Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[jajeanpierre]

If you do the hatchet method, have a bucket or other container ready to drop the chicken into while it thrashes. I have had a chicken flop out of the cone while it was thrashing and blood was splattered around the area, including on me, so I speak from experience. Also, if they flop around, they can break bones and damage the meat. A 5-gallon bucket is good for this.

It seems everyone is telling me that the bird thrashes a LOT more when you chop off their head. Is that the truth?

What about hanging the chicken up after you cut off the head? How much more thrashing is there? Is there a video of it?

I watched some videos and the chickens thrashed when bled. Is it a lot worse when you cut the head off?

I think bleeding them out is probably the kindest. I just don't think that my son can do it. I might have to do it.

 

[Beekissed]

They thrash with any method..the same amount with each. When they are in a cone, the thrashing is somewhat diminished because they have restricted movement. But the thrashing is inevitable...

With the hatchet and block, unless they are contained in a bucket as described, they will flop all over the ground, spraying blood in all directions and all over their feathering. It's pretty gruesome to watch and clean up after, so the hanging and cutting is just a more calm, clean and efficient process.

I think many people use the hatchet or axe because it puts distance between them and the animal they are killing and it brings them some comfort in that distance...but it doesn't do anything for the chicken. It's just death in another form or method.

 

[ronott1]

It seems everyone is telling me that the bird thrashes a LOT more when you chop off their head. Is that the truth?

What about hanging the chicken up after you cut off the head? How much more thrashing is there? Is there a video of it?

I watched some videos and the chickens thrashed when bled. Is it a lot worse when you cut the head off?

I think bleeding them out is probably the kindest. I just don't think that my son can do it. I might have to do it.

All Animals that die thrash when they are killed. Yes All of them, including humans.

Next time I will try the jugular again. The trick is to put a rock into the bottom of a garbage can and hang them over it if you do not have a cone.

 

[Haloclimb]

Do any of you guys have a good guide for making your own killing cone? I really want to be able to slaughter our roosters myself instead of getting my dad to do the dead, but I don't think I'd be strong enough to snap the neck and I don't have the hand-eye coordination to use a hatchet! I've only put a sick chicken down with a hatchet once and I don't want to do it again
I want to try slitting the throat, since it juts seems to be so much easier, quicker and cleaner. (I'm the one that has to hold the chickens to bleed them out after dad lops off the head...I've had quite enough of getting sprayed while they fling themselves about!)
I really just want to be able to do all of this myself so I can get rid of problem roosters any time instead of having to wait for the weekend ):

 

[jajeanpierre]

They thrash with any method..the same amount with each. When they are in a cone, the thrashing is somewhat diminished because they have restricted movement. But the thrashing is inevitable...

I have watched a few slaughtering videos and the thrashing is disturbing. I watched a video where they killed four chickens using killing cones. The video didn't show the thrashing, but I could hear the banging noises and I found that really disturbing. I've seen one where they hung the chicken up and bled it without a cone.

I have parrots and if we are ever doing something with them we'll gently wrap them in a towel. It keeps them still, they can't flap and they can't bite. I thought of wrapping a chicken in a towel, but that would be a real mess I think. What about wrapping their wings with vet wrap and then hanging them after their heads are chopped off?

I do think cutting an artery might be the kindest and calmest for everyone involved. The chicken probably barely feels it and quietly goes to sleep from blood loss. If you use a hatchet, they have to have a moment of terror as they see the see the swing of the hatchet while they are pinned.

The only thing is that if I go to many veterinary sites discussing euthanasia, exsanguination (bleeding out) is not an acceptable method of euthasia as there is anxiety associated with severe blood loss.

I know I'm making this too hard, but I have to get comfortable with it.

Thanks for helping me on this.

