What I’m I doing wrong when processing my meat birds?

[Floof]

I use a traffic cone that I cut the narrow end off until it was the right size, and then screwed it to a tree. I added a screw below my cone that I use to hang a bucket to catch the blood and the head for the compost pile. I collect a rooster, put him upside down in the cone, position the tree/limb loppers around his neck and make sure that I can feel the tree behind him (to ensure I cut all the way through), and then just draw the lopper arms together and it slices clean through and the head plops into the bucket. He bleeds out in about 2 or 3 minutes and then I move on to the next one. I've tried other methods and this one is the fastest, the most humane, the cleanest, requires the least amount of effort/strength, and removes all guesswork or worry about "...is it dead yet?"

Most importantly: it is the least traumatic! I tried the broomstick method when I first started out and I think I yelled I'M SO SORRY loud enough that my neighbors probably heard. It did not go well

 

[Duckiiess]

I was coming here to suggest the pruning loppers as well, but see it's already been mentioned a bunch of times

 

[User105877]

May sound Gruesome but every year used to get around 100 head to butcher. Quickest way was to hold by their feet, step on head and pull. Pretty quick process.

 

[Bags]

Hi everyone! Lease forgive me if I am being to graphic in this post!

So I decided to experiment in growing my own chickens for the table. I am using Cornish cross breed, which are easy to get around here as chicks. Raising them no problem, processing them humanly, big problem.

I grab the chicken, tie their legs and hang them upside down in a tall bucket. Then with a very sharp knife I feel around their neck just before the head and grab the loose skin around there and slice, right? Just as if they where in a cone but in a bucket.

I must be slicing wrong because they are not dying fast enough. Today, a big rooster took half an hour to die. For me that is not humane. It’s cruel. I kept slicing but it would not die.

I’ve tried the butcher block method but they flap all over without a head spattering blood which is not good for me and I can’t swing an ax that well anymore.

My hands are not strong enough to twist their necks like I remember my father and mother do decades ago.

The question is how do I know I am cutting the blood vein so they bleed fast and die fast?

A neighbor that raises the same kind of bird and is certified to process and sell to the public, showed me this system. She had the cone a sharp slit in the neck and the bird dies peacefully. No messes, no spattering, no flapping around!

Help! . I need to be able to humanly kill my birds or no meat bird for me.. Thank you ahead for your advise and help.

Im sorry if I'm repeating anyone else, I haven't read your replies. They should past out in about 20 seconds. Two slices in the middle of Thier neck making a V. 20 seconds they pass out and about 2 minutes for them to expire and bleed out. If you can, take a 4x4 post and cement it in to a 5 gallon bucket. If you can't afford the kill cone try using a construction cone and cut the end off. Don't get discouraged learn and move on.

 

[cassie]

First of all, I am a wuss. I never bothered with a kill cone. I had one but for me it was more trouble than it was worth. I tied the chicken's legs together with baling twine and hung them at a convenient height. I used a very sharp utility knife or box cutter to sever the veins and arteries in the neck on both sides. They were unconscious in a very few seconds. It sounds to me like you weren't cutting in the right place.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

First of all, I am a wuss. I never bothered with a kill cone. I had one but for me it was more trouble than it was worth. I tied the chicken's legs together with baling twine and hung them at a convenient height. I used a very sharp utility knife or box cutter to sever the veins and arteries in the neck on both sides. They were unconscious in a very few seconds. It sounds to me like you weren't cutting in the right place.

Too much effort. I have a stretchy elastic loop - basically a big round rubber band. Loop twice around the feet, tuck between the legs, hang from the scale/hook/large nail, whatever. No tieing involved.

and I still take the whole head off with a very SHARP! knife as my prefered method of dispatch.