ways to hold/carry a chicken....

[tnchickenut]

Feel free to move this... didn't know exactly where to go with it:

I was just talking about a local trade which got me talking about the way some (most around here) carry chickens by their feet and hang them upside down. WHY!?!? Someone tell me. I have NEVER (and I have abuot 200 chickens) had a chicken that was so wild or mean I couldn't carry it right side up with my hand under it's belly. So why do some people feel like slinging them upside down is the only way?

Seriously. I want to know. I feel bad for them... especially mine who make a HUGE fuss when I sell thm and the new people carry them off that way. I feel like saying, "You know, they wouldn't move a muscle if you carried them like this" and show them.

 

[1_FnkyFrm]

I read somewhere that its hard for a chicken to breath upside down.

 

[sunflowerenvy]

this is a good a question i would love to find out too.

i carry the chicken under the chest and under my arm.
some would jump up on my arm.

my daughter pick them up with two hands under the chest then she tip the bird on it side and goes limp.

the farmer at the market that sold me 3 hen pick them up up a wing and carry them a around and the hen was talking until i grab the poor hen away from him sheeeeeee

 

[crtrlovr]

I think a lot of times it is a matter of perspective. Most (or at least many) of us on here do our utmost to treat our animals humanely and with respect. When you snatch a living creature up by a wing or leg (unless it's in imminent danger and you're trying to save it from harm, or unless it's menacing or endangering another animal) you're not showing that animal the respect it deserves. I know some may disagree with me, but so be it.

 

[dreamcatcherarabians]

I like to use 2 hands to pick mine up and then I usually get them so they have their feet on my hand and can curl their toes over my fingers. Then I use the other hand to support them under the breast bone. They seem to feel secure and like being carried that way. I would probably throw a wall eyed fit if someone tried carrying my 'girls' upside down!

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I know! I have a dear dear friend and when I went to her house she would carry her chickens around upside-down! They chickens would be screaming and squawking and she would just keep walking and I'm just like ...

 

[sunflowerenvy]

Quote:
this man was show this bird to me to buy my the dam wing no f way

 

[cobrien]

I know, it is terrible. I think people do it because once they are upside down, they tend to go into what seems a trance-like state, I'd guess induced by fear and the difficulty they have breathing. In my good moments I think the people who do it think they are causing the chicken less stress, because usually when an animal appears to be calm they are not stressed. In fact I first saw this done when I brought my crazy flighty Blue Andalusian hens to a new home. these birds were like wild animals and I had no idea how to get them out of the crate once we got there mid-day (I put them in at night so no problems). The woman showed me how it was done, and I was amazed to see these wild birds get completely calm once upside down. I don't condone the practice but for these particular birds, it definitely would have been more difficult (but not impossible) to hold on to them in less cruel ways. Seriously, I used to be a vet tech and catching / holding these birds was on par with handling feral cats minus 2 of the paws and the teeth - that's why they had to leave my city coop. But it didn't seem right to me and I've never done it to my own, and only learned later that it was hard for them to breathe upside down. So sad to think of how many chickens are handled this way on a daily basis - thousands or maybe even millions?

 

[crtrlovr]

yes, and think of it this way: you can put a human in what is known as a "sleeper hold" and that person will get "calm" -- right up to the point where he loses consciousness...

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

I know old timer farmers do it (I've asked) because its faster, easier, and they can carry more birds at a time and they feel its safer for THEM if not the birds especially when moving roosters with spurs. I have had to do it with a very unruly rooster who gouged the devil out of me trying to be 'nice' so yeah I can understand SOMETIMES it is necissary, but as a pet chicken owner I have no reason to do it to my own birds. If I do carry/hold a bird by the feet, I still support its back with my hand so it is not hanging, this puts them in a trance on their backs more than upside down. Upside down deprives them of oxygen and rushes blood to the brain and where they don't have very much blood it deprives their heart of oxygenated blood and can knock them unconscious if left upside down long.