The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Pedwardine on July 02, 2012, 11:23:52 pm
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OH did two this morning. We have far too many and have been putting off the evil day as we love our boys. They're so easy to handle but they are adding a burden to increasing feed costs and obviously inflict a bit of damage to the girls here and there plus the occasional scrap between them. Added to all this we have six dogs and the cockerels are an obvious option re feeding the pooches. You know that it's definately not 'animal derivatives' you're putting in the food bowls with the mixer biscuits!
OH was a bit distressed. He has dispatched before but it has never proved easy, mostly down to the fact that our 'humane dispatcher' is a pile of crap but also because the boys have tough necks which aren't easily pulled which is always the case when the gadget inevitably fails. Has anyone any practical advice on the matter with the kindest regard to the cockerels' welfare? We have a good 18 more to go yet ::)
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Hiya :wave:
It's never an easy task, especially if you've hatched them out yourself. As you, I cannot do the final task, my OH has to do it.
We have a dispatcher mounted on an old door-frame in an outbuilding, it's a very quick job - if you are holding the body, pull back slightly as you yank the dispatcher down - instant kill, though they do flap about for about a minute afterwards, we know this is only a nerve response - someone showed me this to be true by chopping-off the head of a cockeral & the body still thrashed about for over a minute afterwards.
My OH was full of bruises after dispatching 5 turkeys last Christmas.
Remember to adjust your dispatcher, depending on the size of chuck you are wanting to cull.
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I do mine with a broomstick.
Lie cockerel on a hard floor somewhere (well way from the others), put broomstick over neck, stand with feet on broomstick either side of cockerel's head, hold the cockerel's feet firmly and pull hard upwards.
It takes long to type than to do, it's quick and sure.
Killing anything isn't easy and neither should it be, but I find this works when you need it to.
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When the time comes we are planning to place ours upside down in a traffic cone, shoot them in the head with an air rifle to stun them and then cut their heads off to bleed them. We plan to do this over a wheelbarrow containing sawdust/wood shavings which will then go on the compost heap.
Ha ha - easier said than done. We shall see.......
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Noooooooo.
Honestly, you'll do more hurt, fright and damage with the air rifle than by just chopping off their heads or pulling their necks. What you want is one stage, sure and fast.
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Better to have a short bladed knife, razor sharp and cut the artery in the neck. If the knife is sharp enough they won't feel it. Hold the head gently but firmly downward for a quicker bleed. They will flap a bit in the last few seconds but soon over.
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I think you have a point there Beewyched, perhaps the dispatcher gadget has never been set right. It's hard when you've not been shown how to operate a thing to use it correctly. I don't know if OH knows about the pulling back of the body so shall pass all that on. SQ, that's sounds terrifying, don't think we could do that method :o What we want is quick and effective. I think I ought to try personally but OH doesn't want me to have to. I don't want him to have to either. As you say Jaykay, it shouldn't be an easy thing ever to do but hopefully it can be done as well as such a thing is possible. Thanks everyone.
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Shame you don't live closer I'd do them for you.
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Oh - that was the method that was described on a previous thread on this forum..... by our esteemed leaders if memory serves me right....... I thought it was the law/welfare that the birds had to be stunned before they we're bled
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With the broomstick method can you pull too hard? i.e pull their head right off and if so is it an issue?
Sally
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Cull, pluck, dress and rest in fridge for 2/3 days, no need to bleed chickens. Broomstick method is the most effective for LF cockerels, for bantams i do it by hand.
If you pull the head right off i can guarantee they are dead.
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hi its definately worth having a dispatcher
not pleasant to do but I find this ok (as much as the process is quick and no flapping and chicken/turkey is very calm :'( ) their neck goes in the bars (has a curve for the neck and just pull. it has a spring on it
we were given one by a friend/farmer
didn't realise they were so dear...... we have a cone for the turkeys and i'm sure you could make one
Mx
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I raised this subject last week here:
http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=25198.0 (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=25198.0)
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And also Dan had the site link:
http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/livestock/poultry/slaughtering-poultry/ (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/livestock/poultry/slaughtering-poultry/)
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Thanks Leghorn
Sally
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And also Dan had the site link:
http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/livestock/poultry/slaughtering-poultry/ (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/livestock/poultry/slaughtering-poultry/)
Yes - that's where I read about the air rifle being effective for stunning and killling:
<blockquote> We kill the birds first thing in the morning so the crop and gut is empty; shooting them in the head with the air rifle makes the stun and kill. It is very efficient.
