Exteminating a Layer house of chickens

[seminolewind]

I get an online poultry magazine.  Yesterday they ran an article about how if a whole layer house of chickens needs to be destroyed, as in an illness or past their prime,  they can just cut off the ventilation and suffocate all of them or pump in C02 .  They wrote about it being a humane way killing a lot of chickens at one time.
Of course I can't let that one go by, LOL.  I compared their method to the Nazi method of killing lots of Jews at one time.  And that I was amazed at how they learned something about how mass death could be performed "humanely".  And how their profits come before decent methods.  

I'm sure there is a humane way of gassing a warehouse of chickens.  The article just rubbed me the wrong way.  And a mass shooting in a synagogue a week ago did not make their article any more palatable.  

I'm sure that in some instances it's needed as in AI. 

I look today and I can't find the article anywhere.  LOL.  

[boskelli1571]

I wonder if they would think it humane if it was their family??

[dawg53]

You cannot compare human lives with the lives of chickens. If those chickens had an infectious disease transmittable to humans, I would want them culled immediately any way possible. As far as chickens past their prime, did the article mention how they were disposed ie...hauled off to be processed for dog or cat food, incinerated, or buried in a lined land fill?

Then there are natural disasters. Hurricane Florence hit North and South Carolina flooding commercial poultry operations. I wonder how many thousands of birds were killed in that ordeal, then the after effects of contaminated ground water due to diseased carcasses decomposing?

Never put animals ahead of humans. One human life is worth more than all the animals/chickens in the world.

[seminolewind]

Well I don't think their wrong for wanting a humane way to euthanize chickens. I heard that CO2 is painless. But to shut off the ventilation? That's plain nasty.

[dawg53]

Ventilation moves oxygen from one place to another, they had to shut it down or the CO2 wouldve been ineffective. It's the same aboard Navy ship's if there's a fire. The ventilation is shut down, oxygen feeds fires.

[seminolewind]

what I read was "shutting down the ventilation" which sounded to me like just suffocating them.

[artemis]

Shutting down the ventilation IS suffocating them, as noted.

CO2 (carbon dioxide) is also suffocation. If you DO use this method, you need to make sure you have a large supply of dry ice (frozen CO2) in a very very small place. Introduce the birds into that very small space, pour water over the dry ice, close things off.

How do I know this? I'm retired now, but I used to work at a research facility, and in the 80s and 90s and 2000's this was how research mice and rats would often be put down. Because they bounce around a lot during the process, nowadays injections are used. I have no idea (I am new to poultry) how this works in a humane fashion on chickens. BUT it is suffocation, simply a lot quicker if in an enclosed space with water added (making the frozen CO2 sublimate into gaseous CO2). CO2 is not in itself poisonous, but too much WILL drive out oxygen.

Unfortunately, if a large number of chickens need to be culled (Hurricane Florence or those California fires, or certain diseases), this may be the only option... I hope not, but FAR better than just closing off ventilation, a slower process.

[seminolewind]

Thanks , I know more now about how methods work. I personally give mine an overdose of vodka.

[artemis]

Seminolewind, thanks... I'd like to know more about the vodka method.

[seminolewind]

I found on a silkie or polish i'll use about 40cc, and a larger chicken about 50-60. Not an exact science. I tube it and hold them for a while. It appears to me that they get really sleepy, and it supresses their respiratory system to where they don't breathe and die. It's not perfect I still feel personally think vodka/woozy/axe method is best but I mostly can't deal with the violence of the ax part. The ax is best and fastest but I am just not up to it in most cases. That's me. But I'll still say cover their face and chop is fast and painless and the least suffering.

I tube using a male catheter foley or any tubing like aquarium tubing and tube the vodka, remove the tube and keep them upright for a while so they don't let it run out their mouth.

Sad anyway you cut it.

[Sylie]

Not that this is any better than an axe but I saw a vid of a woman that used an old road pylon with the small end cut off a bit, turned the chicken upside down so it's head came out the end then she used tree limb scissor thing to cut off the head, it seemed quick and painless and the chicken didn't struggle because it was upside down. IDK....it was just an intriguing idea, it seemed less violent to me than other methods (except the vodka thing but with my luck, I'd get the tube in wrong and do more damage than good) the scissor things just clipped right through, quick and easy for her. Like I said, idk but it's worth a think anyway. IMO

[boskelli1571]

Personally, I use a killing cone and a .22 to the head - lights out. I think it is the quickest way.

[seminolewind]

Yea, I think there's more than one way to kill a chicken before they know what's happening , just lights out.

[artemis]

Dec 31, 2018 0:07:33 GMT -5 Sylie said:

Not that this is any better than an axe but I saw a vid of a woman that used an old road pylon with the small end cut off a bit, turned the chicken upside down so it's head came out the end then she used tree limb scissor thing to cut off the head, it seemed quick and painless and the chicken didn't struggle because it was upside down. IDK....it was just an intriguing idea, it seemed less violent to me than other methods (except the vodka thing but with my luck, I'd get the tube in wrong and do more damage than good) the scissor things just clipped right through, quick and easy for her. Like I said, idk but it's worth a think anyway. IMO

Sylie, this is more or less how small farmers kill the meat chickens. Actually, they cut the major vessels to the neck, let them bleed out, but essentially the same idea. Having the head down relaxes the birds.



I'm sure nothing is perfect. But I'd rather do this (or the vodka, or the .22) than the CO2 method. But when it is a big warehouse factory farm, they don't really have the option of one at a time, unfortunately.