cull chickens may be unthinkable to some urban homesteader who view their flock as dearie and part of the family . Find out why we adjudicate to kill a chicken from our small backyard flock . This postal service does not show any violent death or processing of animals . It talks about the killing cognitive operation and why we pick a bird . Reader discernment is advised .
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This post does not show any kill or processing of animals . It talk about the killing process and why we culled a bird . Reader discreetness is advised .
This was a hard post to publish and I have spend weeks writing it and debating whether or not to publish it . I adjudicate that since I am running a solve homestead and the brute are allow a service that I would publish this article so other squatter who are view expanding can read and learn .
CULLING YOUR FLOCK IS NOT AN EASY TASK
mighty from the first I want to be light that take a biography is not a joyousness for us . It is taken with a heavy warmness and for us as urban squatter , it is an emotional time .
The culling mental process is not one people really want to babble about and definitely something that your neighbor do n’t want to see if you are living in an urban or suburban context .
The good advise I can give is to have everything quick to go and within hands strain . Do your research and if you are not comfortable doing it yourself rule someone who is and learn .
I made a picture on YouTube about this topic which you’re able to watch to see why we culled a chicken and the peter we used . Just like this post there is no graphic kill of the dame but I do show the tools used :
Why we Killed a chicken
This tale begins a few week ago when Mother Clucker a.k.a . Ranger the wyandotte got broody .
A broody biddy is not always a problem and often the hormones calm down and thing go back to normal .
It was n’t a job at first , we even had other chickens laying on top of her in the beginning ! Then she stopped eating and drinking . This was a job and we intervened .
One of the well-situated things to do isto give your broody hen a clutch of fertile eggs to sit on and hatch .
This was n’t an option for me . I have rigid regulation in my urban center : no more than 6 biddy , no roosters . A set of eggs with a square surprisal in each just would n’t cut it and what would I do with the roosters ?
Other website recommend the wimp poky ora broody hen breakers . The conducting wire bottom permit air circulation and is n’t a courteous comfortable nesting spot to sit in which breaks the crashing cycle by let those plaguey hormones back in check .
For us , this was n’t an option , this time . We did n’t have the material or the money to grease one’s palms the textile and my honest-to-god conducting wire wienerwurst dog house is in Germany with my husband ’s firstborn son ! I ’m sure he will plausibly be in the kennel now their baby arrived .
Other methods to stop over a blinking biddy admit frozen water bottle underneath her in the nest box cooling her down and kicking her out of the broodiness .
We tried this one for a week with no joy .
Then things amaze horrifying . There was what could only be call a pecking job . We carry on with a cannibalism trouble not too long ago and now all the other chicken were pecking at this one for the nest box even though there are 3 others to prefer from .
My husband put down one choice .
Culling Chickens
My husband is a former US Marine who see participating duty and does n’t take killinganythinglightly . We are both of the firm feeling that we must use as much of the animal as possible to be certain that we honour the life we took . We both trust that we have to guarantee that pluck our birds is done as humanely as possible .
It took a while for me to do around to culling Mother Clucker . I spent the last week before we cull her chase her out of the nest box and coop to do some loose - stray in the yard in the hopes it would break the broodiness .
We get through far more eggs as a family than insert into volaille kernel . If I could get her and the other birds to start lay ; she would be saved from the butcher ’s block and the other birds fates may also be saved .
Photo Credit : Fabrizio Verrecchia
We had to cull her for the better or the flock . Since all of the wimp stopped laying , I was not seeing any return on investment for the feed , bedding and cage I had shelled out for .
I have been homesteading as frugal as potential to be sure my avocation does n’t get out of hired hand and to ensure that the bills get paid ! It ’s a bad program line to make but if it is n’t producing ; it ’s got to go .
We made sure to habituate everything and I really mean everything on the homestead one way or another to get the very most from the sacrifice .
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We bought ahome processing kitwhich come with a metal kill cone , knife and wimp plucker to help get thing done chop-chop .
We segregate Mother Clucker the afternoon before and placed her into one of the superfluous dog vanish crateful in a shady spot in the yard . The other biddy were still trying to peck at her through the bars at this point .
The other birds went into the coop , no one was to free range and Mother Clucker needed some relief from the hens smack at her .
We started getting items ready that we would need;a large kettle or stockpotof water to boil , thebokashi binfor the innards and feathers , the corded drill ready with thefeather pluckerand secure the knife was sharp .
We made sure everything was away from the other birds and they would n’t see the process .
Early Sunday forenoon was the ideal clip for us as urban homesteaders to cull the bird . Partly because most of the neighbor would be at church so the processing could be done without pry centre over the fencing .
Have the stockpot of water hot before you begin .
We opted for a kill strobile .
You place the crybaby upside down in the cone cell and pull the forefront through the minute opening at the bottom .
The stock rushes to the wimp ’s psyche and they generally become unconscious . With the chicken ’s wattle and chin towards you and using a good piercing knife , geld next to the jaw and auricle severing the jugular artery .
Be careful to write out away from you and avoid the bridge player and finger’s breadth holding the headspring so you do not hurt yourself and take care when using penetrative knives .
It may take more pressure than you think to reduce through the feathering and it is easier to move the plumage out of the style .
Once you have contract the arterial blood vessel , take the confidential information of the knife and pith the brain by labor the tip through the roof of the mouth .
The whole process call for seconds for her to be go . There are some capital resources on YouTube how to do it with videos such as the ones below word of advice – they are graphic and you may need to verify with YouTube before watching the picture :
Weed ’em and harvest
John Suscovich
Paul Wheaton
Allow the bird to bleed out . The strobilus keeps the body hold in and stops the flapping around .
Plucking
You will then involve to dispatch the chief and dive the wench into hot water for comfortable plucking .
Thehome processing kitcame with this plucker which is operated with a standard drill . We used the twilled drill so we could get the caper done quickly without disturbed of the battery lose juice part right smart through .
The rubberized fingers pull up the feathers off incredibly expeditiously especially with someone else hold the razzing whilst the plucker runs up and down .
Evisceration
After plucking comes the removal of the innards . The guts , crop and foot .
A crisp knife makes a world of difference at this process .
We opt to rate the feathers and contribution of the bird we can not consume into thebokashi composterto use everything and to feed the garden and plants she was fond of eating and being in . Bokashi composting mean that you may compost raw meat and other items like dairy or ready foods which can not traditionally go into a compost bin .
Once the chick is gutted and clean you canvacuum packand leave in the electric refrigerator a couple of Clarence Day before consuming or freeze out for later .
take a lifetime on the homestead is never an easy labor although sometimes it must be done for circumstances such as hurt , unwellness or they have stopped producing or strive the weight unit for good example , some nitty-gritty bird varieties at trouncing weight can scarcely expend their leg to move around .
Having a small flock of snort has mean that we have become quite connected to them making the process harder . My next set of layers and double purpose birds will not be named .
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