Whats the most humane way to kill a chicken?

[Whoops]

Very good point. It's a ways off for me, but I know it's something I will be dealing with in the future and I don't want to screw it up any more than necessary. I have never wielded an axe, so that could go quite badly, and the talk of cutting the artery but not the windpipe seems like something I could obsess over getting wrong and fumble.

 

[foamyownsyou]

Just shoot it in the head with a air rifle quick and easy

 

[maryif]

@ Munchies Chicks - Out of everything I've read your method resonates the most with me. I've only ever had to cull one bird, a guinea fowl badly injured from a surprise night time coyote attack. Didn't have an axe & needed to do it right then so as not to prolong suffering, so used the sharpest, largest & heaviest kitchen knife in the drawer, wood log & one good hard whack took the head clean off. Still the body kicked & struggled afterwards. There really wasn't any choice, internal organs were exposed & a lung punctured.


I've got a beautiful silkie roo named Big Blue I'm facing putting down just because my neighbors have complained to my landlord about the constant crowing he & my one other roo generate in their bid to constantly outdo each other. One of them has to go. It really is a shame as he really is a full on pure-bred show quality beauty, but we can't reason any alternatives as we currently pay top dollar for raw organic turkey meat for our dog & two cats.

Having never done this before, could you give any additional pointers on finding the artery & making the cut?

Thanks

 

[kuntrygirl]

@ Munchies Chicks - Out of everything I've read your method resonates the most with me. I've only ever had to cull one bird, a guinea fowl badly injured from a surprise night time coyote attack. Didn't have an axe & needed to do it right then so as not to prolong suffering, so used the sharpest, largest & heaviest kitchen knife in the drawer, wood log & one good hard whack took the head clean off. Still the body kicked & struggled afterwards. There really wasn't any choice, internal organs were exposed & a lung punctured.  


I've got a beautiful silkie roo named Big Blue I'm facing putting down just because my neighbors have complained to my landlord about the constant crowing he & my one other roo generate in their bid to constantly outdo each other. One of them has to go. It really is a shame as he really is a full on pure-bred show quality beauty, but we can't reason any alternatives as we currently pay top dollar for raw organic turkey meat for our dog & two cats.

Having never done this before, could you give any additional pointers on finding the artery & making the cut?

Thanks

Can you find a good home for them?

 

[kuntrygirl]

Just shoot it in the head with a air rifle quick and easy

I used an air rifle on of my broilers this past weekend and it was a perfect shot.

 

[maryif]

We are trying, I have him listed on craigslist to a good home http://sandiego.craigslist.org/nsd/grd/4348562952.html , but no takers yet.. a quick search reveals at least twenty other roos on craigslist in our area in need of re-homing, many of them listed as free :/

 

[ken-t]

I don't believe that there is a easy way to die. So what is the easiest way? I like some of the others have missed with a axe so I use a machete. the blade is longer and also thinner easier to get a good sharp edge. lighter so its easier to swing.

 

[tadaen sylverma]

I have to ask about the broomstick metthod as that appeals to me the most (as much as slaughter can anyway). How well do they bleed out when you do that. For religious reasons blood is a no no... must be properly bled out.

 

[Lurch77]

Here's my input to this subject. I've never had to kill a grown bird. But my family always did the hatchet to the neck method. For me personally, I've only had to put a critically injured chick down. A week or two old. At this age they are very small. I used a pellet gun to the back of the head. Quick, painless, low mess, and it never saw it coming. I'm not a farmer, this chick was a pet to the kids and me. So it wasn't easy. Funny how I can go bag a whitetail deer or rabbit or squirrel no problem. But killing a chick was hard to do, even when I thought about how badly it was suffering while alive. I think it was harder, too, because it was just an innocent baby that never got a chance to live.

I swear I'm no PETA member, even if it sounds that way.

 

[Alia]

This sounds inhumane and it is. This is ONLY for those who must cull and absolutely cannot bear to do it.

Find someone with a huge $&@%ing snake. Obviously you do not get any meat out of this, but since the snake does all the work, you don't have to do anything, or look at anything. A full-grown Burmese python is big enough to eat a full-grown chicken, and they're more common pets than most people realise. If you have to cull a baby chick, this is particularly useful as you're probably not going to eat the poor thing, you don't need to find such a big snake, and this way the body is at least being used.

The snake will kill by asphyxiation. I would put this somewhere between instantaneous head-lop and drowning.

But then again, as I have never died, I don't know.