How Do You Dispose of a Dead Chicken?

[Melodychick]

Nope no bears here! I think if I had such large predators, I would haul the chicken body far away from my coop and barn to bury or just leave, and have my other pets cremated.

 

[BantyChooks]

Thank you, everyone. I initially thought burying it would be the thing a person would consider first, but as @azygous and @andreanar posted, I thought about other animals digging up the graves. We do have a ravine, and a dumpster, but the idea of tossing them out like garbage seems, I don't know, disrespectful somehow. I know they're just chickens, but I've grown very fond of the poop machines. Hopefully I don't have to deal with this situation for a long while to come.

It was rather hard for me to put some of my favourites out there... I had no other choice, though. I just reminded myself that all that was left was their body, not 'them'.

I could have put them in my freezer and waited half a year for the ground to thaw... but I really didn't feel like putting two mangled ducks in my freezer to see every time I opened it.

 

[andreanar]

It was hard for me too, to put that pullet in the dumpster, it felt bad. But, like BantyChooks said, It wasn't "her", just her remains.

 

[centrarchid]

Most are composted in core of where dogs operate so nothing gets those. Occasionally I will place carcass parts in live trap within area I try to keep predators out of. The new carcass will be a strong attractant for raccoon or small oppossum that makes brief incursions for feed but otherwise does not get into existing traps. A couple we even have watched as insects consumed them above ground.

 

[lazy gardener]

My preferred method of getting rid of all carcasses is to bury them. Hard to do with our NE soil/heavily laced with rocks and boulders. So, I dig a hole where ever I can, often in the middle of my lawn. (I wait till dusk, so as not to disturb too many neighbors with such bizarre behavior.) Or I'll dig at the edge of the yard, where the soil has been disturbed within the last few years. I usually cover the site with large rocks, HW cloth, or even toss a few tires over it. On rare occasions, I've had to dispose of bodies during the winter, and have resorted to using the town dump. However, I really hate to do that, as IMO, it's just not a good idea to put rotting flesh in a dumpster. Have given serious consideration to finding a remote wooded area to leave bodies/entrails for the local scavenging wild life to clean up.

 

[MrsAuberry00]

If I toss them over our ravine for wild life, it's too close to our house and I'm afraid of drawing more raccoons, etc, to the coop.