What is the Best Way To Cull a Chicken for a Squeamish Person

[DaWookie]

You get used to it, Do what ya gotta do for your family.

 

[Tre3hugger]

Honestly, the best thing to do is realize that what is easiest for you is not what is easiest for the animal and decide if you want to be selfish or humane.

This! I also think plithing, or sticking is most humane. Quick scalpel or knifw through top of mouth into brain. Stop's consciousness, but ;eaves heart pumping so it bleeds out quicker when you cut it's jugular, or at least it is unconscious when you decapitate it. In my opinion it should be animal's comfort: priority number 1. Your squeamish belly priority number two.

Just my opinion. Enjoy your birds and good luck!

 

[MichaelMoore]

Instead of CO if you want to go that route I'd suggest CO2. I've used this to put down mammals like rats. I use to raise rats as feeders and I'd have large groups to do at a time. Some may not agree but I've used it for small pets when needed and a wild rabbit that was smashed by a car but still alive. I have a smallish CO2 container used for a paint ball gun. You can get them filled at most sporting good stores. Get a box with a lid and run the tubing into a hole in the top. Very slowly let the gas seep in, I find this the best. If you flood the chamber too fast the animals will panic because they can not breath. If you do it slowly they will fall unconscious. Best metal detectors for gold at detect history. Once they are out you can flood the chamber with CO2. I let it go for a bit once the chamber is flooded to make sure they are dead. I've never used this with birds so I couldn't tell you how long it would take. For small animals it's all over in 15-20 minutes, though I let them sit in the box, unopened for about 30-45 minutes. They are out much fast than that though. I wouldn't do this for birds I'd be eating though.

Why CO and CO2 shouldn't be used for birds? Can you suggest some great alternative to grow them. Mine actually don't panic at all and very calm. You can do with them whatever
you want

 

[Tre3hugger]

Can you back this up? This research seems to indicate it is an effective method for poultry, blacking them out and dispatching them in about 30 seconds with minimal distress.
https://research.illinois.edu/files/upload/co2-euthanasia-of-swine-and-poultry.pdf

Don't do CO or CO2 for birds, they have different oxygen requirements than mammals so it will either go way too fast and panic/choke the poor things or they wake back up again.

 

[RiverOtter]

Can you back this up? This research seems to indicate it is an effective method for poultry, blacking them out and dispatching them in about 30 seconds with minimal distress.
https://research.illinois.edu/files/upload/co2-euthanasia-of-swine-and-poultry.pdf

Thanks for posting that! Those are always good to read.
My personal experiences are with reptile keepers who sometimes use "fry pan special" chicks to feed some species and have CO2 euthanasia setups and experience because they do rodent regularily.

It's not impossible to euthanize chickens that way, but as it repeatedly states in the article you posted, it does take a very different method and concentration, and from the practical experience of others, that is really hard to recreate without specialized equipment to measure concentration and rate of saturation of the gas.

Getting it wrong causes distress, seizures and convulsions (as mentioned in your article). Your article states that convulsions are likely to occur after unconsciousness, but it's still not any prettier to watch and again, if you don't get it just right, the poor thing will wake back up.

Overall, I feel there are much better, more certain ways for home euthanasia of poultry. If anyone regularly manages to use this method without undue stress, that's great for you, but I still wouldn't recommend it for anyone inexperienced, who wants to be certain of a fast, stress-free-as- possible death for an animal they care about.

 

[cassie]

I will soon have chickens and am contemplating the best way to cull a chicken being that I’m squeamish. I have never killed an animal (aside from spiders, but only if they are near me lol) and don’t know if I have the stomach to kill a chicken but am really wanting to have a little homestead. I really don’t want to slice it’s artery in its neck...I read a lady who used a cone and sharp tree limb lopers which sounds like one way. As hands off a way is what I’m looking for

DON'T THINK ABOUT IT. JUST DO IT. That is the most important piece of advice I can give you. I am the one who used the limb loppers. My husband and my brother were out of town and this big chicken needed to be processed ASAP or he would die. I had never killed anything in my life and what's more, I didn't want to. I didn't want to waste that 11 pound roaster either, so in this case I really didn't have a choice. I went on the internet, found out how to process a chicken and printed the instructions out. I followed the instructions step by step. Step one, kill chicken. I chose the limb loppers because they were sharp, they were handy, they were strong enough to do the job, and because I was capable of using them. Step two, scald chicken. Step three pluck chicken, etc. I just went down the list step by step and I thought only about the step I was doing and did not think ahead. Before long I had a clean naked chicken resting in the fridge. It does get easier with practice. And practice I got because once I demonstrated that I could process a chicken, through no fault of my own I became the designated chicken killer. After a period of time I stopped using the heavy pruning shears and started using a box cutter to sever the jugular, but I couldn't have done that when I first started.

