The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: colliewoman on July 31, 2011, 09:17:34 pm
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I hope to gods i never need do it, though i suspect as the number of birds go up i'll have to :(
i'm not squeamish but really want to know the correct way of dispatching before i need to do it!
thankies in advance
Donna x
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Think it depends on how confident your are at pulling a chooks neck, my hubby normaly shoots them with an air gun, puts the end of the gun on the head, one pellet is normally enough, if we are slaughtering for meat, he normally cuts throat straight after shooting it to bleed it. We have a friend that chops there head straight off with an axe if it hasn't got a head it's got to be dead!!! Or find someone to do it for you!
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Get someone who knows how to do it correctly.
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I watched a few youtube videos (boy does that mess up your recommendations!)
The method I "liked" is to catch your chook from the coop first thing in the morning (=sleepy). Carry by legs, the minute or so upside down sends blood to head and they get a bit dopey.
Place the bird's "chin" on the floor, and some sort of bar across the back of the neck. Hold bar down with foot, pull legs straight up = broken neck. Good for me as I was doing it on a very large bird, and was terrified of not using enough force and only injuring the poor thing.
Humane slaughter of chicken (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR55rMaBQfs#)
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I have had to dispatch a few and none flap like in this video!
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I do the neck pull, usually a little too hard and the head comes off... mine also don't flap this much. I think it's flapping due to the nerves still being connected in the neck even if it is broken and pooling blood in the neck.
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We have a road cone screwed upside down to a telegraph post. The narrow end is cut off to allow the head and neck through. The bird is slipped into the cone, gently, then a single airgun pellet to the back of the head. Dead. The cone prevents any flapping. If we are killing for meat, the blood vessels in the neck are severed to bleed the bird.
With the cone, it's very easy to do it single handed.
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www.miketheheadlesschicken.org (http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org)
This bird lived without a head for 18 months and was fed with an eye dropper.
I think too little force was used in the demmo video , it needs a much stronger pull and a longer spanner, I just hold e'm by the legs with one hand and a quick pull and twist till you feel the neck come loose. Hardly any flapping.
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We have a road cone screwed upside down to a telegraph post. The narrow end is cut off to allow the head and neck through. The bird is slipped into the cone, gently, then a single airgun pellet to the back of the head. Dead. The cone prevents any flapping. If we are killing for meat, the blood vessels in the neck are severed to bleed the bird.
With the cone, it's very easy to do it single handed.
Brilliant idea,rather like the old fashioned Turkey dispatchers,we have a cone too,thanks for this!
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I use an electric stunner then bleed them.
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We have a road cone screwed upside down to a telegraph post. The narrow end is cut off to allow the head and neck through. The bird is slipped into the cone, gently, then a single airgun pellet to the back of the head. Dead. The cone prevents any flapping. If we are killing for meat, the blood vessels in the neck are severed to bleed the bird.
With the cone, it's very easy to do it single handed.
liking that idea, plus it gives me an excuse to buy an airpistol.
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consensus of opinion would suggest that shooting them with an airgun is the way to go but is that an approved form of dispatch(just wondering)and if it is what size of fowl can it go up to with point blank range :farmer:
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We/my hubby and son in law to be precise, did some for Christmas and it was easy, he went to them in the dark with his torch, took them one at a time quietly out and hung them up side down and pulled thier neck then bled them, some flapped a bit (blood went over the white snow) but nothing horrid and I doubt they knew much as it was very quick, my problem would be, if you hesitate its horrid!!!!!
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I have what is described as a humane disptcher screwed to the side of the stable you place the chooks neck in and close the handle in breaks the neck and chook is dead. It even works on geese with a slight adjustment on a screw.
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I can't help thinking it's a bit ridiculous shooting chickens with an airgun. Where does the pellet go if it goes straight through or if the bird moves just at the wrong moment? The accepted way is to break the neck, either by hand, using a purpose built despatcher, or using the so called broomstick method. A swift blow to the back of the neck with a "priest" also works well.
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I used the broomstick method on a cockerel a few months ago, he was pretty big and I wasn't sure I would be able to break his neck. It was easy and very quick.
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I use the broomstick method if I have a situation where despatching is necessary
The flapping always makes me feel awful - logically I know its all down to lower motor neurone activity not being suppressed/inhibited by the upper motor neurones (brain basically) once the neck has been broken, but it doesn't really make it any easier!
