Killing chooks for the first time

[ChickenKeep01]

I have a young rooster who im going to have to kill soon and im wondering how to gut him, kill him humanly and the best age to kill himat.

 

[WisteriaMoonChicken]

That's sad. I was going to do that to my rooster, but we sent him in the farm where it's safe and nice.

 

[thlayli]

Killing humanely is usually a lot harder on the person than you might expect if youve never done it before. Breaking the neck is the easiest/fastest way, I've heard. I have a flock, but I don't expect having to put any down any time soon. My great grandmother regularly slaughtered chickens for dinner, though. My mom said she would grab them by the neck and spin them like she was reeling in a fishing line, very quickly.

 

[NotSoChickenLove]

I would probably get someone who knew what they were doing to help me out the first time. It isn't something you want to screw up, and some of the methods have a bit of knack to them. I know that my elderly neighbour has a pillowcase with a corner cut out. She pops the chicken in headfirst so they can't move around, straight on the block and off with their head. The whole process is just seconds, and they can't run around afterwards. It looks very easy, if slightly messy, but it's years of practice.

With smaller birds that the cat brings in, I twist and pull the neck and that's quick. I wouldn't be comfortable trying that on a chicken. (Please note that these are birds the cat has left badly wounded. If they look unharmed I release them somewhere safe. If they're fledglings with no tail feathers, I take them to the local bird obsessed lady to foster until they can fly)

 

[Pork Pie]

There are many options available. Whichever you choose, speed is the name of the game. I personally use a very sharp, heavy knife. No pain or suffering

 

[Birdinhand]

I found this helpful, it was posted on another thread:

 

[Ridgerunner]

Three different questions. None with a definite answer.

how to gut him,

There are several threads on this in the stickies at the top of this Meat Birds section. There are different ways to go about it depending on how you will use him. Are you going to pluck or skin? Will you keep the carcass whole or cut him into pieces? What pieces. I cut mine into pieces because that's how I cook them plus I use a lot of the parts I don't eat directly to make broth. Look through some of those threads for inspiration.

kill him humanly

Again, lots of different ways, look through those stickies. The most humane way is the way you can without flinching so it is swift and sure. You don't want to injure the bird or yourself. I grew up using an ax so I'm comfortable using an ax or hatchet and a stump. Some people use pruning shears or loppers to take the head off or break the neck with the broomstick method. Wringing the neck does work. Probably the most common method used by people on this forum is with a killing cone and a sharp knife to cut the throat. There can be a learning curve with any of these so if you can get someone to help you the first time you are better off but lots of people manage by themselves. Those stickies help.

and the best age to kill him at.

You'll get a lot of different opinion on this. Why are you eating him? Do you need to do it before he starts to crow or do you have another reason? Do you have a preferred way to cook him? The older he is the more restricted you are in how you can cook him. They have more texture and a stronger taste the older they are. Some people butcher at 12 weeks, but there isn't much meat there, but they usually aren't crowing and the meat is tender enough to fry or grill. You can find people that prefer 14 or 16 weeks for their own reasons. I prefer around 22 to 23 weeks but I raise mine for meat. Mine forage for a lot of their food so I'm not paying for everything they eat, I can afford to keep them longer. My cooking methods take into account the age.

 

[Jayson_Black]

I had to kill a very sick chicken once. It was somehow disembowelled. Is that a thing? Anyway, I cut its head off. This chicken was a tamed pet. I calmed it down first, talked to it a little, and said I was sorry. It was soo hard to do. But I grit my teeth and kept thinking what was best for the bird. Because the animal was very sick. (I think already close to death) there was almost Zero blood, like not enough pressure to get out. I dunno. The other thing was it did NOT run around like I had heard it might.

They can run around though! >>>

The next time was years later when two of the hatchlings we had purchased and turned out to be Roosters.

One was rehomed, the other I killed. I gave the second one away after being shocked by killing its sibling. I was soo shocked when I killed the first one. There was much more blood and it ran around my entire front yard one and a half times over a period of about 30 seconds. It Ran fast and controlled. I could not believe what I was seeing.

I did not want to experience that again and so I gave the second Rooster free to a good home. I was extremely uncomfortable doing that. I gave it to a truck driver who assured me it was not for Fighting or Eating. We do live in the country so maybe he just wanted to breed it with his chickens, like he said he would. I hope.

Present day we can have a rooster. Our neighbours are OK, but more than one would push the Boundry's and we are doing Both Incubating eggs as well as our Two Girls are both brooding. We are going to have a whole heap of roosters. +Hoping for more girls than boys, but its not up to us very much.

I am trying to prepare myself for the inevitable Cull. This time though I plan to not befriend any of the newly hatched chickens, as well as always keeping in the back of my mind that I will someday soon be killing these and eating them.

There's no way I am letting them die in vain. I am a meat eater. but I have seldom killed my food. I buy it mostly from the supermarket and Butcher. I have many times over the years felt guilty that my food was killed in part of a Gigantic machine/factory/corporation etc. I feel it is soo disrespectful to the animal. It probably makes no difference, but I really feel the animals should be killed by the people eating it, if for nothing else so they can thank it, and apologise to it for cutting its life short so that our lives can keep going.

I feel like if I'm going to eat chicken it should be my chicken. Then its treatment can meet my extremely high expectations. Then I can feel a little more right with the universe.

 

[BantyChooks]

Breaking the neck (cervical dislocation) can be hard to do on a rooster due to stronger neck muscles. It
also doesn't bleed the bird out. However, it's one of the most humane methods. For birds used for food, I use non-ratcheting pipe cutters; it bleeds them well and you can't miss like you can with an axe. One stroke and the head is off. Others have covered the rest quite well.

 

[EB2351]

Breaking the neck (cervical dislocation) can be hard to do on a rooster due to stronger neck muscles. It
also doesn't bleed the bird out. However, it's one of the most humane methods. For birds used for food, I use non-ratcheting pipe cutters; it bleeds them well and you can't miss like you can with an axe. One stroke and the head is off. Others have covered the rest quite well.

Can you send a link of the type of cutters you use?