What do you do with your dead (chickens, ducks, quail, etc...)

[room onthebroom]

did you know you can fit a newborn foal in a garbage can in one piece.. just fold them up like in mama. Have to be newly deceased though.

That's gotta freak the waste management people out until they figure out what it is.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Depends on the specific circumstances.
If we can determine time of death, cause of death, etc. then we consider eating it.
If it's a mess, potentially dangerous, etc. we don't eat it.
If it's a very small bird, we also won't bother eating it. There's nothing on a leghorn hen for example worth trying to pluck and eat. A lot of times sick birds loose weight as well.

If it's a predator attack we can determine time of death we will eat untouched portions. For example, if the legs are gnawed on and the breasts are untouched, we will skin and cut out the breasts.

For all birds we determine, for various reasons, to be inedible, we bury them in the compost pile. We dig a big hole, fill with a bit of straw, place the body in, top with straw, and bury. The straw not only makes it a little more aesthetically appealing (and respectful?) but also helps the body decompose well and it's broken down by the next year to put on the garden. I find this to be a respectful and waste-less burial.

The exception to this is if we have reason to believe that an animal in question has been poisoned for some reason or otherwise has a medication load in it. These never go into the compost. Never ever. Depending on the fondness for the animal they may be bundled in bags and go into the trash, or they may be buried somewhere away from all the gardens.

 

[casportpony]

Mice & rats count.
I usually bag mice/rats & throw them in the trash, but there was one time I trapped a monster sized rat. It was the middle of summer & I knew I couldn't let it simmer in the trash all week, so I bagged it, drove it to 711 & threw it in one of their trash cans. I'm sure that's probably frowned upon, so don't tell anybody I did it.

You're funny! I've thought about that doing that too, or tossing them in the nearby creek, but I worry the black helicopters will get pictures and video of me doing it.

 

[room onthebroom]

When we had pets doe in the winter we put the parrot in the freezer... the dog though (huge mastiff) we wrapped him in an old tarp and then stuck him in our biggest snow berm.

Our neighbor, their dog died in winter, then put her in a snow bank, then covered with a sled and more snow.

When the ground thawed the pets were buried. Such a race though... dont want the pet to thaw... need the ground to thaw.

Dang that's complicated!

 

[Molpet]

That's gotta freak the waste management people out until they figure out what it is.

It did
he opened the can and stood there looking for a bit, but he dumped it in the truck....

 

[casportpony]

That's gotta freak the waste management people out until they figure out what it is.

The San Benito County dump allows residents to dump one horse.

 

[WVduckchick]

The San Benito County dump allows residents to dump one horse.

Really?!?! I think we have a minimum depth burial regulation here for horses, seems I remember my sister in law telling me something of that sort.

 

[RodNTN]

I don't eat any of my birds, and especially one that died from an unknown reason.
I bag and bury

 

[room onthebroom]

The San Benito County dump allows residents to dump one horse.

This one is really making me think... Is that one horse a year? What if you had a lot of horses? How deep/wide would you have to bury a horse in rigor? How would you get the horse to & into the hole? You'd need a backhoe & a lot of property....

 

[True Patriot]

I have a 10 foot burn pit. Any losses not fit for the table are sent to Valhalla.