 

[NikonD2xer]

Do any of you guys have a good guide for making your own killing cone? I really want to be able to slaughter our roosters myself instead of getting my dad to do the dead, but I don't think I'd be strong enough to snap the neck and I don't have the hand-eye coordination to use a hatchet! I've only put a sick chicken down with a hatchet once and I don't want to do it again
I want to try slitting the throat, since it juts seems to be so much easier, quicker and cleaner. (I'm the one that has to hold the chickens to bleed them out after dad lops off the head...I've had quite enough of getting sprayed while they fling themselves about!)
I really just want to be able to do all of this myself so I can get rid of problem roosters any time instead of having to wait for the weekend ):

You can make a kill cone out of hardware cloth or chicken wire. It is something that alot of people has extra of. You can try cutting the bottom corner out of a feed bag too. I have heard traffic cones at Home depot work great too.

 

[kacklinkelly]

jajeanpierre -

I had my first meat bird experience a couple of months ago. When I got the chicks, everyone said I wasn't going to be able to do it
when the time came. I had only ever caught and cleaned fish before. I'm known as the people pleaser and nurturer. Well, like many here, I thought if I wanted to raise chickens for eggs, I better figure out how to do my own dispatching if something goes wrong with a hen or I end up with a roo. I had done a lot of research prior to getting the meaties. Had my time frame in place (8 weeks). Did more research and prepared all materials prior to harvest time. I even volunteered to dog sit our son's dogs so that I would have to follow through before the dogs arrived. Had my daughter's significant other going to assist.

Well, murphy's law took place. One of the meaties wasn't thriving and developed leg issues. The others were not kind to her. My daughter and her sig. other were out of town. I was home alone and it was obvious that the chicken was not going to make it to harvest date without suffering, regardless of the measures I was taking. (she probably would have, had she been a store bought chicken though) She had to be put down before the scheduled time period.

With the support of this thread, I chose the neck slice method. Didn't have time to make a cone. I set up my husbands 8 foot ladder in the yard. I tied a rope between two rungs on either side of the ladder. Made slip knots in the rope for the feet. I set up our large cooler under the ladder as a tool station. I placed a bucket on top of the cooler with about an inch of water in the bottom. Had a few knife choices as I didn't know what would work best. I chose the sharpest one I had which was a small ceramic knife. I said a prayer, grabbed the chicken by the feet and walked with her over to the harvest area. She was pretty calm while I was walking with her. She remained relatively calm while I tied her feet and did my best to find the "right spot". Got my nerve, said another prayer of thanks and made a slice on one side. It was not deep enough as no blood came out. I felt horrible and like a failure. I sliced again. That time, it was deep enough. Neither time did the chicken make any sound. I then sliced the other side and held the chicken over the bucket with her head/neck low enough to be half way in the bucket. I chose to hold the chicken while she bled out as I didn't want the flopping to happen and the bucket wasn't weighted down. I was shocked at how quickly the bleed out happened. There was movement on her part and a squawk or two.

It definitely took alot of my energy to carry out this process. However, after having done it, I was thankful to have been able to give the chicken a decent existence while alive. I did it myself which helped me to further appreciate my connection to my food source. I also felt some increased confidence for having put a distressed animal out of undue suffering as well as learning how to provide healthy food for myself and family. (she didn't really have enough meat to feed a family - but you get the idea)

Clean up was amazingly simple - no major mess anywhere (other than contained to the bucket). I chose to skin rather than pluck. The entire process from start to finish (including set up,clean up and meat in the fridge) was one hour.

At scheduled harvest date, I did the remaining chickens with my husband as my "gofor". He wanted nothing to do with the harvesting. It never became easy taking the life. However, now that the home grown meat has been eaten, I am ready to consider my next breed of meat birds for the fall.

I apologize for the long story here, but am hoping that you will feel a sense of community empowerment in what is shared. One of the take aways I had from the experience is that if everyone had to be involved in providing their own meat source, there would not be as much waste in my opinion.

Wishing you continued recovery and confidence.

