"Humane" way of culling chicken?

[Maiahr]

Uh..I am sure there was a post somewhere in these forums how to cull. I don't want to euthanize as ...well ..we eat. But I remember someone writing that they firstly give the chicken something to breath, the chicken falls asleep and then they cull.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Cervical dislocation (either manually or with the broomstick) as shown in post #2 is currently considered the most humane method, as far as I'm aware.

 

[arazla]

Here looking for the same information. Does anyone know whether you just give a dying bird sleeping pills or opiates to overdose her? I don't want to do the broom method, chop her head off or shoot her. Don't have a gun anyway.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

If you're going to eat it I don't think you want to put opiates in the bloodstream, do you?

The best advice I can give you, whatever method you use, is to hold the bird upside down for a minute or two. Blood rushes to the brain and sedates the bird. My DH and I use the broomstick method for dispatching a sick or injured bird this way, usually there is a little flapping afterward but the bird is definitely dead as he pulls hard enough to decapitate to be sure, the flapping is just reflexive. (If we're going to eat the bird we take it to a professional. We're no good at eviscerating and plucking.)

 

[arazla]

If you're going to eat it I don't think you want to put opiates in the bloodstream, do you?

The best advice I can give you, whatever method you use, is to hold the bird upside down for a minute or two. Blood rushes to the brain and sedates the bird. My DH and I use the broomstick method for dispatching a sick or injured bird this way, usually there is a little flapping afterward but the bird is definitely dead as he pulls hard enough to decapitate to be sure, the flapping is just reflexive. (If we're going to eat the bird we take it to a professional. We're no good at eviscerating and plucking.)

Unfortunately, I don't think we can eat her. She is an emaciated turkey we absorbed from the neighbors who is dying from heart failure. So I'm not really worried about what's in her system. But I've grown attached since I tried giving her heart meds the vet prescribed (which just don't seem to be working) for a while, so doing the whole broom thing would be rather emotional.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Oh, it's a turkey. The broomstick method might be a bit more difficult in that case, due to the size of the bird, the length of the legs and the neck. There is a method that involves the use of ether (engine starter fluid) but I don't know how you would use it on a turkey either. Let me ask one of our educators, I'll bet she can give you the link to the article on it.

Help me out please, @Wyorp Rock?

 

[arazla]

Yeah I was thinking that since I've never even tried the broomstick method, it could be twice as challenging with a larger bird. I don't know where I would get ether honestly and I think it's time for her to go tonight or tomorrow. If she even survives that long. Just wanted to see if I could help her out.

 

[Dough Hill]

Yeah I was thinking that since I've never even tried the broomstick method, it could be twice as challenging with a larger bird. I don't know where I would get ether honestly and I think it's time for her to go tonight or tomorrow. If she even survives that long. Just wanted to see if I could help her out.

Are you a Farmer or a Pet owner? As a Farmer/Homesteader or whatever people call it these days when you get Poultry/Livestock you have to make difficult decisions like Dispatching livestock of any kind. Guess I’m just a old school Farm guy that’s calloused but when you get these animals before you get them you have to asked yourself if it comes down to it do I have what it takes to put this living thing down when it is suffering so bad or it’s time is up because of age and not producing anymore and why waste money feeding it and you are not getting nothing in return.I’m sorry if that sounds crude but that’s Farm life as I see it. I think a lot of people make this mistake when getting livestock.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Ether is just starter fluid. You can probably get it at a convenience store.

 

[arazla]

Are you a Farmer or a Pet owner? As a Farmer/Homesteader or whatever people call it these days when you get Poultry/Livestock you have to make difficult decisions like Dispatching livestock of any kind. Guess I’m just a old school Farm guy that’s calloused but when you get these animals before you get them you have to asked yourself if it comes down to it do I have what it takes to put this living thing down when it is suffering so bad or it’s time is up because of age and not producing anymore and why waste money feeding it and you are not getting nothing in return.I’m sorry if that sounds crude but that’s Farm life as I see it. I think a lot of people make this mistake when getting livestock.

I hear what you're saying. The hard part is I didn't "get" this turkey. It came to us and started living here as did many of my neighbor's birds that often go days without fresh water, and seemingly without food at times (authorities have been called on them before, not by us, and we'd rather not go that route for various political reasons like needing to share a private road, emergency stuff, etc).

I'd say the chicks we raised ourselves are definitely more like "pets" to us, though we do keep them for eggs. The turkey was already sick for a long time before it started sleeping at our place, but I assumed it was respiratory issues since they've been going around and kept trying to treat it for that before the vet diagnosed it as heart failure. Its previous owner/neighbor was ready to dispatch the turkey when we told him about its condition, but since the vet was so hopeful the medications would help, we said we'd be willing to give that a try for a while. So now it's essentially ours.

But yeah, you're probably right and maybe I just need to figure out the broomstick. I lived on a ranch as a kid and watched plenty of chickens get decapitated, but perhaps because of that, I have a visceral reaction to the idea of it.