[kizza]

What is the easiest and most humane way of dispatching large cockerels like rhodeys or large birds like turkeys or geese?

[Ice]

Use the search facility and you will find an excellent post by muntjac on this subject.

[kizza]

tried searching but unfortunately cant find it. Can you please tell me what to search

[Ice]

Keyword is keeping chickens, author is muntjac.  It's a long thread, but worth reading.

[richyrich7]

I kept a copt of Muntjacs method on my PC so here it is I'm sure he won't mind me posting it again, all credit to him

Preparing birds for the table Muntjac way
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i was aged 10 when i kiiled my first bird so i will tell you how i do mine. first take the bird quietly in the dark with a red lamp so as not to alarm the rest . tuck the bird quietly under your arm as your talking to the rest close the door quietly / go back to the house with the bird .as chances are your going to have it screaming . take the bird quietly again and turning the bird under your left arm so its head faces down /put the head in the palm of your right hand with two fingers split around the head in a v fashion close them gently grip the bird tightly into your chest pulling down on the head and turn to 45 degrees pulling down slowly and firmly until you feel the neck and head seperate , keep holding the bird against your chest and let the head go then take the birds legs with your right hand and let it flap if it wants to , forget all this rubbish about ripping feathers off and cutting the head off etc . take your bird and hang it in a cool place for a day, get a bucket of hot water ( to hot for ya hand ) dip the bird in count to 60 then take it out start taking the wing feathers out . then the legs .then the breast these will all come out easy as the hot water melts the fat that is around the pen of the feather so it nearly falls out. i can do a chicken in 5 mins or so ,( been at it a lotttttttt of years  then you wil see once the bird has been plucked that there are a few fine hairs on the bird .ignore them . take your bird to the kitchen and dress it out ( gut chop of the legs head ) taking a sharp knife 2 inches from the body go round the neck skin. cutting through to release it . now push that skin back to the body and use a pair of secateurs to chop off the neck close to the body as possible . now slide the other side of the skin up to the head and remove the neck from the skin pocket cleanly and put the head and remains to one side .put the neck in a pot of water . turn the skin back on the neck and look for any corn in the sack ( crop ) close to the breast. take it out and dump it with the head . now take the sharp knife and go to the legs , feel for the joint at the knee and cut down between this and seperate the skin . remove now completly. put with the head etc . now take your knife . and feel over thebirds stomach for the lower tip of the breast bone ,where it comes to a point push the knife point in and cut the skin back down to the tail travelling down to about 1/2 inch from the anus cutting in a circle remove this . put the knife down and force your fingers up inside the chicken as far as you can and using your fingers pull down gripping anything that is in the cavity puling everything out/ dont snap anything if you can help it. but dont worry if you do . push your hand in now completly and force it right to the top of the chest feeling for any little lumps ( the heart ) remove it .now go back to the top of the bird ( neck end push your fingers through the cavity you will feel at the top of the breast bones to feel for a pipe ,this is the wind pipe grip using a tea towel and remove / this is your bird completed now except for washing out / now take the remains and take the livers and heart and put them in water with the neck . sort through the innards and feel for a hard lump of meat .this will have white membrane on both sides and is red . take your sharp knife and holding the gizzard on edge like a shell cut down through the red meat to the centre . now small pieces of grit will appear remove these and force the gap open like opening a clam , now look for a yellow skin on the inside and peel this from the red meat part dump this in the bin in a small bag along with the remains of the giblets and head , put the gizzard in the water with the livers etc

ok now that is how i do my birds . i know its a fuller explanation than you asked for but i thought if im killing a bird i should do the rest but now for your initial question mate if you cannot do it by hand get a humane
dispatcher from your seed and feed stockist. then get some celery practice on crushing the celery sticks .( you should get a phamplet showing how to use them with the package ) then you wil see what it feels like .always go for the full closure on dispatchers . hope that helps