NY chicken lover!!!!

[stonykill]

Warning: This is about culling a chicken and if that bothers you, stop reading.

I had to cull an eggbound hen today who just wasn't getting better no matter what we tried. Stony, I wondered if you could expand a bit about how you slaughter. I used a two foot length of re-rod to stun her, then put it over her neck and gave a steady pull until her neck separated. It was very quiet and quick and I don't think she felt a thing it was so quick. Much better than an axe and all that blood and flapping around. The question is, if you break their neck, how well do they bleed out. This seems so much better than using an axe and I have some roosters growing out for the freezer that will be ready for processing soon. Would appreciate more detail on how you proceed after breaking the neck.

So RIP Rose, you were a good girl and we didn't want you to suffer any more.

I don't always break the neck. I do it if the rooster is a noisy one. Usually when you hang a chicken upside down it is silent. I find many of my Sumatra's SCREAM when held upside down and try ti right themselves. So when this happens :
1)I tuck the rooster under my arms
2) Grab the rooster by the head and the base of the neck
3) quickly snap the neck.
Then if my knife is on my hip I slice the throat. If it is not I walk to the chopping block and use a hatchet to remove it's head entirely....1 swing

so when I break the neck I then proceed like with any other killing process of the butchering.

The reason WHY I break the neck is this:
I give my birds the best possible life a bird can have...bar none. I want the very end to be as swift as possible. If a bird is freaking out, I want it over with NOW. So I snap the neck then proceed as normal.

Hope this helps

 

[stonykill]

One of my free range Drakes today. His name is Baby Hughie and he is a really good hunter. He refused to share and ate it all himself

 

[rancher hicks]

Warning: This is about culling a chicken and if that bothers you, stop reading.

I had to cull an eggbound hen today who just wasn't getting better no matter what we tried. Stony, I wondered if you could expand a bit about how you slaughter. I used a two foot length of re-rod to stun her, then put it over her neck and gave a steady pull until her neck separated. It was very quiet and quick and I don't think she felt a thing it was so quick. Much better than an axe and all that blood and flapping around. The question is, if you break their neck, how well do they bleed out. This seems so much better than using an axe and I have some roosters growing out for the freezer that will be ready for processing soon. Would appreciate more detail on how you proceed after breaking the neck.

So RIP Rose, you were a good girl and we didn't want you to suffer any more.

I am sorry for your loss.

 

[Lynzi777]

Horsekeeper - sorry to hear about your hen. But glad she isn't suffering anymore. I dread the day something like that has to happen here. I may be calling one of you brave ones to come do the job for me...:-/

 

[horsekeeper]

Thanks, Rancher.

Stony, my concern was if they die when their neck is snapped, how does the blood get pumped out? I like that I would not have a stressed out struggling chicken on the block. I use two nails to hold their head and stretch them out, but this method would be easier on both me and the chicken. Usually I remove the head while holding the legs and wingtips and immediately shove them in a bucket to catch the blood and prevent the crazy flapping around. They bleed out nice and then I go on to scalding and picking. Do they bleed out in the neck area from the broken neck?

 

[JLaw]

Ok wife found a dead chicken by coop at 7 pm.she sys neck snaped so i think turkey trying to mount since no other marks. Now i dont get home till midnight can i still process the bird. I know deer can sit a night cold abd be good.

 

[horsekeeper]

Lynzi, I dreaded doing it because she was such a sweet hen, and beautiful, too. Rose was a hatchery bird and I suspect she was messed up inside somehow. Her abdomen swelled up and all the warm baths and probing around didn't help. Or the yogurt, tums, vitamins, cooked egg yolks, and other things we tried. Could have been eggbound or peritonitis. We didn't feel any egg stuck up there, but she had yellow and clear discharge so something was wrong related to laying. Probably the shell broke and pierced her insides.

If you can do it quickly without overthinking your actions and give them that quick rap in the back of the head, the rest is not so bad. So much easier to deal with an unconscious bird than one who is looking at you and frightened. She was sitting in the grass looking around and had no idea what was happening. I was worried about just breaking her neck because I had never done it before and didn't want to mess it up and make her suffer more. Used to raise rabbits for meat and know how effective stunning is, so figured it would work with a chicken, too.

My hope is that no one has to do this, but if you have an animal that is suffering it is much kinder to end it quickly. When her toes started to curl up and she looked miserable I knew it was time. She was my daughter's chicken, but she is not capable of killing anything, so chicken hospital and euthanasia is my job.

 

[stonykill]

Thanks, Rancher.

Stony, my concern was if they die when their neck is snapped, how does the blood get pumped out? I like that I would not have a stressed out struggling chicken on the block. I use two nails to hold their head and stretch them out, but this method would be easier on both me and the chicken. Usually I remove the head while holding the legs and wingtips and immediately shove them in a bucket to catch the blood and prevent the crazy flapping around. They bleed out nice and then I go on to scalding and picking. Do they bleed out in the neck area from the broken neck?

they bleed out well. The blood runs out whereever I cut the neck. I've done dozens and dozens this way

 

[stonykill]

Ok wife found a dead chicken by coop at 7 pm.she sys neck snaped so i think turkey trying to mount since no other marks. Now i dont get home till midnight can i still process the bird. I know deer can sit a night cold abd be good.

yes you will be fine butchering it after midnight. Think of it this way. You go duck hunting. Takes from 7 am to 11 am to get your 6 birds. You go home, eat lunch then process. Perfectly fine

 

[horsekeeper]

Thanks, Stony, that is very helpful.