I have wanted to buy pen raised birds & waterfowl ,but have to find a method of killing them without messing them up [want to eat them if possable]. nEED ...FAST...humain>CLEAN...PRESSING IN RIB CAGE DOESNT DO IT! any and all replies appreciated...thanks Ron
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I was told to electricute them. take a lamp cord cut close to the lamp base, pull the two wires apart a short ways down. Clean the tips of the wire and attach an alligator clip to each wire.
Attach one clip to the vent, one to the tongue or wattles. I personally dont recomend holding them... My electrician friend about had a heart attack when I told him LOL.. Anyhow just plug the cord in and count "one thousand one" and unplug. I plan on putting the bird inside a panty hose to prevent the feathers getting tore up, then attaching the gator clips.
Im about to try it myself with a batch of ducks next week.
Once you capture the bird and hold it upside down by the legs, it becomes disoriented and is very unlikely to flap or damage feathers. The alligator clips on the leads are likely uncomfortable, but the most I've had is a shaking of the bill when clipped on the thin skin joining the two beak halves. I usually leave them plugged in for 5 seconds.
BTW, your electrician is having a kneejerk reaction. If you're not knee deep in water or have your hand on a copper ground, electricity passes the path of LEAST resistance. The bird body from anode to electrode, or positive to negative, or hot to ground is still through the birds body. If you connect your hot wire to the lip and the ground to the vent, it will ALWAYS go through the chicken and then to ground before it travels the hollow leg bones to you and then to ground.
via needle into the base of skull will kill them, real dead, real quick. i have killed many this way and have heard of the famed electrocution thing, but i cant justify rigging up some contraption to see if it will work better. when i am certain i can kill a bird much faster than it would take by clipping wires here and there and then plugging it up all the while holding onto the bird.to each there own i guess.
I am petrified of electricty LOL I have NO faith when it comes to that LOL...I know it was said that it doesnt hurt you and all that but I just have this "thing" about electricty... AND ducks and some other birds dont calm down once hung upside down. Yes certain birds do, but my ducks dont like it and simply keep flapping and having a fit. My sonnerat's will fight and flap around too.They dont hang quietly after awhile. The red jungles arent too bad. The chukar flat out had a hissy fit when I hung them upside down although they do calm down after a bit.. But you have to watch you dont break their wee legs or hips.
YOu do it for a full 5 secs? I was told that it might burn the feathers... DO you count 1-2-3-4-5 or is there some way you do it.. Id hate to shock the poor bird then find out it wasnt dead .. UGH
IM gonna get lots of practise in about a week. I have a batch of ducks going to the freezer...
Rae
I have a pheasant and a chicken in the freezer that the costumer
drowned
he slipped them into a panty hose them submerged in a tub of water for a few minutes
they are dead and clean!
Could you explain how that works? I think I like your method better LOl It doesnt involve electricty LOL.. What size needle do you use? And do you inject the alcohol all at once or just slowly? RIght at the point where the neck meets the skull?
Im real interested in this as ANYTHING that doesnt involve me and electricty is a good thing LOL..
I don't care what method you use, but if you've never tried electrocution, how can you possibly say injecting the brain with alcohol is faster? Besides, it's a cruel way of dispatch in my estimation as the bird surely "feels" the effects of its brain being punctured and is likely to flap like hell in the process.
No one any less that Stefan Savides suggested electrocution as his preferred method and once you try it, you'll see that it is instantaneous. The muscles contract and the feathers actually constrict. When you unplug the circuit, the bird will completely relax and the feathers return to their "rest" position. On top of that, you can EAT THE BIRD without wondering if something leeched into the meat. Drowning has to be the most cruel. Have someone hold YOU underwater and see how panic sets in.
