Keeping Chickens Free Range

[Beekissed]

I can see where my post may have set the wrong tone and I do apologize...it's hard to communicate properly on a forum at times. It appears I have done so very poorly in this instance.

I was trying to make a point....caring is not all about crying. Just because you don't cry doesn't mean you aren't doing a "respectful harvest", there are many ways to do a respectful kill of an animal.

 

[Victoria-nola]

Here's my 2 cents on respectful chicken harvest, pardon me if I don't dress it up nicely, but these are just my thoughts on it:

There are many kinds of respectful chicken harvest and not all of them involve tears, imbibing alcohol and petting the birds or even thanking the birds. Unless you live where they worship chickens, I can't imagine it being sacred to kill a chicken...that sort of deifies the animal. It's a chicken and ultimately it's food, whether you have a personal relationship with it or not. We all have personal relationships with the animals we care for each day, so one isn't more attached than another when it comes to that, no matter who cries and who does not.

All of these emotions and things involved with killing an animal seem to be a result of overthinking things and humanizing these chickens, feeling bad about killing them, etc. It's never easy to kill an animal, don't get me wrong, done it hundreds and hundreds of times and I would never call it an easy thing to do...and it really shouldn't be. But it also doesn't have to be this over dramatized event that requires getting soused or crying or any other patting, hugging, cradling and otherwise mauling the poor bird. It's a hard job...best to just get over it and do it.

The best thing anyone can do for that chicken on killing day is to be calm...they can feel your nervousness, anxiety and fear and feed off it, just like any other animal. Fake it if you have to, but move with resolve, don't get in a rush but don't linger and paw at the animal, crying and keeping the bird nervous. Don't chase them around the morning of the kill....go up the night before, remove them calmly from the roost and place them somewhere or somehow where you don't have to chase them around prior to killing. It's cruel to do that, IMO, putting the bird in that much fear is needless. Make every step count, give them a quick and clean death and get down to business.

Killing day here is quiet, it's calm, it's slow and it's done with efficiency....that doesn't make it less respectful, it makes it more so, IMO. I thank God for the animal, I don't thank the animal itself.. I'm sure if it had a choice it would not be dying that day, so no need to thank the bird for a decision it didn't get to make...kind of hypocritical if you ask me. It also doesn't understand our language, so it's being said more for the human than for the bird.

Crying doesn't do anything for the bird, petting it and holding it, letting absorb your nervous energy and anxiety does even less for it. If one wants to have a respectful chicken harvest, think of the bird and less of how you feel about the bird. It's not really about you at that point, but about how you are going to do this last task for your animal...it's a last act of caring.

Anybody who has had animals for any length of time can tell you they feel nervous and anxious when you feel it and they can certainly feel your lack of confidence and resolve, so remaining calm and matter of fact in the face of this last task should be a priority. Over thinking all of that keeps one from remaining calm and efficient, so best just to get your mind right before you ever step out that door. Best thing anyone can ever do before killing one of God's creatures is to pray about it to the One who made them all and knows when a sparrow falls, asking Him to take this bird into His keeping and help you give it a good and quick dying.

In the end, respect and care is shown when it's less about the human and how they feel than it is about the animal and how you go about managing their last day. Now that's free advice, so you can take it or leave it here, but it just may help a few of you who don't know where to start when it comes to killing a chicken.

 

[Victoria-nola]

I thank God and I thank the bird both. It is giving it's life so I and my loved ones can live. It is God's plan. We were created to eat living plants and animals.

I do not want the bird to suffer. I require people that are helping me to treat the birds with respect and not be cruel to them. The bird may not understand our language but they surely understand the tone of our voices and if we are calming or agitated, excited or scared.

IMHO if you do not feel something when you take that many lives or even one life there is something wrong inside you. Killing a creature brings you in touch with your own mortality. It is a trying time.

When we are done we have a meal with everyone involved. This is normally sloppy joes, beans and so on, anything but chicken! We have a couple Mike's or beers or whatever a person wants, and yes, some just want Coke. We relax and talk about what a bounty we have for the coming year. There is nothing ruckus about it. It may not be what you do, but it works for us.

I grew up on a farm, this farm I now own, in fact. I have lived my entire life with animals and watching or helping them die to become food. To not thank them and their spirit cheapens their death to me. For those that have never killed anything and their meat has always come form a butcher shop or meat market, it can be a very traumatic event. If an adult beverage helps them, so be it.

Thank you for this. It is really great to know that a person who has lived on a farm all their life still sees the taking of life so seriously. It really helps allay my fears.

--V

 

[Beekissed]

I'm sorry....I've seen that video and it rather makes me ill to see this woman tapping, tapping and tapping on that chicken;s neck, drawing out a process that should take mere seconds. To me the chicken looks trapped and under stress. It didn't change anything for the bird at all, this method, other than to prolong the episode of its dying...it still went through the same motions while dying that any other chicken does, she just holds it down while it does it.

I couldn't bear it the first time I watched it and I couldn't bear to watch it again. I've been around chickens enough to know that this couldn't possibly be comfortable for the bird, nor was the pecking in its neck likely to "desensitize" the area for the cut of the knife...rather, it likely traumatized the underlying vessels enough to start clot formation, preventing the rapid and easy flow of blood from the area. Much like when someone taps on a vein when doing venipuncture to "raise the vein"....it only makes accessing the vessel that much harder and often causes fibrinogen to clog the needle tip.

I'm sorry you guys took my post to be judgemental and harsh, as it was not meant to be and I'll remove it post haste, but I still don't believe that all these extra steps of crying, tapping a neck, holding a chicken down in your lap, drinking alcohol prior to or afterward or thanking a chicken indicate any extra caring beyond the measure of those who do not undertake all these rituals to get the job done. We care.