We immediately bleed the birds, pluck them, and then hang them for 24 hours in a cool outbuilding (in a clean pillowcase and out of reach of cats and dogs). They are much easier to dress when they are cold.</blockquote>
Certainly can't afford one of those despatcher things although they look very nice. It'll just have to be a traffic cone for our boys :D
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Certainly can't afford one of those despatcher things although they look very nice. It'll just have to be a traffic cone for our boys :D
i knopw what you mean....... if i had seen the price before accepting it i would have said no.
should be easy to make one.....with wood and a cone - thats what we were going to do before being given this one
anyone near us that wants to use feel free to ask :)
Mx
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With the broomstick method can you pull too hard? i.e pull their head right off and if so is it an issue?
Yes, and no.
To be absolutely blunt, I think the attempts at stunning are to make the humans feel better but is crueller to the chickens.
I think we owe it to them to do the job cleanly and properly and get the bravery up to do it, not add an extra stage in that could go wrong, could really hurt and scare them. An air rifle is not designed for this job.
In fact I have a dispatcher, still in its jiffy bag in the garage as I've never used it. If someone wants it for the postage they can have it. PM me.
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hi its definately worth having a dispatcher
not pleasant to do but I find this ok (as much as the process is quick and no flapping and chicken/turkey is very calm :'( ) their neck goes in the bars (has a curve for the neck and just pull. it has a spring on it
we were given one by a friend/farmer
didn't realise they were so dear...... we have a cone for the turkeys and i'm sure you could make one
Mx
Our dispatcher doesn't look like this one - ours is just the metal bit that has to be mounted on a door frame - no posh cone things for us ;)
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So Jaykay - with the broomstick method - do you place the chicken on its front or back? and do you face the chicken's head or tail when pulling...
Does the chicken start to struggle when it's pinioned under the broomstick but before you pull its neck?
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hi its definately worth having a dispatcher
not pleasant to do but I find this ok (as much as the process is quick and no flapping and chicken/turkey is very calm :'( ) their neck goes in the bars (has a curve for the neck and just pull. it has a spring on it
we were given one by a friend/farmer
didn't realise they were so dear...... we have a cone for the turkeys and i'm sure you could make one
Mx
Our dispatcher doesn't look like this one - ours is just the metal bit that has to be mounted on a door frame - no posh cone things for us ;)
Oh ... & we paid less than £30 for it too ;D
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So Jaykay - with the broomstick method - do you place the chicken on its front or back? and do you face the chicken's head or tail when pulling...
I lie him on his side. His head is facing away from me, I pull his feet upwards, my hands together, one of his feet in each hand, so I have a good grip. I end up with his toes facing me, at chest height, so I've twisted as well as pulled.
Does the chicken start to struggle when it's pinioned under the broomstick but before you pull its neck?
No, they tend to go quiet but you get it done fast anyway.
It's possible to actually pull his head off, which makes a right mess, but at least you know you've done the job. They flap afterwards, sometimes quite a bit. The neck is very clearly broken and you know the job is done. I then leave them to hang so that the blood pools in the neck. If I've pulled the head off, I tie a carrier bag over the neck while the body hangs.
I hate doing it, which is as it should be. I also don't fudge it which is what I owe them. They've given me 6 months of good company and are about to feed me, so in my view it's what I can do for them back, to get over my squeamishness and give them a quick, clean end.
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I wonder is it possible to put something round the wings and body before you pull so that they aren't able to flap as much.
Perhaps a layer of cling film or something. Any suggestions?
Sally
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I think just hold the wings afterwards. Or learn to ignore it. You're right, it isn't nice.
But otherwise, doesn't it just become something else the poor bird has to put up with, that prolongs the process for him?
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Humane slaughter of a chicken (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UahVDgXszyM#)
I found this on anther poultry forum. It had good feedback on the thread but I can't actually view it as access is limited from this computer.
Is it any good?
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Yes, it shows the process well enough.
It looks like the broomstick has slipped and the job hasn't been done - but it has. (you can check if you do it yourself that the neck is floppy)
Personally I don't move my foot off the broomstick so fast and with a cockerel pull harder, but this shows how quickly the job happens and is over - and holding the bird between his legs like that stops the flapping too.
I just hang mine up and ignore it.