And for those of you who want to know how to fix it up, it's NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. Go to your local Dollar General and buy a cheap extension cord. Cut off the receptacle end and strip the wires. At your local Radio Shack or auto parts store, pick up a dollar packet of alligator clips. Attached the stripped wires to the clips. If you're concerned, color code them so that the hot wire is the wire that connects to the largest prong of the plug (that will be the "hot" wire). When you get ready to dispatch your bird, put the color coded "hot" wire in the mouth and then clip the vent with the other clip. Simply plug the cord in for from 5 to 10 seconds. No fuses blow, now lights go out, no one gets shocked. Unplug the wire and you're done. And of course, if your that timid soul who needs a switch instead of just "plugging the sucker in", go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy a plastic In-Line switch. Split the cord a few feet back from either connection site and CUT ONLY ONE WIRE. Open the switch clamshell, install the wires to the ends of the switch, close the clamshell and secure with a screw. Turn it to the "OFF" position, hook up your bird, plug in the cord, and then push the switch to "ON".
Oh, and Blake, I hope you don't slip with that needle. Injecting alcohol into yourself hurts like hell. Been there and done that too.
i use the same needles i use for injecting feet as they are handy.they are a 22ga. needle and 3cc syringe.simply hold the bird by the bill and hold the body of the bird in your lap and that will control the bird and calm it as opposed to dangling upside down in mid air.i insert the need le into the soft spot at the back of the skull where the neck meets the head and inject it all at once.it will go in very quickly.you can use more than 1cc if preferred in the beginning.
george i appologize for not following your way of thought but i have been killing birds this way for years and the fella that taught me has been killing and selling taxidermy birds for several decades.the alcohol works like a charm and imo doesnt cause any more trauma to the bird than would the electricity.and im inclined to believe that most are not to fired up about holding on to something they are shocking.as far as time that it takes i dont need to try your method as i can see by the explaination of how to that i can kill five in the time it takes to hook one up the the magic hot wire.
...use the hunters way to dispatch a bird w/o messing up the feathers that much. But, add the pantyhose part too. Place bird in panty hose and set it down on a hard surface backside down/breast up. Now kneel on it's chest for a couple of minutes and the bird will suffocate under the pressure...
there is no doubt that both methods(alcohol or electricity) will work and work well.it wil be up to the person what works best for them.getting as much info as possible before hand will always help.
He is the one who originally told me about the electrical thing
And he's more famous that George Roof or Blake Wilson. I tend to listen to famous people. LOL
I place the bird in a box and run a shop vac hose into the box via a small hole in the side. I put the other end to my truck exhaust and within seconds the bird goes to sleep. Can't be too painful because I hear about people committing suicide by leaving the car running in the garage ect.
kills ranch fox as close to instantly as you can imagine, the same dose to a bird must be faster than instantly.Very humane!
Well shoot I guess Ill try the eletricity thing since its so quick and painless for the bird.. AND since it does allow me to eat the meat...But so help me... If I so much as feel a TINGLE IM gonna smack every single on of you!
I didnt think George had this a caring side to him ! lol I'am shocked lol.
It's the ONLY method I will use to kill my turkeys. I have tried injecting the brain, severing the spinal column, shooting and everything else, and I am now satisfied that electrocution is the way to go, especially for larger birds.
I take it a little bit farther prep-wise, though. I tie strips of T-shirt material around the turkeys' legs (the strips have loops tied in the other end) and then hang them gently from hooks connected to an overhead beam.
The alligator clips that I use are flattened out so they don't hurt when they grip. I also learned (the hard way) to make a loop around the bird's leg before connecting the clip to the vent. Sometimes, when the current hits them, the seizure can make that clip come loose.
I leave the current on for 10 full seconds since turkeys are big. (It does no harm AT ALL to the meat or the feathers.) Then I cut the back of their throat and bleed them out. I refuse to waste the meat.
If it's one I am only going to eat then I dry-pluck it immediately. The feathers come off very easily for about 30 minute or so after death, then they gradually get tighter.
I'm sure the same method could be adapted to smaller birds as well. I feel a lot safer NOT holding a bird when it's connected to the current. In the case of turkeys, they are simply too heavy for me to control them with one hand while I plug in a cord. In the case of smaller birds - I am phobic of electricity and I admit it!