Tre3hugger
Let Your Freak Flag Fly
I'm glad you found something that works for you. I cut jugular on both sides. The bird bleeds out in about 30 seconds. THEN starts death throes when insensible. But I understand that methods not for everyone. I think the biggest deterrent to the helium method is repeated cost. If routinely processing meat birds the helium will get expensive. At that point it literally pays to hone your knife skills. Gas is great for a sick bird or sporadic cull though.There are a lot of ways to dispatch your birds, I have tried throat cutting, decapitation, and neck popping. In all of these instances, including the decapitation, I was assured that if I did it properly, it would be over so fast the birds wouldn't have time to suffer and would die instantly. I would read about it days in advance, watch videos, and make sure I knew what I was doing. Every single time my birds were alive long enough to realize that they were being killed, to feel pain, gasp for air that wouldn't come, choke on their own blood and look into my eyes, shocked and confused for what seemed like forever, but was probably only 10 seconds. Longer, for the throat cutting, that one was the worst imo. People made from tougher stuff than me aren't too bothered by it, but I'm too sensitive for it. I really hope this method picks up some popularity, it will make the whole process so much kinder for all involved.