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

[Happy Chooks]

Success! The rest of the boys are done, and they went peacefully, with no squawking.

I ended up borrowing a friend's knife sharpener, and we undid the damage that the professional knife sharpeners did, and got it cutting paper easily. So between that and giving the cockerels more time to calm down once they were upside down, they didn't react at all when I cut them. I'm really pleased with how these last guys went. We are done with processing for now, but I'm sure I'll hatch more cockerels and need to do this again eventually. So I feel much more confident with my ability to do this quickly and humanely. Yay!

Nice job!

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

Success! The rest of the boys are done, and they went peacefully, with no squawking.

I ended up borrowing a friend's knife sharpener, and we undid the damage that the professional knife sharpeners did, and got it cutting paper easily. So between that and giving the cockerels more time to calm down once they were upside down, they didn't react at all when I cut them. I'm really pleased with how these last guys went. We are done with processing for now, but I'm sure I'll hatch more cockerels and need to do this again eventually. So I feel much more confident with my ability to do this quickly and humanely. Yay!

Good job!

 

[jajeanpierre]

Finally, my nasty rooster is in the fridge! I just hate doing it. Every time. It's not the processing, it's the killing.

I have not been happy with bleeding them out. I figured I'd shoot myself in the eye if I tried a pellet gun. An ax is out of the question. My preference would be a captive bolt gun, but the cost is prohibitive.

So, I finally tried the broomstick method. This rooster was such a jerk that if I mucked it up, I wouldn't feel bad. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely would not want him to be afraid or suffer, but he was the perfect test subject since I had no emotional attachment to him other than we hated each other.

IT WAS SO QUICK AND EASY!!!!!! The best!

I did make a bit of a mistake while setting him up. I was putting gentle pressure on his neck, just getting my courage up to do it when I lost my balance and his head slipped out. I don't believe I hurt him--I just quickly put him back, yelled at my husband for not holding me since I already had told him I was not going to be able to keep my balance, and then just pulled hard and quick. Death throes immediately. It was EASY and instant.

I hung him up on a waiting hook and then tried to cut his carotid arteries like the books say but I had a hard time doing it because the blood had filled his neck under the skin and I couldn't pull the skin tight. I'll be more prepared for that next time--maybe I'll get a traffic cone so I will have a more rigid surface rather than having a bird swinging from a branch. The bonus was how easy the head came off.

There were a few challenges I saw with this method.

The biggest problem for me was keeping my balance. I'll be better prepared next time. I think to do it kindly, you need to set the bird up with the broomstick but not put weight on his neck--just enough pressure to hold the bird without hurting him (it would be easy to crush the bones in the neck before you even try to dislocate the neck). I have to have everything set up, take a deep breath and be mentally prepared before I kill them. I don't want to hurt him while I am finding my resolve. Since my head injury two years ago, my balance hasn't been the best. Add the stress of killing another creature--not good.

The next was finding a surface. I didn't want to hurt him, so didn't want a hard surface. I would be interested to find out what other people who do this use.

I should have mentally prepared before I put the bird's head down, but since I hadn't done it before I didn't know how easily his head would slip out.

Cutting the carotid arteries was a challenge. The neck filled with blood. I don't know where that blood came from. There a lot of veins and arteries that run up through the vertebrae. They would be severed by the dislocation. Maybe the carotid arteries/jugular veins were severed. I don't know. The neck was just filled with blood, even the meat of the neck. I did let him hang and bled him out but it wasn't the same as when I killed them by bleeding them out.

Thank you to whoever suggested gloves for my cracked finger tips. It worked!

Question about meat safety/quality:

The reason I slaughtered this bird today was because yesterday when I was pruning a tree in my yard and he was attacking me, he got winded just repeatedly jumping and attacking the shovel I had in my hand. When I cleaned him, I was really careful to get the lungs and trachea out to have a really good look. He has some lesions in the lungs, black areas. No evidence of pus or anything like that, just smudges of black throughout the lungs. I did a lot of thin slices and had a really good look. Everything else looked really healthy. I was really thorough looking at his organs and trachea right up to the back of his mouth. I've never looked this closely at lungs before.

