stunning with nitrogen?

[aladatrot]

I have a friend who can get me nitrogen gas to stun the birds before I butcher them. He said that commercial operations use this process when killing the birds. The nitrogen is clean from a med gas supplier. Apparently you just crack the valve and the nitrogen sedates them so that there is less flapping when the deed is done. At first thought, this seems better for the birds. Any reason I shouldn't do this to ease the transition?

Thanks
M

 

[Peruvian]

I thought most commercial processors used an electric 'bath' to stun/kill the birds.

 

[silkiechicken]

Med grade or not... I don't think N2 would be painless or stunning. Since 80% of the air is already nitrogen, by just giving nitrogen, you'd be suffocating them rather than putting them to sleep like carbon monoxide would. I thought commercial places used electric baths too. But I could be wrong.

 

[arlee453]

You'd have to find a way to make a mask or something similar to fit over the birds' heads. Regular old air is 70% nitrogen, so you'd have to really really concentrate it around their heads to make it work.

The effect is sort of like being drunk - basic lack of oxygen more so then the effects of nitrogen.

Dunno...seems like more trouble than it's worth, and more stress on the birds than just a quick hatchet blow.

 

[aladatrot]

Yeah, good call.

Having never heard of nitrogen stunning, I had no idea how to do it. It sounded pretty easy when described, but I guess the implementation would be difficult.

Thanks
M

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

Carbon Dioxide is used to euthanize/stun large animals in some abbatoirs. In small scale operations you can use Dry Ice in a buck or an air tight box to render the chickens unconcious. We used CO2 in graduate school to euthanize rats in nutrition studies.

Jim

 

[fullhouse]

Do you mean nitrous?