"Humane" way of culling chicken?

[BDutch]

Hammer to the head, one tap and its done.

*Edit,
the broom method is second-best. or you can take newnew borns and put them in the freezer. they get cold an fall asleep. they then die quickly.
drugging chickens aint easy and it could cause em more pain and distress.

Part of owning an animal not commonly vetted is havin to put em down yerself.

The question was a method to euthanise. Not to kill.

Compare it with euthanising people with lots of pain from cancer who can’t get better. If the patient doesn’t want to suffer any longer (registered/discussed with their GP) they can have an overdose of morfine or other medicines that give a painless death.
The doctors don’t use guns or broomsticks because these methods seem very cruel and my guts tells me this is not painless.

Maihar, me and more people here like to know how they can euthanise a sick chicken in pain. Let it fall into a forever sleep. With all necessary instructions to make it work.

Is a freezer death really possible, painless and definite? A chicken wears a feather coat to keep themselves warm in winter. If a freezer death is humane and possible I like to know if the standard freezing temperature of a normal freezer (-18°C ) is okay or does it have to be much colder? I suppose it’s doable to put a sick chicken in an empty drawer of my freezer in the night if the -18°C is good. Next question. How much time is needed to let the chicken die in a standard freezer?

 

[BDutch]

PS/FYI
The definition of the word euthanasia is used differently in the US than we use in the Netherlands /EU countries. Euthanise in my country is never murder or kill for meat. But to end a life painless and with consent. Or to end a life of a very sick patient who cant speak/ communicate anymore and never will in the future.

It seems the word euthanasia is used in the US for killing to end pain and suffering in a more general way.

From wikipedia:
Euthanasia (from Greek: εὐθανασία, lit. 'good death': εὖ, eu, 'well, good' + θάνατος, thanatos, 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering.[1][2]

Different countries have different euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords select committee on medical ethics defines euthanasia as "a deliberate intervention undertaken with the express intention of ending a life to relieve intractable suffering".[3] In the Netherlands and Belgium, euthanasia is understood as "termination of life by a doctor at the request of a patient".[4]The Dutch law, however, does not use the term 'euthanasia' but includes the concept under the broader definition of "assisted suicide and termination of life on request".[5]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia

 

[DancesWithRoosters]

The question was a method to euthanise. Not to kill.

Compare it with euthanising people with lots of pain from cancer who can’t get better. If the patient doesn’t want to suffer any longer (registered/discussed with their GP) they can have an overdose of morfine or other medicines that give a painless death.
The doctors don’t use guns or broomsticks because these methods seem very cruel and my guts tells me this is not painless.

Maihar, me and more people here like to know how they can euthanise a sick chicken in pain. Let it fall into a forever sleep. With all necessary instructions to make it work.

Is a freezer death really possible, painless and definite? A chicken wears a feather coat to keep themselves warm in winter. If a freezer death is humane and possible I like to know if the standard freezing temperature of a normal freezer (-18°C ) is okay or does it have to be much colder? I suppose it’s doable to put a sick chicken in an empty drawer of my freezer in the night if the -18°C is good. Next question. How much time is needed to let the chicken die in a standard freezer?

Quick tldr to add onto some very good info here.

I am an american/european settler (lol) who did grow up int he deep south of the united states haha! To euthanize an animal to me, like someone else here said, can be as simple as a quick bullet to the back of the head. The animal dies wither way, quickly and painlessly.

I freeze chicks mainly to feed to other animals. I have a /deep/ freezer but i know the average freezer. especially these days, can go veryvery cold.

When I am sleep euthanizing chicks, i tend to get them right when their having the most struggle/sleepiest/freshly hatched.
While their feathers can keep them warm in tempatures down to 30-20 degrees f, a freezer is designed to get ice and other things below that (-18c is VERY cold!!!) ickblock frozen in less than an hour.

When I have to freeze a chick it usually only takes a small amount of time for them to sleep from my experience. Usually only ome or two minutes, depending on size.
A baby chick out from under a heatlamp for just six minutes can die. Freezer is even quicker.

The thought here is the same way they mass prepare snakefood and other feeding foods where they also freeze them this way, inducing sleep from the cold (as animals will naturally sleep to try and conserve body heat) and then quietly passing.

I turn my freezer as low as itll go, sit with the chick while it gets frosty enough that ice crystals fly out when I open it (that fog in freezers is ice crystals.)

I say a prayer fir a quick painless sleep and death for each of them. Usually when i set em in, theyre already half out.

Close the door tight.
walk away.
come back in five minutes. You have to wait after they fall asleep to pass away.
I suggest doing some chores.

They may have their usually idle cheep or a few loud ones due to the darkness in the freezer. But it gets them so cold so fast they fall asleep before they can suffer.


Sorry my inital reponse may have startled some folks. If it is a beloved pet that youre putting down, and not a failure to thrive, at the end the choice is always up to you how you handle it.

