Culling your turkey

springer lad

Hi everyone,

Great to see the forum up and running. Was hoping to get some advice on the correct technique for culling a turkey. I was told to hold the turkey just behind the ears and then quickly dip the beak of the bird down to the ground which will sever the spine causing a quick and painless kill.

Bizzum

springer lad wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Great to see the forum up and running. Was hoping to get some advice on the correct technique for culling a turkey. I was told to hold the turkey just behind the ears and then quickly dip the beak of the bird down to the ground which will sever the spine causing a quick and painless kill.

There is a bit of a knack to it alright.
I hang them by the legs so thaty the head/neck is around hip level, stand in front of the bird, bring the neck under my right arm, grasping the body of the bird under my arm to keep them tight. I think I place my hand where the neck and head meet between my index and middle finger, applying downward pressure and a twist.
I've seen people doing it with the handle of a brush too, on the ground.

CJhaughey

Stick them in an upside down traffic cone with the small end trimmed so the head comes through.
They can't flap and bruise themselves, then just cut the throat to bleed them out.
This reduces blood spots in the meat.
If you are doing lots it may pay to get a cone made of galvanised steel.

fodda

CJhaughey wrote: »

Stick them in an upside down traffic cone with the small end trimmed so the head comes through.
They can't flap and bruise themselves, then just cut the throat to bleed them out.
This reduces blood spots in the meat.
If you are doing lots it may pay to get a cone made of galvanised steel.

I think there are regulations on anything other than a home kill for yourself.

CJhaughey

fodda wrote: »

I think there are regulations on anything other than a home kill for yourself.

Correct, but this thread is about the best way to kill turkeys.:D

colrow

CJhaughey wrote: »

Correct, but this thread is about the best way to kill turkeys.:D

rotflmao

Traonach

CJhaughey wrote: »

Stick them in an upside down traffic cone with the small end trimmed so the head comes through.
They can't flap and bruise themselves, then just cut the throat to bleed them out.
This reduces blood spots in the meat.
If you are doing lots it may pay to get a cone made of galvanised steel.

That's a fairly cruel way to do it!
The two methods decribed by the two previous posters, both break the spine in the neck region so the bird is immediately renders insensitive to pain. You can then cut the throat to bleed them out.

CJhaughey

I don't see how its cruel, You aren't battering the bird to death.
Ever cut yourself with a sharp knife? It doesn't really hurt, it just stings a little.
I have done a good few this way and it is a simple process with little stress on the bird.
Once the blood pressure drops the birds just relax and nod off, it takes about 30 seconds.
Big turkeys 20+lb take a lot of force to break the neck I don't think I would be able to hold one under my arm and break its neck with the other hand with any degree of success, they are just too strong.
Just out of interest, how do you kill your birds?

fodda

CJhaughey wrote: »

I don't see how its cruel,

Well the humane killer for poultry stuns them first so i am told so there if true is your answer.

CJhaughey

They are called stunners not humane killers.
You still have to cut the throat anyway.
If you buy one great, I can't afford the £750stg pricetag, you'd need to be doing big quantities of birds for that money.
How do you kill your birds Fodda?

fodda

I grew up on a farm where they reared thousands for xmas, but the way they killed them then may not be allowed now.......so pointless explaining really. But i can say letting them bleed to death wasnt done.

I dont like turkey:)....too dry.

Traonach

CJhaughey wrote: »

I don't see how its cruel, You aren't battering the bird to death.
Ever cut yourself with a sharp knife? It doesn't really hurt, it just stings a little.
I have done a good few this way and it is a simple process with little stress on the bird.
Once the blood pressure drops the birds just relax and nod off, it takes about 30 seconds.
Big turkeys 20+lb take a lot of force to break the neck I don't think I would be able to hold one under my arm and break its neck with the other hand with any degree of success, they are just too strong.
Just out of interest, how do you kill your birds?

This is how the father does them. Put lambing rope around the turkeys neck (snug fit not strangling the bird). Ties other end onto hook on wall. The bird is held by one person, so the the bird is near horizontal. The other person give a sudden hard pull by the legs, so that the rope around neck breaks it. The bird's neck is then cut.

Ever cut yourself with a sharp knife? It doesn't really hurt, it just stings a little.

So if somebody slashed my throat with a sharp knife it would only sting a little:rolleyes:. In a poultry abbatoir poultry are stunned first (electric stunning) and then their throat are cut. If it only "stings" a little as you say why bother with stunning them first?

CJhaughey

Traonach wrote: »

So if somebody slashed my throat with a sharp knife it would only sting a little:rolleyes:. In a poultry abbatoir poultry are stunned first (electric stunning) and then their throat are cut. If it only "stings" a little as you say why bother with stunning them first?

Abbatoirs are about speed, meat quality is not paramount.
Lots of times electricity is used because it helps with the plucking.
I have no problem with using stunners but like I say they cost too much for a smallholder.
If you are bothering to keep Turks with all the feeding and hassle you are doing it for the meat quality not for low cost given you can buy a factory bird for 5 euro in Supervalu this week.
So my advice still stands, bleeding a relaxed bird is the best way I have found is to put them in a cone and bleed them out.
I could contend that doing it your fathers way would stress the bird more than sticking them in a cone and cutting the throat.
Cruelty is not something I condone in any way shape or form so quite frankly having someone come on here't and say that the method I use is cruel is pretty galling TBH.
Anthropomorphising isn't the right way to look at killing animals, you would be horrified with your throat slashed because you are human, a turkey doesn't think like a human they are birds and pretty primitive birds at that.

Traonach

CJhaughey wrote: »

Abbatoirs are about speed, meat quality is not paramount.
Lots of times electricity is used because it helps with the plucking.
I have no problem with using stunners but like I say they cost too much for a smallholder.
If you are bothering to keep Turks with all the feeding and hassle you are doing it for the meat quality not for low cost given you can buy a factory bird for 5 euro in Supervalu this week.
So my advice still stands, bleeding a relaxed bird is the best way I have found is to put them in a cone and bleed them out.
I could contend that doing it your fathers way would stress the bird more than sticking them in a cone and cutting the throat.
Cruelty is not something I condone in any way shape or form so quite frankly having someone come on here't and say that the method I use is cruel is pretty galling TBH.
Anthropomorphising isn't the right way to look at killing animals, you would be horrified with your throat slashed because you are human, a turkey doesn't think like a human they are birds and pretty primitive birds at that.

I ain't anthropomorphising nothing. A turkey senses pain as much as a human would. A turkey would feel as much pain when getting it's throat cut as a human would. I talking about pain not emotions.
Death is instantaneous with my father's method and painless. It is not with your method. The bird would experience severe pain until it becomes unconscious.

jap gt

i kill a few hundred chickens a year and turkeys, i bought a killing cone and i cut the troats, its the fastest way to work, i cut one and let it bleed out, while its bleeding out i run another over the plucker and hang, 10 seconds and the bird is dead, its the easiest way to do it as the birds heart pumps the most of the blood out in very little space of time and the cone prevents bruising