When the time comes how do you put a chicken down ?

[Gray Ghost]

Quote:
true but you have to hold the chicken still while you do it, which can be tricky unless you've got help

When I use a knife I usually use some cord or wire to hang them from a fence post by their ankles.

To avoid chopping off your own fingers, drive two nails into a stump, parallel to each other, farther apart than the width of a chicken's neck and closer together than the width of a chicken's skull. Place the head between the naiils and pull on the feet to extend the neck. With your other hand sever the neck with a hatchet or machete. Then step back and watch the body jump around like a chicken with its head cut off.

 

[Reg]

I was thinking when they have finished laying.

How about finding a farm with loads of free range hens in a field. Waiting till dusk then chucking them over the fence ?

( Joke By the way )

I can see me being very unpopular in my family when the time comes.

Thanks you for sharing your methods with me.

I thought you would all say ring their necks. I was surprised how many said chop.

I would have thought that would have been more messy.

Reg

 

[Captain Carrot]

I have to chop the ducks and it is very messy, It's not too bad if you hold the duck down until it's stopped twitching.

With chickens I wring the neck, wait until the twitching calms down a bit then I hang it over a bucket and bleed it out. No mess at all that way.

 

[Illia]

The easiest way, in my experience, is by using tree branch pruners. Calmly hang the hen by her legs, and make a quick cut of the neck. Instant, perfectly aimed death.

I just culled all my hatchery Wyandottes yesterday after 2 years of having them. They eat SO much compared to my show/good quality birds and certainly don't give much back in return.

 

[magicpigeon]

Quote:
Honestly, wringing the neck is so much more difficult for little girls (

) like me, we prefer the neck chopping. That said, I use the method where you put the chicken in, upside down, through a box where only the head and neck poke out. Using a pair of VERY sharp hadge clippers or something like that, quickly cut off the head. NB you will need something to catched the head and blood though

however please don't eat diseased meat, or hens that die for unexplainable reasons. Usually I just bury them though you can throw them away if you like.

 

[flowerchild59]

I may just craigs list them and hope someone else can benefit from them however they see fit. I don't know if I ever could do the deed myself.

 

[mmaddie's mom]

I go to my husband and ask him to do it. (he's an old farm boy)




Quote:
Actually, the above is how we did it when I was a kid (my aunt, my mom and I). Worked well and didn't traumatize this city kid. My job was to hold the legs and then carry it over to my mom to dip and strip. My aunt did the chopping.