Can I make soup out of him? Is he safe to eat? He was almost two years old.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

 

[ronott1]

Finally, my nasty rooster is in the fridge! I just hate doing it. Every time. It's not the processing, it's the killing.

I have not been happy with bleeding them out. I figured I'd shoot myself in the eye if I tried a pellet gun. An ax is out of the question. My preference would be a captive bolt gun, but the cost is prohibitive.

So, I finally tried the broomstick method. This rooster was such a jerk that if I mucked it up, I wouldn't feel bad. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely would not want him to be afraid or suffer, but he was the perfect test subject since I had no emotional attachment to him other than we hated each other.

IT WAS SO QUICK AND EASY!!!!!! The best!

I did make a bit of a mistake while setting him up. I was putting gentle pressure on his neck, just getting my courage up to do it when I lost my balance and his head slipped out. I don't believe I hurt him--I just quickly put him back, yelled at my husband for not holding me since I already had told him I was not going to be able to keep my balance, and then just pulled hard and quick. Death throes immediately. It was EASY and instant.

I hung him up on a waiting hook and then tried to cut his carotid arteries like the books say but I had a hard time doing it because the blood had filled his neck under the skin and I couldn't pull the skin tight. I'll be more prepared for that next time--maybe I'll get a traffic cone so I will have a more rigid surface rather than having a bird swinging from a branch. The bonus was how easy the head came off.

There were a few challenges I saw with this method.

The biggest problem for me was keeping my balance. I'll be better prepared next time. I think to do it kindly, you need to set the bird up with the broomstick but not put weight on his neck--just enough pressure to hold the bird without hurting him (it would be easy to crush the bones in the neck before you even try to dislocate the neck). I have to have everything set up, take a deep breath and be mentally prepared before I kill them. I don't want to hurt him while I am finding my resolve. Since my head injury two years ago, my balance hasn't been the best. Add the stress of killing another creature--not good.

The next was finding a surface. I didn't want to hurt him, so didn't want a hard surface. I would be interested to find out what other people who do this use.

I should have mentally prepared before I put the bird's head down, but since I hadn't done it before I didn't know how easily his head would slip out.

Cutting the carotid arteries was a challenge. The neck filled with blood. I don't know where that blood came from. There a lot of veins and arteries that run up through the vertebrae. They would be severed by the dislocation. Maybe the carotid arteries/jugular veins were severed. I don't know. The neck was just filled with blood, even the meat of the neck. I did let him hang and bled him out but it wasn't the same as when I killed them by bleeding them out.

Thank you to whoever suggested gloves for my cracked finger tips. It worked!

Question about meat safety/quality:

The reason I slaughtered this bird today was because yesterday when I was pruning a tree in my yard and he was attacking me, he got winded just repeatedly jumping and attacking the shovel I had in my hand. When I cleaned him, I was really careful to get the lungs and trachea out to have a really good look. He has some lesions in the lungs, black areas. No evidence of pus or anything like that, just smudges of black throughout the lungs. I did a lot of thin slices and had a really good look. Everything else looked really healthy. I was really thorough looking at his organs and trachea right up to the back of his mouth. I've never looked this closely at lungs before.

Can I make soup out of him? Is he safe to eat? He was almost two years old.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Good job using the broom stick method!

He is safe to eat and rooster and dumplings would be very tasty.

 

[MargaretYakoda]

(edited a bit out) .

The biggest problem for me was keeping my balance. I'll be better prepared next time. I think to do it kindly, you need to set the bird up with the broomstick but not put weight on his neck--just enough pressure to hold the bird without hurting him (it would be easy to crush the bones in the neck before you even try to dislocate the neck). I have to have everything set up, take a deep breath and be mentally prepared before I kill them. I don't want to hurt him while I am finding my resolve. Since my head injury two years ago, my balance hasn't been the best. Add the stress of killing another creature--not good.

