New to this... having some trouble.

[Tracydr]

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I'm Family Practice but I've spent most of my time doing Emergency Medicine (Rural) and Urgent Care.
I think, even if you get just the jugular it would go very quickly, given that the chicken's total blood volume is fairly small.The thing is, once the blood pressure is lowered, the bird passes out, and this happens very quickly.
But, the carotid is fairly close, just behind the jugular, so if you note that blood is coming out but doesn't appear to be pumping, like an arterial bleed, it's very easy to take another small cut in the exact same place, which will get the carotid.

 

[Beekissed]

I don't bother with finding arteries and veins....just use a sharp knife and cut left to right, nice and deep until my blade hits bone but does not severe the spinal column. Takes any guess work out of it and the bird dies very quickly. This way the knife isn't moved toward or away from you but horizontal to your position and above your hand....no slip ups with this method.

 

[itsy]

Halo & K8, will those shears cut the head right off or do you need to make two cuts?

When you guys were talking about shears, I was thinking this thing: Here .

 

[halo]

When I first used those shears, I was just going to snip the neck and let them bleed out. Imagine my surprise when I stood up with the head in my hand. I then tried that with the next 3 I did, and the head came right off with no effort. They work really really well; so well, in fact, that I bought another 2 pair, so I always have them available. Only a single cut with them.

 

[galanie]

If you are having trouble making the cut, the knife isn't sharp enough. And it has to be much sharper than you'd think. The same knife that will cut up that chicken almost effortlessly can still be too dull to cut that artery easily.

Whether to do it that way or just cut off the whole head (which can be done with a much duller tool, given enough brute force) is discussed every time someone asks this question. So I won't address that.

 

[Sharedspirit]

For those of you using shears...you just cut off the head with the shears? Do you put them in a killing cone first? I use the hatchet method and I really hate doing it that way.

 

[Jared77]

double post

 

[Fowl_Odor002]

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