With the boys off to school on the bus this morning, I started on my second round of chores, which includes letting the chickens out, filling their feeders, checking and replenishing their water, and giving them all a once-over.
All was going well until I reached the big hen house.
I opened the door and was reaching over to open the pop hole when disaster struck.
The hens roost on three perches, which they access by either flying up/down or using a ramp.
The older hens tend to prefer the ramp, the young ones like to fly, but not today.
For some reason known only to them, almost all of them decided to use the ramp at the same time and there was a scrimmage at the top.
One of the older ISA Brown hens was jostled off the perch, forgot to flap her wings and landed on her right leg.
There was an audible crack.
She screeched.
I knew from the noise that she was in trouble and went in to get her.
When I picked her up, she was bleeding heavily from an open fracture above the knee joint.
All I could do was pop her under my arm, comfort her and jog down to the hay shed to get the dispatcher.
I put it around her neck and snick, the deed was done.
Accidents like this don’t happen very often, but it’s why I keep the dispatcher cleaned, oiled and accessible at all times.
When an animal has suffered as serious an injury as the hen had, it’s imperative to know exactly where to find the tools and instruments that will be needed and it’s vital that they are in good, working order.
Seconds matter when an animal is suffering as much as she was.
I find dislocation of the neck to be very awkward and most likely to not be successful.
So have resorted to decapitation, it’s fast and the chicken doesn’t know what’s coming.
I seem to remember an episode of The Good Life where a free bullet was used on a chicken…
I may have asked before, but is there some kind of small-holders’ association that can make representations to your govt?
Fancy giving it a go and posting a how to? I’ve got a cockerel who has a date with the pot but I don’t want to give it a go until I’m sure I know what I’m doing…
I remember Hugh F-W dispatching several damaged chooks by dislocating their necks in that experimental programme between battery and free range hens last year. I’m glad its not something I’d ever have to do…. but timely action undoubtedly prevents animal suffering
So….does that mean its ok to manually wring their necks ( and some possibly incompetently…) but NOT ok to use the pliers?
Am I correct? :-0
Yes, it was good having the equipment to hand but I have just this minute discovered that what I did was illegal.
The February 2009 issue of Country Smallholding, which I started to read 20 minutes ago, has a lengthy letter from DEFRA about killing chickens. The letter says that using a dispatcher like mine, known apparently as Semark pliers, is illegal.
It comes under The Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations 1995, as amended.
We’re only permitted to kill chickens by decapitation, dislocation of the neck (but not using “pliers”), free bullet, electrocution and exposure to gas mixtures. We may also stun them and then bleed them, using captive bolt, mechanical concussion or electronarcosis.
Most of these methods are really only applicable to large-scale poultry operations. I don’t have a firearms licence so a free bullet is out of the question, not to mention ridiculous for a chicken.
I’ll have to look into exactly what is meant by decapitation and dislocation of the neck. But DEFRA recommends “that, subject to licence, we use a concussive mechanical device such as the “Cash poultry killer” followed by bleeding or neck dislocation, this being the most welfare friendly method”.
In other words, if you choose to use one of the other two methods you could still be in trouble. But how am I going to get a licence to use one of these “Cash poultry killers” and how am I going to pay for it?
I found them on Entwhistle Guns under “Cash Special All-Round Humane Stunner”. The price? £577.50 + £10 P&P!
I get bloody irritated by this constant imposition of industrial farming practice and technology on non-commercial, small-scale smallholdings and crofts.
Oh Stoney, what a week – first Jan, now the chicken. Good lesson though in having “appropriate” equipment ready even if you’d rather not have to use it.
Poor old chook.
Great to hear a man knowing where things live and how to put them away properly. Much as I love my Bread Winner, he’s a terrible putter awayer which makes life rough in an emergency. Where is my torch anyway?
Poor hen…but good on you for being able to kill her as quickly as possible so she suffered the least time..
and before any animal rights people go on, NO it isn’t really feasible to splint and immobilise a chicken with a broken leg..I know this, as I remember my Dad trying once with his beloved prized purebreed cockerel who did a similar thing…the poor bird kept on trying to get up and after a bit of this my Dad realised it wasn’t going to work and did the deed….
re water freezing….with our chickens we take away the water at night ( as they don’t drink it, anyway…) and emply it out or put it inside, and then put it back first thing in the morning. That way it doesn’t freeze overnight.
Though I don’t have a stoned head, I can attempt an answer regarding the freezing of water for chickens (and other livestock). We used to dissolve a bit of sugar in the water, it doesn’t prevent it from freezing, but delays the freezing. It also provides a bit of additional energy to the chickens.
There are also some electrical devices out there that keep the temperature above freezing point. For probably evident environmental reasons, I am not quite in favor of those.
…..and there was me thinking you just bit their heads off like Alice Cooper. (no pun intended!)
I have no doubt the anti killing brigade will try make your act of kindness into an act of extreme cruelness.
A good rule to live by, wish I was as good as that, though. I tend to know where things are, but can take time to actually get to them!
Sorry about the hen, poor wee thing.
MrsL
“A place for everything ans everything in its place”… always our motto when we were sailing….. important to be able to put out a hand in the dark (and wet) and knaw where things are
Sorry about your loss. (But at least you know what’s for dinner this evening. )
I had a question about chickens the other day, when we were several degrees below, and it strikes me you’re the right man for the answer: What’s the best/most effective way to stop their water freezing?