The next was finding a surface. I didn't want to hurt him, so didn't want a hard surface. I would be interested to find out what other people who do this use.
(edited a bit out)

I also have balance issues, and generally use a cane for balance. What works for me is to put a double or triple thick towel down in front of my washing machine, and laying the rooster's neck on that. Then the broomstick. Then I lean on the washer for balance while I jerk the rooster's legs up. I have secure footing, and the rooster is comfortable up until the moment he's gone.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Good job using the broom stick method!

He is safe to eat and rooster and dumplings would be very tasty.

Is he safe even with the black marks in the lungs? He would get winded and wheeze some if he over exerted himself, for example if he had a sustained attack on something like the shovel I was holding. Or me.

Nothing looked infected, just the black lesions. Most of the lungs looked great.

A year ago we had a wicked cold front swing down with 35mph winds and I sealed the little coop up too tightly. Big mistake. My temps had more than a 70F swing in 24 hours--highs one day in the 90s to lows in the teens. I had a bunch of chickens with mild respiratory issues the next day. They were all treated with antibiotics prescribed by an avian vet. No one got really sick. Could this be what I am seeing--lung damage from a prior illness?

He wasn't sick, other than a bit of wheezing after running around. Boiling water kills pretty much everything, doesn't it.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Question for those who use the broomstick--what kind of a surface do you choose?

My goal is to make the chicken as comfortable as possible as the weight comes down on the broomstick, so their neck/head doesn't get hurt before I apply force to dislocate it.

Thanks.

 

[RikkiMarie]

We had five meat birds that were ready to go yesterday, minus one that I'm keeping as a hen and a pet, really. She was sick when I got her. I'm not vegetarian, but I trust chickens at home rather than chickens at the grocery store. Anyone can slap a sticker on a package of meat and say it's "free range chickens" "no hormones", etc.
Yesterday my fiance' told me it was time and I almost got choked up because this was my first time doing this (he had done this before) and I felt really, really bad. I didn't think it was fair that they had to go, but then I remembered that we took good care of them and they were given a good life as free range backyard chickens who had some freedom. My fiance' even mentioned that it was a hard decision to make but that is part of life. He came in and said that all five went peacefully and calmly (he talked to each one of them) I went through with it and accepted it as much as I didn't want this to happen to my chickens, but they are bred for meat and that is their purpose.
The killing is what mostly got to me, but the aftermath when I had to clean the meat and store it, it wasn't so bad. I didn't shed a tear nor did I feel regret.
For my first time, I didn't do so bad.

 

[Tomtommom]

Question for those who use the broomstick--what kind of a surface do you choose?

My goal is to make the chicken as comfortable as possible as the weight comes down on the broomstick, so their neck/head doesn't get hurt before I apply force to dislocate it.

Thanks.

I've done it in my kitchen on a vinyl tile floor, and I've done it outside on compacted Alabama clay (think hard dirt floor). I find the broomstick is heavy enough by itself to keep the neck down.

I lay the bird's head on the ground, lay the stick over the neck and then it's place foot left, step right, pull. Not as much of a balancing act.. and still fast enough.

The first times my husband did the stepping and I did the pulling, so he could lean on the dryer and not lose his balance.

I will try to tape it next time I do it.... It'll be a few months though.

 

[ronott1]

Is he safe even with the black marks in the lungs? He would get winded and wheeze some if he over exerted himself, for example if he had a sustained attack on something like the shovel I was holding. Or me.

Nothing looked infected, just the black lesions. Most of the lungs looked great.

A year ago we had a wicked cold front swing down with 35mph winds and I sealed the little coop up too tightly. Big mistake. My temps had more than a 70F swing in 24 hours--highs one day in the 90s to lows in the teens. I had a bunch of chickens with mild respiratory issues the next day. They were all treated with antibiotics prescribed by an avian vet. No one got really sick. Could this be what I am seeing--lung damage from a prior illness?

He wasn't sick, other than a bit of wheezing after running around. Boiling water kills pretty much everything, doesn't it.

The black lesion probably left from mold. As long as it is only in the lungs, it is fine. It could have just been from silica in sand.