How to kill male chicks

[redneck farmer]

The most humane way is to shoot it with a shot gun... Humane an no mess...

 

[1muttsfan]

I think a gunshot to a day-old chick may be overkill (so to speak)

 

[settingdusk]

You can deep fry them and eat the chick whole on a biscuit. The bones havn't developed yet and the beak is soft enough to just be crunchy.

http://lovefoodwine.com/2011/01/03/marinated-and-deep-fried-baby-chickens.aspx

 

[ChickenLove6]

The suggestions to this forum are cruel and disgusting. I understand you need to get rid of the males as they will cost you money to keep, but just think of the complete waste of lives you are taking away. How would you feel if you were that chick, I know everyone says that, but just think about it.

I agree totally with this person:

You can also give them away. I gave 18 to my local farm store that sells chicks. I have also given them away on Craig's List. This is not an answer to your question- but another option.

You could easily give them away for free anyway? Or try contacting local breeders looking for male birds?

 

[TOP KNOT]

Hi there, i am thinking of hatching some sex linked chicks. I am unsure of the best way to dispose of the males. Several methods i've heard of.

Gassing - using car exhaust fumes, but protect chick from heat so it doesn't burn but can still breathe the fumes in to kill it.
Break its neck - i've heard it can be a struggle when they are so small and i wouldn't know what to do so wouldn't want to hurt them.
Chop its head off - seems rather messy
Freeze them - unsure about it but would be easiest.

I was thinking i could sell them as reptile food to prevent wasting them. When they freeze them for reptile use do they just freeze them or do they kill them and then freeze them to preserve them and reduce suffering (if freezing is cruel). Obviously i couldn't sell them for reptile food if they were gassed as it would harm he reptile as with chopping their heads off as it would be messy and unsightly to sell them like that. I'm sure i could learn how to break their neck but how many would have to suffer before i learn to do it correctly so am not wanting to try.

Any answers to the above questions would be grate and any further advice would also be good. By the way i am from the UK so legislation may be different.

Is this for real????????? Gassing????? Freezing?????? Whoa! Pretty cruel!!!!!!!!!

 

[dazz02]

i have tried advertising them in the past and no one seems interested. I live in the countryside in a remote area so people don't want to travel to collect them. If there were somebody who wanted them i would happily give them away. i might look in to a poultry dispenser that crushes the neck but surely that has some pain involved. I am wanting a method where i can sell the dead chicks for reptile food.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

The suggestions to this forum are cruel and disgusting. I understand you need to get rid of the males as they will cost you money to keep, but just think of the complete waste of lives you are taking away. How would you feel if you were that chick, I know everyone says that, but just think about it.

I agree totally with this person:
You could easily give them away for free anyway? Or try contacting local breeders looking for male birds?

I think the reality is that most roosters you give away for free will likely be eaten. Breeders generally very carefully select roosters and end up with an access of rooster chicks themselves.

The truth is that chickens are a part of the food chain. Are the chickens that you eat wasted lives? Is feeding something else more or less wasteful?

OP

Have you found any interested buyers in live feed? or are they all buy them frozen? Can you ask the potential buyer how they prefer the birds? I would make sure you really can sell them before proceeding too far. otherwise i would raise them just old enough to eat myself so nothing goes to waste.

There are a number of threads on here about CO2 gassing. I have to agree that car exhaust seems potentially problematic.

 

[dazz02]

car exhaust does work fairly quickly as previously said. From my research of reptile foods, most people prefer to buy dead chicks as live ones could injure the reptile as they don't have the aggression of natural ones. I would rather sell them alive but if i have to keep them until i find a buyer it means feeding them which is more expenditure.

 

[blucoondawg]

Bottled CO2 doesn't have the stench of car exhaust, I would say there is quite a big difference between the 2. If it were me I would find a way to give them away or give them to a store alive as snake food or whatever. I have never had a problem killing anything but I draw the line at baby animals of any kind, not because I am against killing animals but I just cannot bring myself to kill the babies. That post about deep frying them whole is disgusting, looks like something they eat in remote south east asia. I just checked out the link, I was right, Phillipines, lol. I can't believe there is nobody willing to take the birds and raise them up, there is no problem getting rid of them here, if you can't sell them you can always give them away. How many chicks do you hatch at one time?

 

[Island Chick]

This is as close as it gets to instant death, with no time for the chick to feel pain if it is done in one quick stroke.

Car exhaust contains many irritating substances, not just carbon dioxide - take a whiff yourself and you will see how it may be a tough way to go. there are threads on here which discuss ways of generating pure carbon dioxide in a small chamber, but I still think the scissors method is much quicker.

Like they said, car exhaust is painful for the chicks. It causes the lungs to burn which IMO is not a humane way to die. CO2 though is what we used at the egg farm (~200,000 hens per house) and I would euthanize around 30 chickens a day with it. We had a canister attached to a rubbermaid tote that we would put the lid on and then turn the CO2 on for about 30 seconds to fill it up, then wait 10 minutes to be safe and they usually were already stiff by then. If I added the CO2 too quickly, that is when they would struggle a bit or have audible gasping probably from the awareness of lack of oxygen suddenly. When I added it slowly, they did not seem to notice the air thinning and sort of just layed down then dozed off.

That said, I think nitrogen is one of the proven painless type gasses to use, since when CO2 levels in blood rise that is when the body panics to breathe but O2 levels rising are not really something the body seems to notice. So if you are going the gas route, I would urge you to avoid car fumes since they are rather painful to the animal and go with Nitrogen (Like Nitrous Oxide) or CO2. If cost is an issue to you, then cut their heads off.