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I was surprised at just how quickly he did it. In fact hardly saw him pull at all.
thanks Suziqeueue
Sally
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The thread itself has somebody sharing about their first experience of using this method after watching the video.
http://www.poultrychat.com/forum/index.php?/topic/7806-broomstick-method-video-how-to-do-it/ (http://www.poultrychat.com/forum/index.php?/topic/7806-broomstick-method-video-how-to-do-it/)
Looking forward to watching it once I get home
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sorry jaykay the air rifle method is very effective. but you really need to know how to do it. the axe method is the back up option. the humane slaughter folks are not happy with neck breaking.
the air gun does seem to work better on geese thou. always have a backup method on hand no matter how you do it.
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We've got a metal wall mounted dispatcher which we use on our chickens and cockerels (£30). There's a screw which has to be adjusted according to the bird you're culling but it certainly does the job. I hate the process to be honest but the bird always seem calm enough. I wrap a large bath towel round their body and wings and place an old sock over their heads then sit for a moment to calm us (more for my benefit than theirs really, because by now they've almost gone floppy and sleepy). So I hold the bird and OH pulls the lever. Job done.
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What they're absolutely not happy with are the wall mounted dispatchers.
This is what I found I have used the neck dislocation method successfully for years when a bird has been suffering and needed to be dispatched, but when I was researching to write the article on this method for poultrykeeper.com, I thought I would see whether this method was the most humane that could be practised at home and whether I should be putting information on the site about it. There are some slaughter devices on the market that look like a pair of pliers (some versions can also be fixed to the wall too) and I wondered if I was out of date with my method of dispatching chickens but after some extensive research on the subject, I found out that these devices (that are sold by many reputable online suppliers too) aren’t really very good at killing a chicken.
These ‘Chicken Dispatchers’ actually kill a chicken by crushing the neck and spinal cord rather than dislocating it which can cause a great deal of unnecessary suffering before death. I found out that the Humane Slaughter Association (in the UK) didn’t recommend these devices.
So What about the Neck Dislocation Method?
I was then surprised to find out that the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) had ‘reservations’ about the neck dislocation method however it is legal to use this method in the UK.
They say ” it is difficult to consistently achieve an immediate loss of consciousness” which I would totally agree with. If you don’t get it right, there certainly is suffering. So because of this, I certainly would urge people to try to get an experienced poultry keeper to show them how to practise neck dislocation properly. A friend of mine had me practising on pheasants that had been shot – when you get it right, you can feel the neck stretch and then feel the gap between the vertibrae afterwards so you know you’ve done it correctly. The HSA recommends that the neck dislocation method should only be used in emergencies or for very small numbers of birds where no better method is available.
So what is the correct method of dispatching a chicken?
The HSA advises that when it is possible, other more humane methods should be practiced such as using electrical or mechanical concussion stunning. This should be followed immediately by a killing method like bleeding or neck dislocation whilst the bird is still unconscious.
The hand-held electrical stunners and mechanical percussive devices are available but they do cost approximately £500 to £700 which is out of reach for your average poultry keeper.
The neck dislocation method still seems to be the best approach for us to dispatch a chicken at home. The key factor is the time it takes for a bird to lose consciousness so that it is not suffering which means you might want to think about practising on a few dead pheasants too!
Personally, and that's all it can be, I think the air rifle method has far too much potential for disaster. A very sharp axe as back up might be a good plan and some people just do that, chop off a chicken's head. Again, you've have to be definite and skilled.
I agree with the writer of the article i've quoted that neck dislocation is likely to be the most fool-proof method available to most of us.
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Thanks to all who have contributed their expertise and experience to this thresd and taken the time to type out responses.
This is a really interesting and informative debate that hasn't descended into sniping and bickering....... yet ::) ;D ).
I have learnt a great deal and I think it will change my plans.
Thankyou :notworthy:
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nobody is arguing. its personnel choice. the only thing thats important is to insure a quick painless as possible death. once you have messed up a kill and everyone does once you will be sure to insure its done better. i hate doing it but its a skill you need if your going to keep birds.
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Well said shetlandpaul,and is why I now prefer the method I use. :thumbsup:
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well iv read all ,i Carnot do it full stop.My way 20 cocks this week end ,give 20 to the butcher i get 3 back dressed and done .i think cull soon as you see a cock bird .i make my own feed so feeding them never bothers me but i would pay to get some done iff needed.