The Dark Side of Chicken Husbandry... (putting one of your girls down)

[Steadfast]

One of my girls injured her Leg and was not eating...
She was suffering for over a week as we waited and hoped for any sign of recovery.

Today I put her down...

So, because I like to document EVERYTHING...
I took picture of the everything, except the deed itself...

I believe that we should never let even sad events go down, without thinking 1st how to get some value out of the situation.

I am a minister, and one of my ministries is that I research and use applied archeaology to restore Biblical Artifacts and Teach lesson about.

I decided to put her down via bronze biblical Davidic Great Axe.
I created and own the only fully restored one in the world.
so, my poor girl made history today as the first chicken to die biblically.
The first animal to do so to this kind of axe in 2800 years.

To keep her body from running about and to ease my mind from having to see the potential gore,
I set up this kind of makeshift "quick burial" gallows.

I chose her final resting place to be between all of our black berry bushes.
Again, If you have to put one of your suffering chickens down,
you might as well get humongus black berry bushes out of the deal.


I held her up side down until she finally passed out.

Then I let her body down into the hole and held her head wih her neck over the board.
The bronze axe worked FLAWLESSLY... and quick.

she fell into the hole with her head fallowing a second later.
I quicky dumped the soil in on her body before her body could start going....much..


It was sad... I did not like it, at all...

But her suffering is now over...

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I'm so sorry about your ailing hen, but wow, you certainly squeezed some interesting lemonade out of all this! This is indeed something that every chicken keeper must consider, just how they would end the suffering of one of their birds if & when faced with the situation. And it's inevitable that every one of us will have to make this decision, the more chickens you keep and the longer you keep them.

I wonder if other chickens have ever been dispatched with such a weapon. The ones killed for food probably just had their throats slit in order to bleed out the kosher way.

Next I want to see how you can use David's sling and 5 smooth stones to dispatch a steer.

 

[FrenchToast]

I'm sorry to hear about your hen. I like the fact that you have an instant burial site. I am going to bookmark this thread for future reference. Yes we will all have to make these decisions one day. Thanks for making a bit easier.
Thank you for sharing.

 

[brahmakid11]

why the heck did you kill it!!!?

 

[Steadfast]

Quote:
Well, if I had known you had so many critters, I might have mailed her to you instead...

I put her down because Her suffering was pathetic... she was clearly looseing a lot of weight...
And I could not fiquire out why she was getting worse.

 

[Steadfast]

Wow...my blackberry bushes are already responding.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I always bury my culled chickens at the drip line of some bush or tree. I don't have dogs, so I needn't worry too much about them being dug up again. But still, we usually dig a narrow hole with a post-hole digger, and I put something heavy over the top for a week or so. Some of my favorites are interred around favorite plants. My dear departed broody hens are around my peach tree, and when it fruits I like to think of those biddys watching over little round fuzzy things again.

It is tough to have to put down a chicken of whom you have grown fond, but it's somehow comforting to know they're now nourishing some plant and contributing to its growth, and in that way, continue to live.

 

[Steadfast]

bump......

 

[Luvducks]

Interesting. Thank you for posting this sad but true story.