Chicken Harvest and a story about Quizzie

I read a lovely article this morning about owning livestock animals and dealing with the issues of a farm. The first rule of farming: be prepared. The last paragraph struck me most of all:

"But livestock aren't pets. They are on a farm because they serve a purpose. If I can't raise an animal to eat, then I shouldn't keep sheep whose purpose is to become meat. Furthermore, if I can't eat meat that came from an animal I know was loved and respected, that had a good life playing in the sun and eating grass, then I should go back to being vegetarian."

I could not foresee the issues we would face with our layers, but it's our job as chicken raiser's to deal with the problems that arise. 

We did it. We're down to 4 hens now....

Quizzie, a lovely hen who's antics are very similar to Curious, stopped laying about 3 months ago. I thought she might have been egg-bound a serious condition where the egg usually being too big gets stuck and can't get out. But after days of warm baths and many poking arounds by me, I decided she must be an internal layer. Not much is documented on this from all the chicken sites I frequent. Regardless the gist of it is this, somehow the egg white and yolk don't pass into the shell making part but out into the body cavity. Gross I know! So essentially her body was filling up with eggs. I am not sure how the egg ends up in there, maybe a tear in the tubing? In any case however it happens that was my best guess as to why she stopped laying. I decided I was right when she started to look much fatter than her fellow sisters. Internal laying will eventually kill her, chickens body's will not stop making eggs, period. Being less than one year old I knew that if I let nature take it's course it would be painful. I didn't want that.

So we gobbled up information on how to kill a chicken humanly and with as little trauma possible. Chickens, or any (being, human or otherwise with a brain) when beheaded will thrash around. All of the muscles fire after there is no brain to supervise activities. That is too traumatic for me, I didn't want to hold my bird down while her body thrashed around in it's final stages. We opted for the 'cone' method, where she is placed head first down a cone and the jugular is cut. This cause's the body to go brain dead instantly due to lack of blood. In an upside down position the chickens fall into a trance similar to sleep and stop struggling. That's how I can clip there wings without them struggling like a wild thing. It was as humane and trauma free of a death I could give her.

I told her what a lovely chicken she was, I held her and said thank you for the eggs, and the meat.