 

[Victoria-nola]

I'm sorry....I've seen that video and it rather makes me ill to see this woman tapping, tapping and tapping on that chicken;s neck, drawing out a process that should take mere seconds. To me the chicken looks trapped and under stress. It didn't change anything for the bird at all, this method, other than to prolong the episode of its dying...it still went through the same motions while dying that any other chicken does, she just holds it down while it does it.

I couldn't bear it the first time I watched it and I couldn't bear to watch it again. I've been around chickens enough to know that this couldn't possibly be comfortable for the bird, nor was the pecking in its neck likely to "desensitize" the area for the cut of the knife...rather, it likely traumatized the underlying vessels enough to start clot formation, preventing the rapid and easy flow of blood from the area. Much like when someone taps on a vein when doing venipuncture to "raise the vein"....it only makes accessing the vessel that much harder and often causes fibrinogen to clog the needle tip.

I'm sorry you guys took my post to be judgemental and harsh, as it was not meant to be and I'll remove it post haste, but I still don't believe that all these extra steps of crying, tapping a neck, holding a chicken down in your lap, drinking alcohol prior to or afterward or thanking a chicken indicate any extra caring beyond the measure of those who do not undertake all these rituals to get the job done. We care.

My assumption when she was stroking the neck of the bird was to help relax it, which it seemed very relaxed to me. That is not the first time I have seen that depicted, there is a scene i one of the Lord of the Rings movies, with a goat. It might have been a nervous gesture since she was being filmed and speaking at a time she normally doesn't speak or pause. Or it might be that's how she ensures she has the correct position on the artery. She holds the chicken in her lap in lieu of a cone, she states in the video that her apron is an important part of her particular method but that a cone could be used also. The whole thing was neat, clean, and tidy. And quiet.

Frankly, I feel like you are still mischaracterizing (and judging) what I've expressed and indeed, that video. I feel like you take issue with someone expressing sorrow over the need to take the chicken's life. No one ever said everyone had to do it that way. And in fact the woman to whom I addressed the link for the video was very happy to get the link and she said it really helped her. And, there are scientific reasons why the knife slit and bleeding out are a very good method, regardless of how one accomplishes it, which as I mentioned are discussed in the comments below the video.

I never said anyone who doesn't do it like that is wrong or unfeeling. I said that I personally needed to acknowledge my own needs around these issues and that I was happy to find sources who could help me with them and I remain grateful to those sources. This aftermath of what seemed like a simple post isn't really of help to me, so I'll stop posting on the subject for now.

 

[S5apiotrowski]

Kmac - Sometimes we just need more land so we have less neighbors (or at least more distant ones)

 

[duluthralphie]

I have to side with beekissed on the video. I stopped watching it at the point she started "tapping" the throat.

That is just gross and cruel to me, regardless of if she does it out of love or not. When killing a bird I try to keep their conditions as normal as possible. While chickens are not geniuses they are animals of routine. When something is out of the routine they freak out. Holding a bird between your thighs, upside down and tapping on it's throat is not routine.

I can bet the adrenaline is rushing through that poor birds body. I carry them in an embrace they are use to. When it is time. I immediately laying the down and take the head. No time for them to realize something is different..


That woman was just strange, carrying or not, it was misguided IMHO.

 

[SmColorInDaPan]

No telling how the chicken felt, although her behavior of calm, maybe that she had been held on lap many times b4? Not likely We will ever know. I agree with Ralph, animals are here to feed us. One does what one Needs to. Everyone has an opinion, also. Calmly ACCEPTING another's opinion, shows the maturity SO lacking in today's world.

RIR Roo pinched back of my hand, the other day. He still runs from the Mini Bantam Roo, which is an absolute Crack UP. Video helps me understand how to butcher, should I need to.
Recent experience with store bought chicken, Biting Roo is pushing his luck.
I recall a story where MEAN Roo went after my 5yr old mother, he was dinner soon thereafter. Many chickens back then, although I understood Grandma did the butchering, easier for her, than for Grandpa. To Each his Own..

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Hey I have a question. We have just started free ranging our flock on our property of about an acre. We don't have alot of wild predators but in sure there are a fee around. Mostly hawks. My friend free ranges and has 40 acres. They don't lock there hens up at night even though they have a hen house open for them. Do you always have to keep a hen house at night? Do people sometimes let the roost where they want? We have alot of outbuildings etc..

 

[Beekissed]

Hey I have a question. We have just started free ranging our flock on our property of about an acre. We don't have alot of wild predators but in sure there are a fee around. Mostly hawks. My friend free ranges and has 40 acres. They don't lock there hens up at night even though they have a hen house open for them. Do you always have to keep a hen house at night? Do people sometimes let the roost where they want? We have alot of outbuildings etc..

If you don't mind slowly but surely losing all your flock, you can let them run free and roost where they please. Of course, you won't get any eggs in your nests either as they will be tucked here and there wherever the chickens choose to lay. I've known a lot of people who do this as they just have chickens as lawn decorations on their farm and don't really care if they get eggs or not or if the birds are picked off by predators or not.

If you want to keep your flock, you'll have to give them a secure place to sleep at night and places to run and hide during the day, but if you don't have a good dog on guard you'll still lose your flock one by one anyway. You have predators, have no doubts, and you'll start to see evidence of that if you get a flock of chickens.

I'm not sure why folks waste money on chickens and feed if they don't care if they get picked off by predators, but my sister does this all the time. When all her chickens are gone except a few, she just buys more. She finds an egg now and again and that seems to make her happy, but she doesn't seem to care if the local predators are all feasting on her wasted money. Funny thing about that is she calls me a murderer because I kill my chickens for food...and she isn't kidding when she says it.