Just how hard would it be to process birds without special equipment?

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Spoiler: Video of Processing a Chicken

They don’t show hand plucking, but they do show how they process the chicken.

 

[archeryrob]

I pluck a lot of wild ducks dry as I just save the breast with skin on and the legs cut out. If not scalded, or sometimes if not enough, Curl over your index finder and pinch the feathers between your thumb and finger and pull from the bottom up. If scalded good, it will not matter.

 

[chanceosunshine]

I want to cover the other part what you might have missed from this post. I don't know what kind of chickens you have to raise now. Some are broody and some are not. You need a proper rooster to hen ratio or you might get a bunch of duds and a few chicks. We had that with the 16 hens to one rooster and hens hiding on the roosts in the run to avoid copulation.

Plus if you get a broody hen she sits until hatching and turns off. I am not sure of a way to restart one, only to put them in a wire cage off the ground to cool them off and stop the broodiness. It is great to raising them with a broody hen, but if you plan for it with regularity, you might wish to consider an incubator also.

Yes, these are good points. I'm having a hard time figuring out not only the ratio, but what breed/breeds to raise. I have a Welsummer rooster that I'm trying to utilize, so I want stout meaty girls. The Indian Game/Cornish was recommended to me in another thread and that looked like a great idea, but when shopping for them I read that they have a hard time with fertilization and that artificial means are often needed.

That's ONE of the reasons that I know I'll need to supplement by buying meat chicks a couple/few times a year.

I did just tell my husband that we might want to consider an incubator eventually. We are at our other property, four hours away almost every weekend, so a hen to care for the chicks would be the best for us right now.

Our plans are morphing as we go along and read and learn more. I know there's no perfect way, we just need to find the best one for us. I am loving all that I'm learning here. It's saving me from having to learn all these lessons on my own and losing precious time and resources.

 

[chanceosunshine]

Spoiler: Video of Processing a Chicken

They don’t show hand plucking, but they do show how they process the chicken.

Thank you so much! This is great!

Is killing them in the cone the quickest method?

 

[BantyChooks]

Thank you so much! This is great!

Is killing them in the cone the quickest method?

It's "a" way, at least. I'm not entirely sure it's the fastest, but it doesn't seem to cause them undue pain. I personally prefer cervical dislocation, or broomsticking (same thing, different leverage point for the human) if the bird is male or old. I have a few links on the topic saved that I'll try and find.

 

[BantyChooks]

https://the-chicken-chick.com/how-to-humanely-euthanize-chicken-by-dr/
This article is good. What he says about the bird staying conscious for minutes with bleeding out, though, makes me wish he'd gone into more detail about the science behind his claim... seems the immediate and drastic loss of blood pressure would cause rapid unconsciousness.

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/9/7/407
This study is meant to compare manual and mechanical CD, but it also has good information on CD in general.

Great video on broomsticking... wish I could find one that was as good for manual CD. YouTube took them all down.

 

[archeryrob]

The Indian Game/Cornish was recommended to me in another thread and that looked like a great idea, but when shopping for them I read that they have a hard time with fertilization and that artificial means are often needed.

I have the dark Cornish now that are 8 weeks old and I "plan" to have them breed and raise my own meaties from them. I guess I'll find out in January and see if I have to try something else, like Barred Plymouth Rocks or Delawares. There is not going to semin collection and straw insemination around this place!!

 

[Mimi13]

https://the-chicken-chick.com/how-to-humanely-euthanize-chicken-by-dr/
This article is good. What he says about the bird staying conscious for minutes with bleeding out, though, makes me wish he'd gone into more detail about the science behind his claim... seems the immediate and drastic loss of blood pressure would cause rapid unconsciousness.

Me too! The only way I’ve ever slaughtered birds was by bleeding out, so it took me by surprise when I read The Chicken Chick’s article quoting Dr. Mike Petrik saying that way was inhumane. However, in addition to cutting the artery I also “pith” the bird. Pithing is running the sharp knife into the bird’s mouth to pierce the brain. This is supposed to cause immediate death, but that isn’t the reason I began doing it (thinking bleeding out just simply put them to sleep from losing all their blood.) Pithing is also supposed to help release the bird’s feathers and since I was a hand plucker (no special equipment here either) I thought it couldn’t hurt and I do believe it helps.

In my experience of slaughtering birds, by bleeding out only, I have never seen any instance of pain or torture. I do use a cone now, but in the beginning I wrapped my bird in a thin beach towel and held it in my lap and let it bleed into a bucket placed between my feet. I actually could feel the life leaving its body as the blood drained out. There was no flapping, etc. There was only minor movement. Probably because its body was confined in the towel and I firmly held the bird until the end. It was a very peaceful ending.

I have had to euthanize one of my sick hens and I used cervical dislocation.

ETA: I did think of one last thing that is very noteworthy. When processing (by bleeding out) an older bird, especially a cock/erel, I find it necessary to part the feathers on the bird’s neck. There tends to be quite a few hackle feathers which make slicing the artery a little difficult, not to mention dulling your knife, if they are not moved out of the way. I always want to see skin before I place the blade to the neck.

I have never processed a 6-8 week old meatie so that may not be a problem with them.

 

[archeryrob]

I have killed a lot of birds in my life. Bleeding out works and is the old main stay, but I don't prefer it..

Cervical Dislocation is the quickest most painless way to do it. I windmill mine and have done chickens, duck and full size geese. You have to be very deliberate with this method and go at it strong, or you will be unintentionally torturing the animal. I spin chickens and ducks with my thumb and first finger under the head and around the neck and head and beak in the palm and grab the head. Then spin clockwise and you will feel the neck snap in two revolutions. Their eyes close right away and its light out. Wild duck and geese pretty much stop, but chickens keep kicking some still.

Geese are a whole different story. My daughter is 135 and had difficulty doing it the first time or two. Once she learned to go at it hard and deliberate, like a country girl, she got the hang of it.

This is the finisher. I assume it could be used on chickens and use the pin to puncture the brain case and cause instant death. It has become very popular in the waterfowl hunting community as it a quick humane death for a crippled bird and the bird could still be mounted if it was decided upon.

 

[BantyChooks]

I have killed a lot of birds in my life. Bleeding out works and is the old main stay, but I don't prefer it..

Cervical Dislocation is the quickest most painless way to do it. I windmill mine and have done chickens, duck and full size geese. You have to be very deliberate with this method and go at it strong, or you will be unintentionally torturing the animal. I spin chickens and ducks with my thumb and first finger under the head and around the neck and head and beak in the palm and grab the head. Then spin clockwise and you will feel the neck snap in two revolutions. Their eyes close right away and its light out. Wild duck and geese pretty much stop, but chickens keep kicking some still.

Geese are a whole different story. My daughter is 135 and had difficulty doing it the first time or two. Once she learned to go at it hard and deliberate, like a country girl, she got the hang of it.

This is the finisher. I assume it could be used on chickens and use the pin to puncture the brain case and cause instant death. It has become very popular in the waterfowl hunting community as it a quick humane death for a crippled bird and the bird could still be mounted if it was decided upon.

Out of curiosity—have you ever looked at the vertebrae after you use that method? Is there enough of an angle during application to snap it between the base of the skull and C1, or is it further down, say, between C2 and C3?