Harvesting by Cervical Dislocation

This is something I've been looking into. I know it's one of the most common and quick ways with rabbits, but I've also found out that people do this for harvesting birds as well, turkey's especially.

I'm wondering if anyone has done this before. I found the "Rabbit wringer" and they have released a "Chicken Wringer" tool which stops the drama of laying them down, laying a stick across their necks, pressing and popping. I can see it being very humane, but the set-up I could see stressing the bird.

I'm wondering, has anyone taken a bird's life this way? How do you find their bleed-out quality as I know you have to cut after the fact? I'm interested in hearing opinions on this. If this doesn't work for/interest you, what is your preferred methods of harvest and why, as I'm sure we all have our reasons. I've never done it, just looking for views of those who have experienced it or know more about it as I'd like to off Chuckanegg, but I don't have anyone with hands on to guide and watch me, point in the right spots, so all I can do is read books and watch videos (from people cutting and letting them gurgle to chopping off heads and letting them run, to even one woman who cuts and then pulls the head with the hands...) and try to find the mid line to give the bird the most humane out and one my conscience will be clear with.

Do you have a ritual at all? Is this a spiritual thing or just a deed that's part of a self- or somewhat self-sufficient life?

For pete's sake! I thought this was about bringing in your hay crop, by hand, while you were in a neck brace for whiplash. Sounds like something ShipShapeSue would do! Harvesting hay by hand, that is.

Have you considered shooting the turkey? I am not joking. If you can do so safely, a .22 to the head can save some of the handling that you have to do to stretch a neck. Yes, because turkeys get so big this IS a bigger chore.

We chop. (chickens, we don't do turkeys) But the bird is in a killing cone, so its body is contained and it does not beats its wings black and blue or flop around on the ground. Picture a huge ice cream cone made of shet metal, nailed to a havey board. We hold the bird calmy, slip a weighted twine around its neck, then head first upside down into the cone. THe weight pulls the head down through the hole in the bottom, when the neck is exposed with one blow Hubby removes the head. There is no two swipes. The weight ensures the bird is not yanking it's head out of the way. Bird bleeds out upside down in the cone.

Because this is a contained unit, the mess is not spattered far and wide and clean up is easier afterward too.

Hubby made his own cone. It is possible to make them for turkeys, but getting a huge turkey upside down into a cone is a two man job.

uno wrote:For pete's sake! I thought this was about bringing in your hay crop, by hand, while you were in a neck brace for whiplash. Sounds like something ShipShapeSue would do! Harvesting hay by hand, that is.

LOL!!

I have used the broomstick method. I was a little nervous that I would mess it up because other than looking at a book with a lousy illustration, googling for instructions with a better illustration and watching couple of U-tube videos, I'd never actually seen anyone do it. I was afraid I would pull too hard or pull too soft, and I definitely didn't want to pull too soft. You may laugh but I practiced the motions with a towel that was approximately the same length as a chicken hung by it's legs and tied a knot at the very end to be the head. I laid the knot on the ground, practiced putting the broomstick just the "head", getting my foot on the other side and practicing the pull a few times till I got comfortable with the motion. When I did the real chicken, I was actually surprised how quick and easy it was. I felt it was very humane and no fuss, no muss. I've also used a PVC cutter which for sure got the job done, but my one experience was a little dramatic. I wouldn't trust myself to do a quick and humane job with an axe. Or better chance that the chicken would survive (minus a few neck feathers) and I'd be called Patty 8 fingers for the rest of my life. If I'm doing it myself, I definitely prefer the broomstick method.

Harvesting? I kill my birds. We have sucker rod fences. I take the chickens, hold them around the body, facing me, and using a big swing bring them down so their neck just behind the head whiplashes over the top sucker rod bar. Instant death. Nothing larger than the chicken though. I don't think I could heft a turkey.

And when my dogs get old, they don't go over the rainbow bridge, they die.

uno wrote: slip a weighted twine around its neck, then head first upside down into the cone. THe weight pulls the head down through the hole in the bottom, when the neck is exposed with one blow Hubby removes the head. There is no two swipes. The weight ensures the bird is not yanking it's head out of the way. Bird bleeds out upside down in the cone.

The weight on the head is brilliant! Usually it is my job to reach into the cone to grasp the head and pull it down while the husband positions the pruning loppers to take the heads off. I hate reaching into the cone.

For Turkeys, we put them into a feed bag with just the head and neck out and my husband uses the pruning loppers for those too. They can't thrash around as much that way.

All I know is that in tech school our 1st farm lab consisted of euthanizing our chickens then doing cervical dislocation once dead. It took me 3 times to get a proper break We then did postmortoms and chicken anatomy lessons so they were not wasted really....

I prefer to drive them up to peggys and drop them off or if not needed for food an intra-cardiac injection of euthanol.....

Yes I am a wimpy chicken farmer!

Lil'farm, what a brilliant idea to practice on a knotted towel! Very creative thinking on your part. That never would have occured to me.

Silkie, the weights were a good idea. Once in a while a chicken would pull its head back into the hole, turtle like and Hubby would hack off half its face. This IS NOT acceptable! He uses some HUGE sockets he has for his heavy duty work, strings them on a length of bindertwine and it loops around the neck and there is no way the bird can yank that back in!

I am trying to picture this fence you speak of SoSavageSue. People must think you're breaking coconuts but really you're wrecking poultry.

uno wrote:

I am trying to picture this fence you speak of SoSavageSue. People must think you're breaking coconuts but really you're wrecking poultry.

I hide behind the barn, Uno. My husband would cry if he saw me.

The fence is pipe with horizontal holes. The sucker rod is about 3/4 inch in diameter that runs horizontally through the pipe posts.

Thanks everyone. This has all been very helpful and I'm somewhat surprised at the diverse techniques for going about The Deed.

Quickly before I go to work: My use of the word Harvest wasn't meant to be a carebear way of saying bird murder. I use the word because I would kill a coyote, I harvest livestock. The difference, to me, is I plan to use everything I can from the livestock I own, thus I've harvested them. I would kill a coyote attacking or prowling my pens. It's killed because it's simply dead, I would do little more than bury the carcass or feed it to the cats. I've taken nothing but the animals life to save my own animals in return. Just thought I'd clarify