Holding food before slaughter (hens too...)

[Garden Gal]

We are sending six roos to freezer camp tomorrow. I have no way to separate them from the hens, so is it okay to withhold food from the entire flock for 24 hours?

 

[Sunny Side Up]

There's got to be another way. It's not ideal for the hens, not really healthy for their bodies & stressful. I find it easiest to catch up my candidates after dark the night before and put them in a cage like a wire rabbit one or a dog kennel or something like that. Even some banana boxes or some other ventilated cardboard boxes. Make sure they have a good supply of water, but no food, not even grass or leaves they can reach through the sides.

This way they're so easy to catch at night, and easy to grab one by one for processing, and you don't have to stress yourself or your birds chasing them around right before you butcher them. You really don't HAVE to withdraw the food, but it sure makes for easier processing to not have food in the crop & poop in their intestines. And it's also cost-effective, why give them feed they're never going to turn into meat?

I put them in the cage at night & then butcher the next afternoon, so they're without food for maybe 18 hours or so.

 

[the simple life]

We do the same thing, round them at night while they are quiet and its less stressful for everyone.
You aren't chasing them around on processing day and you are not witholding food from the others.

 

[PatS]

We DIDN'T withhold food, and were just careful when cleaning the carcass.

 

[Tad]

The wrangle them at night method is the best, NO broken wings from flapping wildly about the pen no getting them all stirred up!!!
I also move my flock around at night when penning them up to switch roos etc!!

 

[Cedar Creek Lofts]

Quote:
At most you really only need to hold food for about 10-12 hours. These guys process food quite a bit faster than we do.