Just make sure you have a foot either side of the chook's head on the broomstick otherwise the stick can slip.....
Tish
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I can't help thinking it's a bit ridiculous shooting chickens with an airgun. Where does the pellet go if it goes straight through or if the bird moves just at the wrong moment? The accepted way is to break the neck, either by hand, using a purpose built despatcher, or using the so called broomstick method. A swift blow to the back of the neck with a "priest" also works well.
"Accepted" by whom? It used to be acceptable to hang, draw and quarter criminals but we don't do it now.
Pellet goes into the sand floor or the telegraph pole. It's point blank range and the bird doesn't really move, if you allowit to settle in the cone.
So called humane depatchers are not approved by the Humane Slaughter Association because there is no stun, just crushing of the neck. Using the broomstick will also crush before the neck is broken.
A swift blow with a heavy object will either stun or kill so should be followed by a definite kill method.
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I have what is described as a humane disptcher screwed to the side of the stable you place the chooks neck in and close the handle in breaks the neck and chook is dead. It even works on geese with a slight adjustment on a screw.
I have one of these too. Mine is on a good heavy D-shaped fence post so I can move it to where I want to use it.
I always fetch the bird in the dark if at all possible.
Edited when I read Rosemary's post:
I didn't know it was not now regarded as humane, I shall have to rethink. I really don't want any kind of firearms on the premises.
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If you get in touch with DEFRA they will send you a booklet on the accepted ways of killing poultry. I use a stunner as I have arthritis in my hands and can;t trust them to do the job properly but if you can break their necks this will be a lot cheaper.
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what about putting them in a box connected with pipe to car exhaust... sens them straight to sleep... ok if your not going to eat it...
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what about putting them in a box connected with pipe to car exhaust... sens them straight to sleep... ok if your not going to eat it...
you are joking right?
hold the chicken by the legs put its head in your hand with your thumb over its throut, fold the head back over its neck and pull down wards until you feel the head dislocate from the end of the neck, it will flap but thats only nerves then hang by the feet for 20 mins and it will bleed out into the cavity you you have a cleaner carcase if you are going to eat it
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i thinks the road cone is the best idea you could have them made and sell them very good.
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Not sure there's a market for road cones TBH. Perhaps the council should just hang signs up at roadworks that say "Approved Poultry Dispatchers - Please Take One" ;D.
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Thank you all so much for the replies, Rosemary i am stealing your idea :-*
Whilst it may not be an accepted method, it does take away the fear of not being firm enough. it is my fear (and many others i would imagine) that i would not use enough force and not have a clean kill. i can squeeze a trigger though and the road cone is an amazingly intelligent solution to holding firmly and eliminating flapping.
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Using the broomstick method you don't need to exert a huge amount of force - you bend over with the chook then you straighten up. I have done this with large gees as wells as chooks, ducks etc and never once had a less than instant kill. The only 'danger' is pulling too hard, if anything , and pulling the bird's head right off, which can be very messy if you then let go and it flaps about with blood spraying. But there is definitely no question of whether or not it is dead.
I would always recommend the broomstick method to someone despatching their first bird or nervous about the operation.
BTW in that YouTube video is it just me or does using a spanner about 5" long seem an unusually fiddly way of doing it?
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"Accepted" by whom? It used to be acceptable to hang, draw and quarter criminals but we don't do it now
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A/ By people who have to kill poultry. B/ WTF has that got to do with killing poultry?
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colliewoman make sure you only shoot them in the back of the head just up from the neck. shooting in the front will not give a clean kill. mainnly eyes and other things. always put a second pellet in just to be sure. and then cut the thoat or take the head off. if you have done it properly there will be no blood squirting but if there is the bird is still stunned and then cut the throat. make sure you have a soft wood backstop. don't use the ground the pellet can go through and bounce back.
a rifle is a lot better than a pistol. you will get a lot of flapping even if you took the head off so either use a cone or get someone to hold it. i get suspicious if there is no flapping it tends to mean its stunned. watch its feet they are a good guide as to when they are dead but it takes practice to read the signs.
a decent airrifle ours is a bsa .22 will do geese easily and turkeys the turkey is a tougher bird so stun and cut quickly don't wait to see if they are dead. basicly your using the gun in place of a captive bolt stunner. the prefered method is by stunning and cutting using an electric stunner which needs training. followed by beheading and kneck dislocation. the dispatchers are not recommended asd they crush the neck instead of breaking it. but whatever method you use your objective is a quick pain free death. you will mess up a kill and once you have you will be sure to make sure it never happens again. no method is nice but if you achieve a quick death its not as bad.
