Euthanasing or killing a chicken is one of the less attractive aspects of keeping chickens and of course, a vet can do this for you but it is sometimes necessary for us to kill a chicken at home. We have a duty of care for every chicken in our flock and must prevent unnecessary suffering. If a bird is clearly suffering and has no chance of recovering, it can sometimes be kinder to kill it than to leave it in the hope that it might get better.

Many newcomers to the hobby will buy an incubator and hatch out some chicks to find they have more cockerels than they can keep or re-home. At first, cockerels will get on together but come next year when they have matured and the breeding season starts, they will start to fight so it is better to face reality sooner than later. The younger they are, the easier they are to kill so if you are attempting this for the first time, so don't put it off. Alternatively, you could fatten your cockerels to eat.

Before you decide to kill a chicken using this method, I would recommend you read the correct method to dispatch a chicken. Whilst I have used the neck dislocation method for years, when researching other possible methods for this article, I wondered whether this was the most humane that could be practiced at home. The people who know about this in the UK are the Humane Slaughter Association and found I found some interesting information out about the various methods of killing a chicken and created a separate article around this.

The Neck Dislocation Method

When killing a chicken, the aim is to minimise suffering so the bird becomes unconscious as quickly as possible. If done correctly, the neck is dislocated and the bird becomes unconscious quickly.

Ideally you should have an experienced poultry keeper show you how to do this as it is not easy to describe the method or show in pictures. This method can also be used on other small poultry but unless you are experienced, do not attempt it on larger birds like heavy breeds of ducks. Other methods such as a killing cone or the broomstick method can be used for large ducks, geese and turkeys.

1. Catch the bird and calmly ideally in the evening when the bird is roosting take it to a quiet location away from the others. A garage or outbuilding is ideal.

2. Hold the birds legs firmly with your weakest hand (left hand for a right handed person).

3. Place the birds chest on your thigh to support it.

4. Open your first finger and second finger of your right hand. Place the back of the birds head tightly between these fingers and your thumb under the birds beak, tilting the head back slightly as shown in the photo.

5. With a firm action, pull the neck downwards, bringing the head backwards, pressing your knuckles into the vertebrae of the bird.

6. Expect a lot of flapping of wings and kicking of legs. This can sometimes happen a few seconds after the dislocation. This is the reaction of the nervous system when the bird dies and the bird is not in any pain.

If you are planning on eating the bird you will need to follow the next step.

7. Before plucking and dressing, hang the bird by its feet so that the blood runs to neck. The gap that you felt in the vertebrae where the neck has been dislocated will hold some of the blood and you will need to cut a slit in the neck here, severing the main artery in the neck to ‘bleed' the bird. You will need to do this over a container. I use a black plastic bin with a bin back in it as the blood will splatter if a bucket is used and leave your floor looking like a horror film. The bin and plastic bin bag can be used to hold the feathers and insides when plucking and dressing before being knotted and disposed in the normal household waste bin.

You may find it easier (especially with cockerels) to use the broom stick method. Instead of holding the neck, place the birds head on the ground, comb upwards, beak pointing away from you and place a brood handle over the back of the neck up against the comb. Place your feet either side to securely hold the head and pull upwards on the feet to stretch the neck.