OK, this one's really unpleasant, but having 'dealt' with the last of our thirty hubbards this morning, I think I have now tried most methods!!
Warning - the following list is not suitable for small children or people who have just eaten breakfast:
- Broom Handle (hold bird's legs, neck on ground, handle over top of neck, stand on broom and pull until flapping begins!) - Worked well for larger birds. Very positive, felt foolproof, minimal suffering, but lots of flapping
- Jaykay's method (above) - I think this would be ok if you got used to it. I could never quite bring myself to be hard enough, so I soon abandoned it. I may come back to it later, but in the meantime I have found other methods I prefer (see below)
- Hang upside down, knife through beak into brain - bird bled out well. Very gruesome, probably not that quick. Won't be doing again, and certainly would not recommend for a 'pet' bird.
- Air rifle - utter disaster. The idea was that the bird would just be going about its normal business, and would hence never know what hit it. However, chickens move much more than tin cans and paper targets, and are consequently much harder to hit. Missed twice. Hit and incapacitated the third time, required two more shots at close range to finish the job. Felt very, very crap, and very guilty over having caused panic and suffering to one of my animals, and to be stupid enough not to try it at point blank range and with the bird restrained to start with. However, for an unwell bird, a shot to the head at point blank range with an air rifle or pistol is probably just as good a method as any.
- Axe to head - only done this once, to euthanise one of my layers :-( Very quick and positive. Lots of blood from the hen, and I'm not ashamed to admit, just as many tears from me. Not easy to get right, and lots of blood around when doing the second bird, which I think would cause it un-necessary stress.
- "Dispatcher" pliers, loaned by a neighbour. Utterly foolproof, and superb for hens. However, not powerful enough for the very largest cockerels, where it was harder to get right, as there was too much neck skin in the way.
So, in future I'm going to use two methods, which I have proven to work well:
1) For small birds (layer size), I have an old roadcone (found broken in a ditch) that I cut the tip off, and attached some string so it can hang from the polytunnel roof. The bird is then lowered into the cone by the feet, with the neck sticking out the bottom. It is then killed using the
dispatcher pliers. Put the pliers round the neck gently, then breathe deeply, squeeze as hard as you possibly can, hold this position, and then give a little twist just to be sure. You'll know the deed is done by the characteristic flapping. The road cone restrains the bird though, so there's no 'running around like a headless chicken' phase, and consequently very little blood (none sometimes, but have a bucket handy just in case), and no bruising of the meat. As long as you're really positive about it, this is a very foolproof method, and causes minimal distress to the bird.
2) For larger cockerels and turkeys etc, I am looking into getting a bigger set of 'dispatchers', but actually the broom handle method described above works very well. Just pull until you feel the neck give, and see the flapping. The one disadvantage of this method is that the bird's wings are not restrained, so you do have to hold on tight until the flapping subsides (about 30 seconds).
If the bird is for the table, for each method above, I would then cut into the neck and hang by the feet to ensure the bird bleeds out well (not everybody recommends this, but it seems to make good sense to me).
So, that's about as gruesome as it gets, and to be honest, it's not all that bad once you get used to it. One of my objectives in getting the Hubbards was to see if I had it in me to raise something from day-old, and kill it as an adult. The truth is, it's not something I'll ever enjoy doing (if you did, you'd be in need of serious help), but I have learned it's something I can do, and not worry about.
In your situation Plumseverywhere, if you would be prepared to fork out for the vet in time of need, definitely get yourself a pair of the
plier thingies to have handy when the time comes, as an alternative option. The less suffering for both yourself and the bird IMHO!!
HTH!! Womble.