I have to kill 4 cockerals NOW, within the next hour. I feel sick.

[StripeyKnickersSpottySocks]

I've never done it before, I've been putting it off all day but need to do it before DD gets back from school. I knew I'd have to do it some time but they've started crowing and have kept us and neighbours awake for the last 2 nights. I rang the vet today to see if she would put them down and she won't. I've tried rehoming them. I've been readign what to do but am scared of messign it up.

I think the woods is sounding like a good option.

Stripey, I sell my excess cockerels at the local fur & feather auction. They don't fetch much usually, maybe a few quid, but I just can't kill them - we have done it before, but I don't want to do it again.

Have you tried offering them to a local petting zoo/farm? There may be a local farmer who'll take them off you for dinner.

orm

sounds v traumatic.

okay if this is the only thing you can do.. then get the not going to mess it up way is :

get a broom handle take cock in hand.. with the other hand take the legs.. hold it by the legs upside down and swing it a couple of times.. head down to the floor.. broom handle across the neck hold this down with your feet and pull the bird up..

it will be very calm and quick.. it will flapp after.. it is a reaction of the nerves.

on the other hand I would see if you have a local person to do this for you.. If you were near I'd send H round for you.

are you sure there is no where for them to go?

There is someone up the road who has chickens and I've been and asked him for help. He's coming round later. Thanks for the advice.

Really people, how many homes for unwanted cockerels do you think there are? And put them in the woods for the fox to kill? Have you ever seen a fox kill something? Especially if it's bored, full and fancies playing instead.

As the OP says, if you hatch eggs unfortunately this is almost certainly what's going to happen. Cockerels crow all day (not non stop!), not just at dawn and 9 times out of 10 they will fight when they get old enough.

You can get a neck breaker (it looks like a weird nut cracker thing) that is apparently very easy and painless to do. I'm glad to hear the OP has some help and hope it goes as well as can be expected.

For future reference, I think it's something to do with the temperature that the eggs are kept at that defines whether they hatch into cocks or hens but I'm not sure as I've never looked into it.

Nekabu.. your right.. out of 6 eggs i will generally get 4 ish that are boys..

But that's okay for me as we eat ours

Can't you take them to an abbatoir, where they presumably will do it humanely?

My friends paid for an abbatoir to kill their hens, and they ate them.

My dh wants to let our girls hatch chicks and eat any surplus cockerels but I'm not entirely sure I'd be able to. I know you can get the ones with the leg bars that will show you from chicks which sex they are (so you know not to get attached to the boys!) but I have an awful feeling I might end up in the OP's situation too!

we have a seperate coop and run for our boys and a man who does the deed .. you drop them off.. go for a coffee and a wander round some shops.. and then pick them up oven ready. a month in the freezer.. and you lose all attatchment.. and they taste far nicer than supermarkt chicken.. even the free range ones and they are guarenteed happy chickens

If I had a man to do the job and they'd be all oven ready I think I might come round to the idea but I have a nasty feeling it would be dh, the neck breaker thing and feathers all over the place ... Shame really as I would like to eat my own, happy camper cockerels in theory!

I could normally tell fairly reliably from about 1wk with my pet hens - of a breed when you're not meant to be able to tell (and they are also meant to look identical, but I could always tell them apart) - it was something to do with the comb.

at abbatoirs being humane. Of all the beasties that we abuse chucks suffer the most. Even free-range sometimes isn't killed that kindly I'm afraid