Slit Throats or Decapitation? What should I do??

[scubaforlife]

Slit throats. If you unhook the brain from the body, the heart will stop. If you slit the artery (not the wind pipe) along the jaw line, you get a better bleed out. Just cleaner product for later, no blood gathered around the bones etc...

 

[JayUmmelVT]

Thanks to all for the great responses! Seems everyone has their "way" of doing it and I will continue to experiment with different methods and find out what I am most comfortable with. I can't help but think a killing cone and large garden shears cutting off the head on the upside down, contained, clam bird would be best. I understand that slitting the throat MIGHT allow the heart a couple more pumps to assist in bleeding out, but how much extra are we really talking about? Again , thanks to all for the sounding board, this forum is really great. Its just the wife and I here and she refuses to talk about how I will be doing it.
Jay

 

[Brunty_Farms]

If these are for you... then the extra blood will not be a big deal. However if you sell any, it's best to cut the throat as it freaks people out.

 

[JohnL11935]

Killing Cone --> Ultra Sharp Knife --> Slit Artery.

MY EXPERIENCE:

Cones are more time efficient than trying to tie, tape or wire legs.
Ultra sharp knife on soft tissue is least painful (confirming Brunty's comments) compared to cutting & crushing soft tissue, muscle and bone while using a hatchet.
Bleeding out via a beating heart results in a cleaner carcass.

_____________

Trying to swing a bird around and "bonk" it on the head to stun them before hand - utterly ridiculous. Far too many things to go wrong to make this humane 100% of the time.

"Chopping & Dropping" - to me this is equally distasteful. Birds get bruised, wings get broken, and finally, I believe it serves as an unnecessary indignity to a creature we have nurtured and sought to provide a better life for while it provides sustenance for ourselves and our families.


.

 

[Buster52]

I don't see why stunning would be a big deal. Just hold it upside down, turn it away from you and WHACk! Out like a light. And no pain. And wiring a chicken's feet takes no time.

I think sometimes we picture something that is just so much easier in real life than what we see in the head.

I'm going to get some formal training on slitting in a couple of weeks. The guy who demonstrates in the Featherman Polyface videos is my beef and pork farmer and he is going to show me how it is done the Joel Salatin way when I help him do his broilers later this month. Maybe I will change my mind about the whole thing after working with someone who knows what he is doing.

ETA
Suffering pain while it is alive is a much bigger deal to me than suffering dignity when it is dead.

 

[SteveH]

I do believe that the research done that determined the heart continues to beat after decapitation for an average of 8 minutes is correct . I do know that being knocked unconscious from a blow to the head hurts for a second

, longer if partially conscious [ again personal experience ] , and its never a certainty if the blow was stunning or instantly fatal . I've bound legs and know in my mind

dropping them in a cone has to be faster . So really its a matter of what each individual is most comfortable with and not so much which is best .

 

[Buster52]

Well, having been on the receiving end of a one-punch knockout during my boxing days, I can assure there is no pain, even for a second. One moment you are conscious, the next you are waking up. I thought he hit me and I bounced right back and couldn't figure out why the ref was raising the guy's glove on the far side of the ring. According to my friends in attendance, I was counted out and everything.

I was embarrassed at the time, but the guy went on to win the world light heavyweight title some years later, so I don't feel so bad about it now days. If you are going to take an a__ whupin' let it be by the best.

 

[petrelline]

Quote:
Just today for lunch I cooked up a pile of chicken legs from some roosters that I harvested back at the end of last year by cutting off their heads with an axe. Even though I had hung these birds up by the legs and plucked them identically to my later birds (when I slit the throat), these legs had noticeably more blood in them. It both colored the meat itself a dark red, and when I cooked them the blood oozed out the cut end of the legs in a thick blackish goo that tasted of, well, cooked blood. Even though I knew what it was it was still kind of icky. And I'm glad I didn't sell these birds because I know my customers absolutely would not tolerate that.

For me cutting of the heads with an axe was emotionally easier as I was learning -- whack, the chicken is dead, easy-peasy -- but the throat-slitting is close enough. I've read that once you sever the veins and arteries that the loss of blood to the brain is instantaneous, and after that the chicken feels no pain. But I'm not sure how you would test for that. Yeah, I still think about this a lot.

 

[Chicken411]

All right, at the risk of getting my head ripped off, ha ha, I'm going to put in the argument that slitting the throat is actually more humane than decapitation. Decapitation is not an instant death as many assume. Your brain is still there and you may stay alive for up to 30 seconds while your head tries to gasp for air and your brain realizes there is no more blood flowing to it. Science has studied this phenomenon in people, back when they used to use guillotines and accounts have also come from really horrific car accidents and other awful stuff I really don't want to talk about. Anyway, this will be my first time processing chickens and while I feel the hatchet method would be easier for me, I feel slitting the throat is easier for the chicken, if done correctly. I choose the chicken's comfort over my own. This is my opinion and others can have theirs. There is after all, no way to be certain which is a more humane way to die without experiencing it, although from what I have read and studied I am certain.

My 2 cents

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
I realized after I wrote that not everybody experiences the same thing . On three occasions I remember a flash of pain but went down without remembering getting there ; and would swear I got up immediately , but knew that wasn't so because there was people all around me that weren't there before LOL . I've also been knocked down but not out ; felt the blow , [ had a headache that was far worse after the adrenaline wore off ] , nothing moved when I tried , saw little flashes of lights floating around , heard a noise like crickets chirping , and when I did finally get up fell over again LOL . Actually , my experience is that if my adrenaline was up there was a little or almost no pain ; when caught by a 2X4 unexpectently it really hurt . I've also experienced second and third degree burns ; intence pain followed by nothing as shock set in . My brother , on the other hand , has only been out once [ due to motorcycle wreck ] and doesn't remember anything painful untill he woke up in the hospital . So I guess different people experince different things .