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The dispatcher I have dislocates the neck rather than crushing it - the pokey-out bit gets inbetween two vertebrae and shoves them apart.
As shetlandpaul says, you will mess up a kill one day and then make sure you never mess one up again - which is why I got the dispatcher. And yes, no method is nice but it is by far the best when you know you've done it very quickly and cleanly - especially when you've witnessed the alternative.
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I'm a useless smallholder as I can't kill anything or even send stock to the abattoir - I just sell it and let someone else do it or get the man up the road to do the cockerels for a couple bottles of wine. I find this method effective! (ok so I have a weakness ... shhh....it's not a bad one I hope).
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you need to be able to kill one for when you find a seriously injured/sick one. you may not have someone else around to do it.
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thanks shetlandpaul, I'm not that pathetic that I couldn't bring myself to do that, that is an entirely different matter and I have had instruction in it 3 times (from the man up the road who despatches the cockerels) so that I am able to do it if required. In fact I tell anyone who is thinking of getting hens that they should be properly prepared for that if the event arises and that they should reconsider getting the hens if they think they can't.
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Does anyone know of courses on how to do the deed and how to prepare the birds for eating? In Scotland preferably.
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i was just suggesting if you get your friend to make sure your doing it right the next time there are birds to kill you will find the process easier. no plesent but easier. and your not pathetic.
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ok :
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I'm a useless smallholder as I can't kill anything or even send stock to the abattoir - I just sell it and let someone else do it or get the man up the road to do the cockerels for a couple bottles of wine. I find this method effective! (ok so I have a weakness ... shhh....it's not a bad one I hope).
No Im just the same. When my chooks were poorly and I knew their end was near, I'd take them to our neighbour who would "do the deed" for us.(OH is even softer and soppier than I am). However, now Im stuck as our neighbour has moved, so when I finally get my new lot of chooks, any that need doing will have to go to the farmer up the road. I KNOW that I should be able to dispatch myself, but Ive never been able to kill anything bigger than a spider.
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Hi there - we have a new wall mounted poultry dispatcher and 6 (now 5) cockerals and 11 meat birds and it is time to get them all ready for the freezer so we can let our bantam hens have more space and perhaps hatch off some more birds.
My other half had a really distressing moment last week where the adjustment was too loose in the dispatcher and it didn't do the job properly. Our cockeral was stunned a bit but then got up happily and started pecking around and crowing again. She had to get our farmer friend to finish the job off by hand, after catching him again.
We have now adjusted the dispatcher but are really nervous about getting it wrong again. The gap is now about 1/2 centimetre - will that do the job for smallish cockeral bantams (the dispatcher handily came with no instructions...) or should it be any smaller (would rather not chop head off if possible)
Also, we have been advised to pull the body when the clamp is still on to make sure the job is done properly. Is that a good idea?
We really don't want any of the other birds to suffer.
P.S. we don't have an air rifle but do own an axe if essential....
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I'm sorry to hear you had a distressing experience. We all do, and like you all try to make sure it is only the one time.
I don't think you can make the gap too small for such a small bird - I have it at about 1/2 centimetre for full-size birds. The jaws aren't sharp, so it can't cut the head off. It works by the jaws pushing the vertebrae askew, snapping the spinal cord.
Make sure you have it just a little way down the neck from the wattles and aren't catching the wattles in it.
You can do no harm to double-check the bird is dead by pulling either the body or the head before releasing the jaws. Pull at an angle, then you are doing the same thing as the broomstick method. You may get more blood pooling into where the jaws have been - I hang them up by their feet for a while to let the blood collect in the neck before I gut them.
A vet once told me to check for an eyelid reflex - if you pass your finger across the eye, close but not touching, and the eyelid flickers, it's not dead. Conversely if the eyelid does not flicker, it's dead.
Hope that helps and you feel more confident about the next ones.
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anyone keeping chooks should learnt how to kill them. ask someone to show u. i thought defra recommended neck dislocation so i dont know why u are all shooting them, they are not pheasants! our puppy had a habit of skinning the chooks necks and leaving them alive to wander around the yard so quick despatch was essential to stop there suffering. thankfully he doesnt any more, but dispatch is a job u need to know how to do.