*GULP* When you say "cull".....

[Fly Be Free]

I don't know why this didn't cross my mind when I purchased my bator. *sigh*

When you get a chick that isn't well do ya'll let "nature" ( I call it God ) take it's course? I just can't hardly "do right" by an animal.

I once had seahorses. I did very well with them in the beginning but ended up getting one that got sick. I had to put her in a cup in the fridge. I opened the fridge much later expecting her to be gone but she swam to the side to look at me. OMGosh! I bawled like a child!!!

I don't know how to deal with deformed chicks and very ill ones. What do ya'll do??

 

[Fred's Hens]

Accept the responsibility of husbandry. That's what I was taught.

Hatch enough chicks, and surely, some will be deformed. Keep enough hens and a desperately sick one will appear. Buy enough chicks from hatcheries and sooner or later you'll get some who fail to thrive and have to be put down. Without getting hung up on the dispatch method, it simply must be done.

If a person doesnt' have someone in your household to dispatch the birds, chicks or hatchlings, then please, I'd urge them to reconsider this hobby of chicken husbandry. Please don't hatch, purchase or keep a flock. Like laces and tongues, this just comes with the shoes.

Essentially the lessons learned as a small boy. They still hold true.

 

[Fly Be Free]

But that doesn't answer my question. HOW do you do it?

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

When say deformed, what are you saying? Third leg?

 

[Fred's Hens]

Now, on to methodology.

Quick and sure is humane. Everything else is for the benefit of the human not the quick end of the animal. The whole gassing, freezing, etc boggles my mind. Even read today of someone wanting to over dose with a lethal injection of insulin.

It's simple.
If it is a chick, just snip the head off with large shears.
Chop the head off swiftly with a meat cleaver.
Decapitate with a sharp axe on a wood block.
Twist the neck swiftly and surely, while pulling up. This snaps the neck and ends all suffering immediately.

Be determined. Do it hard. Do it once. Do it fast.

Compassionate, merciful dispatching shows we are humane.

 

[Fly Be Free]

I'm talking about an animal that cannot do well and thrive do to birth defects. I've had to put down horses, cats and when we had salt water aquariums... fish. But... HOW do you euthanize a chick?

 

[Fly Be Free]

Okay, this is what I needed to know. Thank you.

Now, on to methodology.

Quick and sure is humane. Everything else is for the benefit of the human not the quick end of the animal. The whole gassing, freezing, etc boggles my mind. Even read today of someone wanting to over dose with a lethal injection of insulin.

It's simple.
If it is a chick, just snip the head off with large shears.
Chop the head off swiftly with a meat cleaver.
Decapitate with a sharp axe on a wood block.
Twist the neck swiftly and surely, while pulling up. This snaps the neck and ends all suffering immediately.

Be determined. Do it hard. Do it once. Do it fast.

Compassionate, merciful dispatching shows we are humane.

 

[Stacykins]

I don't know why this didn't cross my mind when I purchased my bator. *sigh*

When you get a chick that isn't well do ya'll let "nature" ( I call it God ) take it's course? I just can't hardly "do right" by an animal.

I once had seahorses. I did very well with them in the beginning but ended up getting one that got sick. I had to put her in a cup in the fridge. I opened the fridge much later expecting her to be gone but she swam to the side to look at me. OMGosh! I bawled like a child!!!

I don't know how to deal with deformed chicks and very ill ones. What do ya'll do??

Culling is always hard, no matter the animal. But if the animal is suffering, it is best do cull. Do it in the fastest and most humane manner possible. Often, the best and least inhumane way is also the messier kind. Pithing, beheading, etc.

Freezing any animal to death is incredibly cruel. Even fish have well enough developed nervous systems for it to be a painful and inhumane manner of death. Often, the water in their cells start crystallizing and causing cell lysis before unconsciousness and death. That is a very painful condition (ever have frost bite? Yea, it is that same, piercing pain, but instead, it'll be all over the animal's body).

 

[Fly Be Free]

Yeah, I never did freezing. I'd let them just get cold and go to sleep as they would in the wild if conditions changed.

 

[Heron's Nest Farm]

This was a vital post. I had chickens years ago and never had one go bad on me. i am about to do it again and I am grateful that I read this to prepare me for this possibility. I have a husband for such things. Still, I will do what is necessary.

Thanks for this forethought.