First time, am nervous but set. Any advice?

[paradisepentacoop]

Hey all,
I have two roosters that need to be culled. I have decided that they will have less trauma by having a humane death versus other solutions. However, this is my first time killing intentionally, let alone pets.
Below are my questions or uneasy points. Please feel free to answer any or all.

• Method of kill
  • Broomstick then bleed
  • Decapitation
  • Knife to throat then bleed
• Kill cone or no cone?
• Issues butchering/processing bantam birds
• Cooling during rigor
  • Do people mainly use a cooler?
  • Just pop in a fridge in a container?
• Respecting the animal
  • Quickest and most humane death, for first time, nervous culler

I appreciate any and all posts helping me through this.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I use homemade kill cones made from a kitty litter jug, & a milk jug for extra large, to medium sized, & small, or bantam chickens.
I slice the jugular vein with a scalpel to bleed them out. It takes between 1½ to 3 minutes for a chicken to bleed out, & size of the bird plays part in bleed time/death.

My birds after the plucking, & gutting process I just rinse/wash well in cool water, bag, & freeze. Haven't dealt with Rigor Mortis in the last few I've processed so resting/aging wasn't required.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Method of kill is often personal preference, all of the methods you've listed can be quick, humane options. I tried the broomstick method once and was not successful. I think it would have been better if I had someone experienced to walk me through it and show me how first. Decapitation with sharp brush cutters would be fast and relatively foolproof. My preferred method is a scalpel to the jugular and exsanguination. But I have had that go badly once, the jugular clotted just enough that the bird was only unconscious not dead and revived when we put it in the cooler with the ice.

Kill cones are useful imo. There's a lot of options too. I've seen people use both commercially made and home made. What's worked well for me it cutting a corner off a plastic bag, putting the head through the hole, and wrapping duct tape around the neck wings and feet (covered by the bag). Then we hang them by the feet and cut the jugular. The tape keeps them from bruising when they go through the involuntary death throws.

I don't have any experience butchering bantams, but I have done Cornish cross at 4 weeks. The biggest difficulty is that the body cavity is smaller, so it can be trickier to eviscerate them if you want a whole carcass. If you're planning on parting them out you can cut out the spine and then the restricted space becomes a non issue.

With only two birds, you won't have to worry about cooling before processing. For cooling through rigor after processing you can just store them in a plastic bag in the fridge until the stiffness is past.

 

[paradisepentacoop]

Thank you for your thoughts. I am unsure if I would part them out first, but I do see the benefit of removing the spines to make their tiny bodies easier to deal with.

I really appreciate ya!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

My biggest thing is don't do it if you're in a time budget. Plan for it to take longer than you expect, especially as a first time person.

Sometimes it helps to talk or listen to something during the killing. Sounds callous, I'm sure, but it helps me a lot to be listening to YouTube in an earbud when I'm holding the birds (I hold the head and legs still, my helped does the actual cutting with the tree looper) and then to just continue holding until they're still. I think of it as still being there with them until they're really gone.

 

[SweetieChicken234]

My personal method is broom stick. For me it works great. I hold the bird upside down after the neck break and they bleed into the neck space.