Looking for a non-traumatic way to euthanize my injured rooster -- suggestions?

[Poetical Peeps]

He's had a leg injury for quite some time and his condition keeps worsening. My kids are crushed that it's time to let him go. This is not helped by the fact that this injury was caused by a hired carpenter who was seen deliberately throwing a board at him (we'd told this man multiple times that if the chickens were bugging him, we'd coop them and he said they were no problem).

So, this isn't going to be a meat bird, we just want to be as humane as possible and, preferably not have his body all bloody/mangled, especially because the kids will want to see him and bury him.

I'm wondering if anyone here has advice on putting a bird down using medications and, if so, which ones at what dosage? I am considering Benadryl to sedate him, but don't think that would actually be lethal.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I'm sorry you have to do this, it's never easy.

Unfortunately there's not an easy way to do this. I know you can use ether for chicks, but there is some discussion that ether causes burns and is not a good way to go. And I'm not sure it would kill an adult chicken.

The fastest and most humane way (for the chicken, not as easy for the human) we have found is a hatchet. Others use a killing cone and slit the neck and they bleed out - haven't done it myself. Another way is to put a broom handle over their neck, step on each side of it (pinning the bird by it's neck) and then pull up on the legs until their neck breaks - again, I haven't done that either.

If you choose to do the hatchet, have a cardboard box, or bucket nearby to put the body in - they thrash around for a bit.

 

[Poetical Peeps]

Thanks.

My husband got home and apparently thought I expected him to do it. He took him out back and broke his neck, but said it was not as easy as he expected and he's never doing it again.

I have sixteen one-month-old chicks and more on the way next week... so I know I'm going to end up with more boys than I can handle and am going to have to get used to this part of keeping chickens. Sad stuff.

 

[Kelbug]

I realize that you already killed the rooster but for anyone else looking for an answer, I had read to cull a chicken you aren't going to eat, put it in a Rubbermaid tub with a rag sprayed down with engine de-greaser. They just go to sleep.