"Humane" way of culling chicken?

[BigBlueHen53]

Oops! Sorry.

 

[Eggcessive]

I wouldn’t give anything to sedate a bird whose meat I was going to butcher. I am unaware of how most slaughter turkeys. I usually cull sick birds by tying the legs together and placing them upside down hung on a nail on a tree. A killing cone works as well. Then with a very sharp knife, I cut the jugular veins on one or both sides, and the bird quickly bleeds out. We don’t eat our chickens.

 

[Debbie292d]

If you have any friends that hunt can you ask them to dispatch her?

All my birds that have needed euthanasia have been shot point blank in the back of the head with a .22 long gun after dark. By the time a hen needs euthanasia, they are typically very weak and don't struggle or try to wander off.

She is taken to the site (usually up the road in the woods well away from the coop/run/pen) and gently laid on the ground on her keel. Then I walk away and my friend puts the gun to her head and it's over in a split second.

My personal preference is to leave her where she lay. I'd rather some animal come along and find her for a meal and survive that night because she died than bury her. I think it is more natural and for me, it is just her body. The essence of her is no longer there.

Exactly how I do it. Take them out in the forest behind our house but farthest from the coop I can get, shoot with my 20-gauge pretty close range, then walk away. Only 4 of them thus far I believe.

 

[KristinJoy]

I have read a post somewhere here about human way of culling chicken. Put them to sleep first and then cull ..or something..
I don't want them to suffer, so if anyone could point me to that thread/article/post would be thankful.

Look up broomstick method

 

[BDutch]

Look up broomstick method

If you do it wrong it’s a torture. How many times did you practice the broomstick method until you could do it right?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

If you do it wrong it’s a torture. How many times did you practice the broomstick method until you could do it right?

Got it right on second try. Chicken was probably dead on first attempt, but the flopping was disconcerting, had not expected that. On immediate second attempt, bird was decapitated so we were sure. It still flopped a bit, but at least no further doubts. Would not use this method if we planned to eat the bird, but effective for emergency culling of sick/ injured bird.