Not to be insensitive; when babies have to be culled.

[ChickieBooBoo]

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To each their own I guess, I don't have time to hand raise a deformed or sick bird. If they can't make it with the rest, they don't make it on my farm.

 

[dwegg]

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well is it better to let them suffer a slow agonising death and slowly starve to death because she couldn't eat due to a crokked beak...or walk around with a clubbed foot and live a less than happy life?

 

[PegramPoultryProprietor]

Ok, I apologize if I was a little over sensitive to some remarks. The fact is I did think about my method quite a lot before. I have stood in a freezer (AKA Alaska interior @ -50) and was lost for several hours. Hypothermia is actually a nice way to go unnaturally. I also considered the thermodynamics of how long it takes to reduce a temperature from a given to another; considered how fragile a chick is at that age, and whether or not I would be judged in the afterlife for all of the poultry I have culled in the past. But at least we had this conversation and we all have the knowledge that we aren’t alone. Thank you for your understanding and input. I hope this has been beneficial to everyone.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

This sure is a hot topic huh, took me awhile to add my 2 cents worth 'cause I didn't want to offend, but here goes anyway.
When I was a kid we fed the cats on top of the deep freeze, mom moved the bowl and got something out and put the bowl back, sure, a kitten had jumped into the freeze unnoticed until I walked by and heard a strange noise in there..I looked, the kitten was almost frozen, posture stiff, frost all over it and worst of all, eyeballs were white clouded and frozen first....it was still alive and mewing pitfully....I screamed for my brother who quickly dispatched the poor thing - with a rifle butt to the head.
Anyone who works in the medical field for any length of time has had the discussion - how do you want to go, and what illness/injury do you want to pull the plug. Trust me, no body wants to linger and suffer in pain. Most all want the big one, and to be unconscious immediately
If you go to the vet, be tough enough to stay with the animal...I worked at a place (for a very short time) that euthanized without anesthia if no one was around- to save money I guess...they didn't just go to sleep...horrid.
If you've ever been knocked out, You know there's no pain, until you wake up! I gotta say for me, if a chick is deformed or the mama hen is trying to kill it, I'll go along with culling -sometimes nature knows better than me...then there are those breeders who cull an animal cause it doesn't met breed standards, I once got a great dog for free because he had too much white on his toes....on condition he would be altered.
On the other hand, a funny chicken takes more resources time and energy to take care of and likely will pass on its deformity, back to natural selection for me...how to dispatch it remains with you
I used to plunge live lobsters into the boiling water...until I heard them scteaming, now I plunge a knife into the brain first. no screaming. I haven't had to kill anything yet (although my rooster has gotten me pretty close to it) I'm happy for the description in good detail on how to exactly wring a neck, lights out no suffering, it may be difficult but I owe it to them, a good life and a good death.

 

[al6517]

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To each their own I guess, I don't have time to hand raise a deformed or sick bird. If they can't make it with the rest, they don't make it on my farm.

X10............ Survival of the fittest is the way of nature, until humans interfer then it's almost allways a debackle.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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That, IMO, is the cruel thing to do. I used to think like this until I started hatching and raising more and more chickens and I have seen numerous chicks with deformities that slowly die from being trambled, starved and pecked to death by their hatchmates. Its not a good way to go and if I had the choice, I would prefere my neck broken.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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If you hesitate (which some people do) you might not have killed it...

 

[the Pollo Loco]

I see nothing wrong with a chick dying on its own... killing without eating it, seems cruel to me IMO...
to thine ownself be true...

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

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A chick suffereing through starvation and its hatchmates pecking it to death...

 

[ragnar1107]

This site is interesting in that you get alot of different kinds of people and the only thing in common is owning chickens. Everything to city bred hippies playing back to nature in their postage stamp sized backyards to real farmers on hundreds of acres. I'm kind of in the middle Carpenter by day hobby farmer the rest of the time. Look at the different ways people approach this topic, real world in my opinion, if you've got a problem chick you cull it to the other extreme of trying to make some pathetic pet out of it. Chickens aren't pets there agriculture they are in our lives for a purpose, to serve as food and the best way that is accomplished is through real animal husbandry not some namby pamby touchy feely way that almost never works out and just makes things worse. If ya can't kill it don't eat it. Imho.