I will be mounting some pen raised pheasants this fall for a hunting lodge.I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas on how to kill the birds without damaging the feathers? I have to mount 50 birds, is there a lethal injection out there?
Thanks Ken
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there are a number of ways to kill a wild bird. If you hit the orange "search" button to the left you will no doubt find more than you want. If you are purchasing the birds from a game ranch, you could have them kill them for you. If you want to do it yourself, the two ways I prefer are using electric shock, or using a 18 guage needle and piercing the atlas vertebre into the brain. Both are quick and cause little damage to the bird. You can aklso suffocate the bird by squeezing the rib cage with your hand by holding the bird under the wings. This sometime damages the down under the wings. Good Luck
I found is put your hand over top there back, thumb behind one wing, fingers behind the other and squeeze untill there heart stops beating. Your palm should be touching there back. It takes about 1 minute and if done right you feel it quit. I have done over 1000 birds this way with no damage. Don't squeeze to hard it don't take much pressure. Happy squeezin
although the electrocution trick works to me i can kill five in the time it takes to get one hooked up.also me holding a bird and running electricity through it just aint my style.simply have one guy hold the bird and you grab it by the beak area.place needle into the "soft" spot in the back of head where the neck meets the head and inject.it will kill them instantly. they will seize or flop very little.works great on all birds.
Get a can of starter fluid,spray on wad of cotton,place cotton over bird's nostril. It takes no time and bird is asleep. No harm to plummage. Works great.
spray some ether(nt sure of spelling) in a bag n put over his head ..itll b done in about a mmin..
Injecting the skull damages the skull. Ether is toxic and flammable.
The best way to do this is to call 'animal control' or an 'animal damage control' pro and have them run the birds through their CO2 euthanasia chamber.
Or buy them already dead.
You risk running afoul of cruelty laws if you use an unapproved method.
Thanks for all the advise, I'll try a few of these and pick the best for me, Thanks Again! Ken