death

[campanula]

Has anyone had to do the neckwringing yet? we did yesterday after a longish saga with a sick hen. Frankly, I was dismayed by the absolute dearth of info about this in the manuals we assiduously read before getting chooks. Obviously, I realised the day might come and I found it quite hard and distressing. Is chicken keeping a bit like 'grow your own' in that this idea is being continually pushed by all and sundry with devious evasions regarding the amount of time, effort and money which the enterprise costs, leading us to have unrealistic expectations - this is certainly evident on my site with a rash of lifestyle growers who appear on odd sunny weekends and faff about for a bit.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Maybe look for old books on chicken keeping, from the days when people kept them for eggs and meat, not as pets?

[Old bird]

I haven't had the guts to do it myself yet.  A couple of times I had organised myself - huge knife - block of wood - I was nearly there and.... couldn't do it!

Second time I had read about the broom stick method - seemed ok but - again - chickened out (excuse the pun) and took chook to the vet!  I haven't had a bill from them tho!  I told them that they should not use injection - I think that it is slower than just "doing it"  -  so am still a "virgin" with regard to "doing it"!!

Old Bird

 

[goodlife]

I've kept chickens years..but cannot do it....luckily I have friend who keep ferrets so he take to unlucky girls off from me..does the killing and feeds them to his ferrets...no waste...
I absolutely just cannot kill animals...anykind..I'll have job to do it to rats and mice without feeling funny about it.. Once dead I can handle dead ones..no probs..and gutting and skinning, plugging..all fine with it..it is the taking life that is no no..

[Baccy Man]

The important thing is not to hesitate when dispatching poultry a quick clean kill is what you are aiming for.
If you are not familiar with the techniques used to break necks then you may be better off using one of the many poultry dispatchers available to purchase as that would eliminate the risk of getting it wrong & making the bird suffer.
http://www.ascott-dairy.co.uk/acatalog/Poultry_Processing_.html

[jonny211]

I've put one down but didn't break it's neck as I wasn't sure if I'd do it right and either pull the head off or just cause it more pain. In the end I used an axe to do the deed.

The only regret was that I didn't pluck up the courage to do it sooner as the poor thing may have been eggbound.