thing, I do not think it would be painful or traumatic for them. A cut with a very sharp knife isn't very painful, and neither is bleeding to death. (not that I have ever bled to death,

but I lost quite a bit of blood with my last birth, and it wasn't painful, you just get cold and tingly).

I am simply thinking that bleeding out would make a better carcass.

 

[Salt and Light]

I've tried it both ways. Hands down, my vote if for the axe.

The birds do flap around but that is 100% reflex. I'd estimate that the trauma of beheading kills the bird within a couple seconds, where as bleeding takes a minute or so.

Think about how you would prefer to die, of course I don't think chickens have ANY cognitive concept of life and death. But, would you prefer to die a sudden death (i.e. beheading) or would you prefer to slowly bleed to death?

Each of us has our own "justification" and preference but that may be a good way to determine the best procedure for killing chickens.

 

[dangerouschicken]

We use a cleaver and a stump. It doesn't always happen in one chop if they move. That is the most traumatic part

If you hold the rooster upside down for about 15 seconds, the blood rushes to the head and they are sleepy. This stuns them enough to do the deed. Usually.

Good luck!

 

[perfectly_polish]

Quote:
Yup, PC taught us and that is the only way I'll do it now. It's fast and the bird doesn't even know what happened.

MoodusNewChick, I've been practicing on a stick too

 

[freshegg]

Im definately using a cone for my turkeys and 1 swing with a machete. Im afraid id miss with a axe. besides I read with chickens they pass out in the cone. Hope the turkeys pass out too

 

[pdpatch]

We are just about at the tail of this years broilers and have done one Great white turkey, we have used several methods trying to fond the best for us.

We did an assortment of different broilers, Red sex link males, Wyandotte, Americana, Buff Orphingtons, Black broilers, Barbed Rocks, 1 Cornish cross and 1 Great White turkey so far. The RIR and Turkens are being done today along with another turkey.

Cutting the juggler in a killing cone is a difficult technique for us to do, but using a killing cone keeps the mess down. The eyes stay open the longest this way so you know it's not all that quick.

Using a hatchet or axe on a stump is a lot easier, but is a lot messier. We had a lot of trouble with this method.

Using a Killing cone and meat cleaver to chop the head off, has the benefits of not being as messy, but with the some of the ease of chopping. Although the killing cone does take some abuse from the meat cleaver if your aim is off. the cone was made from scrap aluminum and we have a lot more of the aluminum to make more. We added several 2x4's below the one that the cone attached to so that there would me more area to hit.
The hardest part of this method is to get the Meat cleavers blade parallel to the wood when chopping.

I began to wonder if some sort of scissors would work. But it took a little, to think of something that would be large enough. I remembered that we had a pair of tree trimmers, I got them out, sharpened tightened them up a lot. These are the kind with two foot handles. One snip and a little tug and it was all over including the turkey. Not missed with a hatchet or meat cleaver, Wonder if the bird you have in the cone has a little tougher skin that require a harder cut. Not worried if your going to cut you self of the bird tries to move on you.

To stun the birds, we tried holding the broiler upside down to make them pass out, but for some it was taking to long, more then 15 second some were not stunned after about 2 minutes. We tried swinging the broiler in a big circle, this seamed to speed up the stunning for most some took a long time.

I suppose it would have been a lot easier for us if they were all the same breed of chickens as the scalding was a little different for each breed, some appeared to have thicker skin, some were hard to stun and get into the cone, some were really hard to pluck.

The Great White turkey did not pass out after being held upside down. But once we finally got it to the area we were processing the poultry it was docile. We did use a nylon rope to tie its wings down to help keep them from flapping. The last time we relocated the turkeys to larger pens one shredded the t-shirt I was wearing and added a couple of scar's to my motley collect of scars, so we don't pick up large turkeys.

 

[REELDOC]

Instead of an ax or machette, why not use a set of tree limb loppers? You can't miss..........

 

[Peruvian]

I've used both methods. I find that as soon as the windpipe is cut (either by hatchet or knife) is when serious flapping/struggling occurs. I prefer to use home made killing cones and slice the neck arteries. The birds don't seem to know that they are bleeding out and remain calm. They may flap slightly at the end but the cone will protect them.