 

[Gen9]

I'm a new chicken owner and the time has come to slaughter a few of the roosters. I bought these chickens for pets and eggs. My plan was to slaughter the roosters. Before I bought these chickens, I was assured by the feed store that she knew someone who slaughtered chickens for a fee. Philosophically, I believe that if I truly love animals and continue to eat meat, I should raise it and kill it myself (or find someone who would do it for me kindly and humanely) because factory farming/slaughter is beyond a horror. After I bought these chickens, I returned to the feed store to get the contact information only to have the feed store owners say, "Oh, I was mistaken, he only slaughters for 4H kids." Great! I don't think I would have bought these if I had any idea I would have to do this myself!

I've only had one experience with killing any animal (other than euthanasia and bugs). This past February a yearling deer got tangled in my fence. The game warden dispatched it. I helped. I had never seen an animal shot in the head before. Silly me thought they just dropped and laid still. I was horrified by what I saw. I wish I had been prepared. My neighbor field dressed the deer for me and I helped. All in all, it was an incredibly upsetting experience for me.

Six weeks prior to The Bambi Incident I suffered a head injury, and The Bambi Incident sent me for a loop with my symptoms returning really badly. I was a mess. I've still not recovered from the head injury, so slaughtering my chickens will not be good for my recovery.

So, now I find myself with some roosters that are starting to be problematic and need to go. My 23-year old son actually wants to experience slaughtering his own food. He wants to do the actual killing. I don't mind doing the cleaning. For me, the killing and the movements immediately after will send me for a loop.

We've decided that we are going to use a hatchet because there is less skill involved so there is less of a chance that something could go wrong.

The chickens I will be processing are small and almost not worth the trouble, but any meat I get off them is meat from an animal that had a good life and a good diet and then had one very bad day. Every day is a horrible day for store-bought meat.

I've watched a video by Mother Earth News which was basically a self sustainable fair & the reason they said they slitting the neck instead of wringing the neck (or any other method for that matter) is because, as the bird is falling asleep, the heart continues to pump the blood out. When I processed my chickens, hubby did the culling, and he wrung them by the neck, which is what I didn't want, but I couldn't kill them because I was already shaking once he handed me the headless bird. It took much longer for them to bleed out than what I saw on the youtube videos (they were also older so I don't know if that has anything to do with it). Both my children, 6 & 9 years old, watched the whole process. I've prepared them for it and my daughter had her favorite video on killing & processing chickens, as the guy explained how much better it is to do it yourself. It's the same reason you and I have taken this step.

I'm sorry to tell you this, but I've seen and done more "somethings wrong" while using an axe to dispatch a bird than most other methods. It's about up there with the wringing of the neck for me. The most sure and uncomplicated method I've found is slitting the throat while the bird is upside down.

This is part one to a great video on processing chickens...and it shows all the reality of the process. No petting of the birds, holding them for extensive periods of time to make one feel better about the dying, etc. Just normal folks doing a basic chore of killing a chicken. Part two of this video will show you how to process it further...

Thanks that was a good video, I haven't seen this one before, but I've seen many. I like the way this guy explains it. I agree with the slitting of the throat (for reasons I mentioned above). Oh and if the rooster is a little older like mine was... although it was rigamortis, my husband dropped it when he went to grab the hose and it let out a really loud "caw" sound (like a black crow), the sound alarmed all of us! It reminded me of those squeak toys they sell at the pet store... IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW... So be prepared for things like that.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

If you google Killing Cones you will see a ton of great ideas, the one I like the best is the XL bleach bottle cone, they just cut the top off.

As far as bleeding out, I am thinking that different breeds/ sizes will bleed out more and faster. Our brahma bled slow and our cochin fast. The quail bled fast but they jerked and vibrated for a loooong time thereafter.

 

[wlhtx]

This is a great thread, for which I am thankful. I think it's wonderful that the readers of this thread have a place to go to help them get through an act that needs to be done.

Culling is hard, but otherwise you end up with national news stories like this from today's headlines:

Really? I truly fear for our society that is apparently made up of people that don't have enough sense of responsibility to even care for a chicken...

Sorry for the rant as my first post here... I've been lurking for awhile (for learning purposes), and when I ran across this story this morning it just validated (IMO) the actions of the readers of this thread.