How to do the dastardly deed

[Jimmy]

Bit of an un-savory topic I am afraid.

I am thinking of getting a few chickens but like to plan ahead and have knowledge on all required topics.
From what I read after some years they stop laying and generally grow old.

How do you know which has stopped laying ?

What's the best technique for dispatching them. I want to avoid the various horror stories.
How do you process things.
How do you get rid of what's not required ( Bury, burn , dustbin ? ).

All sounds a bit gory but I need to know the best/humane way.

Thanks
Jim

[TPeers]

I'm probably not the best person to answer this - but for what it is worth....

To tell which hen has stopped laying, apart from the obvious of get all different breeds so they all lay different eggs..... hens will come into and out of lay for various reasons, assuming that they get no shocks and there is no illness then the most usual reason will be daylight length. To stimulate laying birds need around 10+ hours of daylight per day so in winter when the days are shorter than 10 hours hens will naturally reduce or even stop laying. This should not be confused with an aged hen past her prime! Generally hens start laying again after the daylight length gets to around 12 hours so mid, late March. As with all gereral things individually different hens will all be slightly different in their laying habits.

Which is a ton of info to say - get to know your stock, you will need to know each hen and her habits before you will be able to judge if she has got to 'retirement'.

As to the rest - my girls are pets rather than table so mine would only be dispatched if uncurably ill - at which point it is the vet!

You can't bury hens in your garden! Because they are a recognised food rather than a pet the law required that they are incinerated. You might want to think twice before trying this at home - burning feathers is supposed to be exceptionally nasty.

Wise of you to want to know the worst before you take the plunge!

Terry

[Hilary B]

I've had hens laying a respectable few eggs at 10 years old, they tend to be 'obviously feeling their age' before they actually stop laying entirely.
If you want to be brutally businesslike, give them 2 full laying seasons (ie 2 summers) or 3 if going for a 'compromise' version, if some show their aptitude as broodies, keep those another up-to-3-years, and cull on that basis. You WILL get less eggs per bird per year as time goes on, but 2nd and 3rd year hens tend to lay bigger eggs. Being quite so business-like about it often seems 'not the object of the exercise' for a lot of smallscale hen keepers (including me when I was able to keep them).
As for method of despatch, I posted a fairly detailed description on a thread about "table birds or laying birds" (not sure if that is the exact title), and it works as well as anything.

[armadillo]

I would have thought that it's ok to bin the bits not required, as it's ok to put any food in the bin, even off fish etc.

[Hilary B]

I would have thought that it's ok to bin the bits not required, as it's ok to put any food in the bin, even off fish etc.

Yep! With that in mind, be careful which day you choose.....

[Kristen]

Hillary B's topic is here: http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ird_20093.html

"What's the best technique for dispatching them"

As HB said: Breaking their neck is best, but if you are not sure how to do that I would not recommend trying!

If you need to despatch a small animal, because it is mortally wounded or whatever, and are not confident that you can break the neck without causing suffering, swinging the animal at speed so that head + neck hits something solid - like a tree - will work every time. Don't be wearing your best clothes, just in case, and be sure to use reasonable "gusto" to avoid having to do it a second time, and not to hit the tree with the body, just the head / neck.