 

[HippieAtHeart]

DON'T THINK ABOUT IT. JUST DO IT. That is the most important piece of advice I can give you. I am the one who used the limb loppers. My husband and my brother were out of town and this big chicken needed to be processed ASAP or he would die. I had never killed anything in my life and what's more, I didn't want to. I didn't want to waste that 11 pound roaster either, so in this case I really didn't have a choice. I went on the internet, found out how to process a chicken and printed the instructions out. I followed the instructions step by step. Step one, kill chicken. I chose the limb loppers because they were sharp, they were handy, they were strong enough to do the job, and because I was capable of using them. Step two, scald chicken. Step three pluck chicken, etc. I just went down the list step by step and I thought only about the step I was doing and did not think ahead. Before long I had a clean naked chicken resting in the fridge. It does get easier with practice. And practice I got because once I demonstrated that I could process a chicken, through no fault of my own I became the designated chicken killer. After a period of time I stopped using the heavy pruning shears and started using a box cutter to sever the jugular, but I couldn't have done that when I first started.

Thank you for your reply, it’s what I was looking for without realizing it. Like I said I want to be prepared when that day comes and one day would like to raise chickens for meat. I thought your comment about being the designated chicken killer was hilarious because I know that will be me lol. I appreciate the just follow the steps part because I think I can manage doing that. Do you have a good link to a site for processing chickens I could get?

 

[cassie]

Thank you for your reply, it’s what I was looking for without realizing it. Like I said I want to be prepared when that day comes and one day would like to raise chickens for meat. I thought your comment about being the designated chicken killer was hilarious because I know that will be me lol. I appreciate the just follow the steps part because I think I can manage doing that. Do you have a good link to a site for processing chickens I could get?

It has been so long I don't remember. Just poke around the internet and see what you can find. There is also good stuff in the archives of BYC. Just ask someone, not me, how to access them.

 

[Mtnboomer]

Best thing for the bird is to let someone else do it until you aren't squeamish. Squeamish = hesitation = pain and suffering for bird, you, or both.

Im not saying you can't learn to do it. But regardless of which method you choose, when the time comes, remain calm and be quick and deliberate.

Success breeds confidence and confidence kills swueamishness (if that's a word). So get someone else with experience to help you for the first couple birds. Once you know what to expect, things get easier.

 

[nao57]

Well if you are going cheap you could technically use an electric knife. Slip some pre-tied knots over legs and neck to hold it in place. Then zip the blade through.

The CO and CO2 methods have a small issue in that they cost money. The one requires you to buy gasoline for probably a guzzler, as a guzzler vehicle would be believed to make more CO than others, while putting it in a garage, and risk exposing the rest of the house if its an attached garage. And buying CO2 cartridges or an air compressor wouldn't be fun either with costs.

The CO method sounds the least painful.

But for economics, an electric knife or just putting its neck through a power saw would be cheaper. This would maybe make some of you feel horrified, but I'm not trying to be cruel but just say that today at my grocery store I noticed almost everything costed three times what it did only about 2 years ago. And tons of people are losing jobs. This is why I'm arguing for an economic method, also.

And my veterinarian relative would HAVE to charge money to do it also, because the euthanize drugs cost them money. Plus, who knows what drugs would do in affecting the meat?

Also, if you distress the animal too much it will put a lot of adrenaline in its system, which could change the taste of the meat, I would think based on what people say of euthanizing other animals. (Lactic acid buildup...hope I'm citing the right one, can be bad for some meat.)

All of us probably have actually wondered about this too. When I got the ducklings, I had sort of been worried that eventually I'd have to look at this topic also, but didn't want to.

Some rabbit people go out and tie them to trees and then slit the throat. But I've met some that just whack them over a stump to break their neck. I don't particularly like any of this stuff, because its a living creature.

But we are moving into food shortages as a country. We do need to face the music and look at this topic.

I feel its a must to suggest an economic route because of this.

Sorry for the hard topic.