Killing chickens

Hedgewizard, a fellow blogger and self-sufficiency enthusiast, has asked how I kill chickens for the pot, so I thought I’d dust off a draft post I wrote a while ago.

I’ve posted extracts from the draft on several forums, but never actually got around to posting it on the blog – which is typically daft of me!

Anyway, my preferred method for killing chickens is a hand-held dispatcher but with the proviso that to use one most effectively you need quite a powerful grip.

If you have a weaker grip, then a wall-mounted dispatcher would be the better option.

I have used a hatchet or small axe to dispatch chickens, but it can be tricky getting the head in the right place on the block at the same time as the hatchet hits home.

An old-fashioned way of getting the neck stretched out was to put loops in each end of a length of twine, pop one end over the chicken’s head, slip the other over a big two, and then use your foot to draw the chicken’s head and neck across the block.

It’s not a method I favour myself!

As I work the croft full-time and do almost everything by hand, I can break even a large cockerel’s neck easily and efficiently with just my hands, but it’s a technique that’s better demonstrated than described.

And even when you’ve done it a lot, you still get occasions when it doesn’t work and you’re left with a grumpy and stressed chicken, which is why I prefer using a hand dispatcher.

Another method of killing poultry is to use a killing cone, into which the chicken is placed head down, before it is stabbed through the roof of the open beak.

Again, it’s a technique better demonstrated than described and I’m not entirely comfortable with it – although the chickens do bleed out well when done correctly.

That leaves the hand dispatcher.

I get the birds used to being picked up and tucked under an arm for a week or so before killing them.

They need to be held head forward (reverse to usual practice), supported on a forearm, with their wings firmly held in place between your upper arm and chest, with the hand of the supporting arm spread around their breast to stop them wriggling forward.

I talk to the bird calmly for a minute or so until it is still, then pick up the open dispatcher with the other hand, move it calmly and steadily into place on the neck, and then give a strong, hard squeeze with a slight twisting motion until the neck breaks.

As I do this, I squeeze the holding arm slighly harder into my side to keep the wings pinned.

I then put the dispatcher down, pick up a pre-tied piece of strong twine with a large running noose and slide it over the chicken’s feet, drawing it tight. The other end of the twine has a bowline and I flip this over a hook on the rafters, before releasing the carcass to let it hang for bleeding out into a bucket.

As the dispatcher breaks the blood vessels in the neck, there’s usually no need to use a knife as well and the blood often drains out via the beak. Even if it doesn’t, the dispatcher creates a necl cavity and hanging the bird upside down means the blood will drain into that.

Killing poultry is always done inside, out of sight and sound of the other chickens.

If I’m doing more than one chicken at a time, I dispatch them in one area and then hang them in another so the chickens being brought in for dispatch don’t see the hanging bodies or smell the blood.

Now, a final couple of tips – first, don’t be hesitant or squeamish. The worst and most common mistake made by someone trying to kill a chicken is that they do it in a half-hearted way.

Dispatching chickens has to be done quickly and forcefully or the animal will suffer.

The second most common mistake is not knowing being familiar with the method you’ve chosen for dispatching the chicken.

I often read forum posts where people saying this method or that method doesn’t work, or that a particular dispatcher is rubbish.

In fact, the problem is almost always caused by inexperience, a failure to follow instructions or being taught an incorrect method.

Even if you can’t practice your chosen method of dispatch or have someone demonstrate it before killing your first chicken, you can still take the time to think the process through, lay the tools out where you can use them, think about how you’re going to use the tools and what might go wrong, and visualise what you’re going to do.

If it doesn’t go as planned or hoped, work your way through what you did and identify the point at which it went pear-shaped. Then plan to do things differently next time or ask for help and guidance (or both!).

There are a range of sources for dispatchers, but to see most of them in one place have a look at Ascott Smallholding Supplies’s poultry processing page.