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

[hennible]

X2
And welcome to BYC

 

[Kusanar]

Hi all;

I recently processed my first few surplus roosters.

In preparing to do this, I have found the advice and information on this thread very helpful. It has enabled me to design my own methodology for killing chickens that (A) I feel is as kind and humane as possible, and (B) that I can physically and emotionally handle doing.

My method of doing the killing involves components of several other people's methods as described in this thread, but as a total process I believe it is not quite the same as anything else I have found on here. So as a way of paying it back to the BYC community, here is a description of the killing process I have used, I hope it is of assistance to someone.


Background:
We have a flock of 12 adult dual-purpose breeds comprising Light Sussex, Rhode Is. Red, and Barred Rock hens and a Light Sussex rooster, plus a couple of Lavender Araucana hens. Our chooks are primarily for egg production, pets and keeping the weeds down. We also occasionally hatch clutches of eggs from the Barred Rock, Sussex or Red girls and sell the pullets on TradeMe (the local New Zealand equivalent of eBay.) We don't like killing 3-day old baby roosters so we give them a good life for about 120 days and then kill them for meat. At this age they are not large birds, but we have a couple of vegetarians in our household so a small-ish bird is all we need for a satisfactory roast dinner. They are nowhere near sexually mature at this age and the meat tastes great.

In general we subscribe to the view that has already been articulated well by someone else on this thread: we want our little roosters to experience a bit of life, and have as many good days as possible, with only one bad day right at the end. We try to manage that bad day in such a way that they have no idea what is going on, and nothing painful or frightening happens until it is all already over.

We are not a large scale farm so the most we ever have to kill at once is 2 or 3 birds.


Killing methodology:
My method is to place the chickens in a cone; the cone is supported in a mount on the underside of a timber board, and the central axis of the cone is angled down at about 30 degrees below horizontal, with the small end lower than the big end. When he is placed in the cone, the chicken's head and neck is on a chopping block. I then wait until he gets distracted by a passing bee or something and is no longer looking me in the eye, and then behead him with an axe.

Diagram of killing setup:


The chopping block is a short length of timber round, about 400mm / 16" diameter, and positioned on its side so that the top surface is not flat but on a similar angle to the axis of the cone. [A flat-topped block tends to bend the chook's head and neck up, this closes off and conceals the spot you need to aim for with the axe.] The end of the cone is also cut off at an angle as shown in the diagram, so that the cone does not obstruct the chicken's neck. If I am doing more than one bird, I cover the top of the block with a plastic shopping bag, and replace this after each bird so that no chicken has to lie with his face in a whole lot of the previous chicken's blood.

Discussion

I believe the benefits of this process are:

(1) As per any other killing cone technique, the cone cone controls post-mortem convulsions, and effectively prevents the headless body from spraying blood everywhere, or running away. Prior to killing, they also seem to prefer being in the cone to being held or carried.

(2) The crop contents, as well as most of the blood, drains out of the body almost immediately. I understand one of the main arguments against beheading is that you may not get satisfactory draining of the blood; I have had no such problems doing it this way.

(3) I believe the instant and total loss of blood pressure to the brain upon beheading, must surely render them unconscious almost immediately. The eyes glaze over and then shut pretty quickly, the beaks open and shut in a gasping manner for a few seconds, but it does not look at all like anything a live conscious chicken does, so I believe it is probably involuntary reflexes at work.
I don't like the idea of breaking the neck; I have had to euthanize dying baby chicks for my wife in the past by breaking their necks, and you have to wait for the wriggling to stop before you know whether if you've actually killed it, or just tormented it.
I don't like the idea of cutting the jugular and letting them bleed out, it seems like it would only prolong the bird's suffering.

(4) It is helpful NOT having to hold your little animal in your hands and feel its body heat and the softness of its feathers, when you are trying to get ready to kill it.

(5) I understand that with axe beheading, there is a danger that you will miss the neck and carve off half of his face or half of his chest. I find that by using a big log-splitting axe, NOT swinging hard or wildly but letting the weight of the axe do half of the work, I can hit where I want to hit (+/- one inch or less) pretty reliably and so far nothing horrible has happened.

(6) It is not necessary to hold the chicken's head still with one hand when doing this technique, so the risk of injuring a hand with the axe is eliminated.


Plucking and gutting are done the same way as everyone else has already described. 3-month-old roosters are delicious, but they have pin feathers EVERYWHERE and it currently takes me about 2 hours to pluck each bird.

I hope this is of assistance to someone.

Regards;

Richard

Perhaps to make this "perfect" one could rig a guillotine for the decapitation, have the cone so the blade will slice right at the end of the cone so no chance of the chicken moving it's head at the last second... Heck, with that setup, the more squeamish could possibly even put it on a remote and walk in the house, come back 5 mins later when everything is done.

 

[detz]

Deleted











This is a support thread for processors .
Staff

 

[hennible]

Yup it should never be easy, but easier. Not emotionally so much but physically for us and the bird, ease of slaughter in the most humane way in your opinion will make you feel better about choosing to take that life for your table, or if not for your table, occasionally we have to take a birds life for it's own sake to alleviate suffering, and being able to do this easily and without guilt is important. Knowing that we did the right thing and that we did it cleanly that's always important.

 

[Tomtommom]

We, as chicken keepers, HAVE to kill some birds. NOT killing birds is irresponsible chicken ownership.

For every hen, there's a rooster hatched somewhere. If we do not raise them and kill them for food, they are tossed in the trash at the hatchery. Or if they are hatched by us, they terrorize our hens if we keep them all. Give them away? Someone else will kill them for you, and may or may not do it as thoughtfully as we do. Dump them at a farm? Bring them to the pound? Simply don't buy male chicks? Those are all solutions that make it someone elses problem.

A responsible chicken owner MUST learn to kill and do so humanely, even if it's just to dispatch an injured bird, rather than wait at the vet and fork over $100 to have it done.


Edited by Staff

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote: DITTO!

I never thought of combining the cone with the hatchet. That solves a lot of the death throws that come with the hatchet method. I'm going to try that with DH next time we do one. THANKS a BUNCH!

 

[katbriar]

RRM-NZ thanks for sharing. The description and drawing was great. It gives me a lot to think about.

 

[Happy Chooks]

We got 3 more cockerels processed today. Sheesh, it stinks when it doesn't even seem like you are making a dent.

 

[Tomtommom]

I've got 15 chicks, 6 weeks old... and I am seeing an awful lot of reddish combs

I dont want to waste my time raising a bunch of birds only to have to dispatch them all. Especially since I was going to return some of the pullets to the person that hatched them for me. Not looking too good

Hope I'm wrong.

Heck, at 4-5 weeks old the ones with the big combs were fighting already, dragging eachother around by the comb. Maybe these mature quicker..... (They mixed pea comb and straight comb)

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I've got 15 chicks, 6 weeks old... and I am seeing an awful lot of reddish combs I dont want to waste my time raising a bunch of birds only to have to dispatch them all. Especially since I was going to return some of the pullets to the person that hatched them for me. Not looking too good :/


Hope I'm wrong.


Heck, at 4-5 weeks old the ones with the big combs were fighting already, dragging eachother around by the comb. Maybe these mature quicker..... (They mixed pea comb and straight comb)

This was the craziest baby fight I've ever seen amongst mine. They all get along now but at the time, both wanted the same position in the pecking order lol. All the boys are in a pen together now (hubby calls it the frat house lol). At about 15 weeks old, they only have about 9 weeks until processing day.