**Edit!

Someone suggested CO2, Nitrogen. Please dont use that all at once. CO2 does cause the feelings of suffocation, even in animals. If you intend to gas an animal, you must induce it slowly at first so the brain can fallasleep, like a human. You dont suffocate humans getting CO2 all at once, you slowly begin filling the mask and steadily increase it.

If you intend to use nitrogen, its the same as above. Start slow, wait for sleep, then turn up to a leathal amount.
Nitrogen canisters are available in the EU, so you may have an easier time getting that, should you choose as such.

I read once about people makimg /gas chambers/ with baking soda and vinegar...Im not sure if this works /at all/ and frankly to me and my MOT chickens, im not a fan of that one!!

 

[SourRoses]

Freezing is a painful way to die. I would not use that.

I once tried to put a sick rooster to sleep with opiates. We had unused prescription pain pills and I thought I could overdose him by reducing them to powder, mixing with water and loading into a syringe then down his beak.
I started with 4 human pills. Waited several hours and he didn't seem affected at all. Ok, 8 more pills. Down the hatch. Hours later he didn't appear to be suffering less. Ok fine, Hydrocodone doesn't work on chickens. How about Tramadol... a bunch of those and nothing. Rooster is still suffering and not even groggy. Finally we just used the broomstick method. It was hard to do with his body already in pain. I'm certain he suffered. And he was old enough that his neck didn't break easily the first time, we had to have a second go. It was rather horrible and stuck with me.

There is a humane version of gassing, BUT most people don't know what they're doing!
They mix up Carbon Dioxide (Co2) with Carbon Monoxide, resulting in painful slow deaths or failure.

Nitrogen is the most humane of all methods in a properly sealed chamber.
* It's quick, as the nitrogen replaces oxygen and the brain rapidly goes to sleep.
* There's no feeling of suffocation, because the body is not reacting to harmful gases.

If I ever build a gas chamber (one day) I plan to place the birds in at night when they are already asleep and keep things dark. It's important that the chamber be built properly so you don't have failures which is very sad for the animals.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

I use loppers. I know without a doubt it’s over that second.

 

[BDutch]

Nitrogen is the most humane of all methods in a properly sealed chamber.
* It's quick, as the nitrogen replaces oxygen and the brain rapidly goes to sleep.
* There's no feeling of suffocation, because the body is not reacting to harmful gases.

If I ever build a gas chamber (one day) I plan to place the birds in at night when they are already asleep and keep things dark. It's important that the chamber be built properly so you don't have failures which is very sad for the animals.

I would like to hear more about this. A step by step instruction. What to buy. How to build. Just for one sick chicken.

I am not interested in killing methods with impact. Impact methods are not painless. And gasses are tricky if not done in a good way.

An injection to fall asleep, and a second one with a higher dosage, or a fatal poison or drug that can be bought legally, would suit me too. Ketamine seems a good drug for it but I can only buy it illegally.

I don’t have a sick chicken now, but I like to be prepared if one of my chickens are in great pain and suffering. And I don’t want to experiment with a chickens life.

 

[DancesWithRoosters]

I use loppers. I know without a doubt it’s over that second.

i dont think they have the confidence or ability to cull a chick/chicken by hand.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

i dont think they have the confidence or ability to cull a chick/chicken by hand.

If not by hand then how? I grab the condemed one of the roost at night, hold between my legs and position loppers and pull.

I have used broomstick method and pulled the head off, yuck. I used broomstick method and was not sure at first, stressfull. I have used a cone, which works but seems slow.

Loppers just works better for me, like I said I know it is over that instant.

All that said it still sucks, but it is my responsibility to the chicken to make the end quick and painless as possible

 

[DancesWithRoosters]

If not by hand then how? I grab the condemed one of the roost at night, hold between my legs and position loppers and pull.

I have used broomstick method and pulled the head off, yuck. I used broomstick method and was not sure at first, stressfull. I have used a cone, which works but seems slow.

Loppers just works better for me, like I said I know it is over that instant.

All that said it still sucks, but it is my responsibility to the chicken to make the end quick and painless as possible

OP has turned down multiple responses of hand-culling the chicks and seems to only want a hands-free approach.
From what I've gathered they may be scared to do an improper cull and cause the animal more harm.

I am of the opinion that gasses, pills, even lethal injection are drawn out and painful, tbh. But some people truly lack confidence (or the ability) to hand cull birds. No fault of their own, of course. Theres nothing wrong with that.

I hope OP finds a solution they're comfortable with, end of the day.

 

[Jenbirdee]

Did anyone post this link yet?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...re-culling-the-injured-and-sick-babies.72140/
This is what I do and for an adult bird, I have a brand new(not dirty) Rubbermaid trashcan with a lid already full of paper towels, and I have a T-shirt in there to wrap around a bird who might be lively enough to try to jump or fly out before they get sleepy from the ether. I believe ether is very humane. They used to use it for people for surgery. I have several cans of the starter fluid on hand now. before I knew about this method I had very bad experience with the broomstick methodn it was a nightmare