I've never had trouble plucking a chicken that was decapitated. I've done decapitation and watched bleed out, and the death throws are very similar - except in the bleed out, they are contained in the cone, so you don't have to feel it. With the broomstick method, the death throws were much more mild - not sure why.
On the decapitation, meaties are a lot more violent in their death throws. I don't know if it's because they are larger, or what. I do know they are very hard to hold because of their size. They had a lot more blood (thicker too) in them than a dual purpose breed. Even my husband mentioned their blood was a lot thicker. Made a heck of a mess.
On the decapitation, meaties are a lot more violent in their death throws. I don't know if it's because they are larger, or what. I do know they are very hard to hold because of their size. They had a lot more blood (thicker too) in them than a dual purpose breed. Even my husband mentioned their blood was a lot thicker. Made a heck of a mess.
He might have had an instant of fear, but I suspect he didn't suffer pain. His fear level might not have been any higher than if you suddenly grabbed him up, so don't beat yourself up over it. Figure out what you did that you want to change and then put a plan in action to fix it. I think being calm and not doing anything until both you and the bird are ready is not emphasized enough. There is no rush. I work really hard to calm myself. Killing is very distressing for me. If I'm not calm, I step back and regroup mentally. If the bird is not calm, I step back and wait until BOTH of us are calm. The other point that can't be over emphasized is that you need more force than you think you will need whether using the bleed out method or the chop. This is the time when you can't be timid. With the chop method, you have to be careful not to use too much force because the more force you use, the less accuracy you'll have. The stronger you are, the more force you can use and still be accurate. It's a balance between accuracy and force--and you'll need more force than you think you need since the feathers act like armor and padding. I know that I can't use the chop method because I've just had wrist surgery and neck surgery. In the "how-to" videos, I don't see it mentioned how important a lot of practice is. You can use something like a small green branch to practice your aim and force. The feathers act like armor, so chopping a branch isn't quite the same as chopping off the head of a cockerel with all his glorious hackle feathers. Also, if you were to practice on chicken necks from a store, remember they are 8-week old birds with very soft bones so it isn't anything like the bone strength of an older free-ranging bird. You also want to be sure your chop is to the back of the neck. Below is a diagram of a vertebrae. If this were a vertebrae of a chicken neck, the chicken would be lying on its back. The windpipe and esophagus would run along the body of the vertebrae (at the top of the diagram) and the spinal cord would run through the hole called the vertebral foreman at the bottom of the picture. So, you can see, that the spine is least protected at the back of the neck.
