I know there are a LOT of topics on the best way to dispatch one's dinner roosters, but there's not a lot on using things like culling pliers, neck crackers, and other pieces of equipment.
I've recently acquired the "culling pliers" sold by WA Poultry. I've met a lot of scepticism about their use - people evidently prefer to use their own hands/strength, such as hatchets/axes, or the various ways to break necks (flipping like a whip; pulling to dislocate; broomhandle), or cutting the jugular, or knocking firmly on the head.
That's fine, but I can't use those methods, and I know others can't either. It comes down to strength and accuracy in hands and wrist, and some of us who weren't taught the skill as youngsters simply don't have it. We would therefore like to use mechanical aids to improve swiftness and cleanliness of death.
I don't see how wanting to use these aids can be met with such scorn, but there you go.
I decided to see what might be around in the UK, where they've been keeping and killing chooks for centuries, and have enormous catalogues of stuff precisely for smallholders like ourselves. What I found was interesting.
Firstly, articles. These are almost identical but different enough to be worthy. They're pragmatic overviews but what they say will put quite a few people's hackles up, I know. Essentially, culling pliers like mine are NOT seen as a humane death. (Bugger). Mind you and however, neither is breaking the neck in general, chopping off the neck whilst the animal is conscious, or cutting the jugular whilst conscious.
http://www.countrysmallholding.co.uk/fe ... ly--211815http://www.smallholder.co.uk/news/10854 ... ry_onfarm/The key term is "whilst conscious". They recommend knocking the bird out FIRST and then immediately chopping off the head/cutting the jugular. I know many people in BYP already do this properly but frankly, accurately knocking out a chook is just as hard, if not more so, than killing it!
The articles' recommendations are for stunners - either bolt or electrical.
Bolt stunner for chooks:
http://www.acclesandshelvoke.co.uk/index.asp?id=10&p=9.
Electrical stunner:
http://www.ascott-dairy.co.uk/acatalog/ ... html#aPY91Neither of these appear to be legal, available, or even recommended in Australia.
However, see this UK forum for counter-arguments and discussions:
http://www.practicalpoultry.co.uk/cgi-b ... 15011695/0The only Australian mechanical aids I can find are my pliers, and a wall-mounted set of pliers, both here:
http://www.wapoultryequipment.net.au/ca ... -equipmentHere's the detailed search I used to find this information:
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q ... ic+OR+home)+(poultry+OR+chook+OR+chicken)+(process+OR+dispatch+OR+cull+OR+kill+OR+slaughter)+(tool+OR+pliers+OR+equipment)+site:uk
Now, replicate the identical search in Australia:
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q ... ic+OR+home)+(poultry+OR+chook+OR+chicken)+(process+OR+dispatch+OR+cull+OR+kill+OR+slaughter)+(tool+OR+pliers+OR+equipment)+site:au
The BYP article on how to kill your own chook for food is the most useful article in the list.
So what are our options? If Australians want to process 150-odd chooks a year in their own backyards, what can we buy - or make? - to help ourselves do it quickly, cleanly, safely, effectively, and above all, "humanely"?