How to avoid bloody neck area on carcass?

[wsmoak]

I've seen photos here of carcasses with a nice clean neck area... how do you do that?

Mine are always red with congealed blood around the neck area. I do use the broomstick method to dislocate the spine, but I take the head off as soon as possible and let it hang to bleed out for a few minutes. Rinsing and scrubbing (with fingers) the area doesn't seem to work, there is still blood left.

I did notice with some meat chickens we had to leave in the chill tank longer than normal that they were quite clean... so is soaking the carcass in water the secret I've been missing? If so, how long do you soak them?

Thanks!
-Wendy

 

[Dood]

I would guess they use the pellet gun between the eyes then immediately bleed-out/de-head before the rabbits returns to consciousness.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I whack the back of their head with a metal pipe, and sometimes get a bloody neck, sometimes not. I just cut the bloody portion off and feed it to the dogs along with the guts.

 

[AnnClaire]

I do the whack-em method also and get a bloody neck sometimes still. I also process at the back of the property and have an ice chest with COLD water in it to drop the carcass into after rinsing off. This will hold them and helps leach more of the blood out while I finish processing the rest. I also clean up the area before taking the carcasses out of the ice chest which gives the last one about 30 minutes of soaking. No salt or anything else, just cold water.

 

[Secuono]

What causes the blood in the muscle is trauma at death. So if you can avoid that, there you go. Gun shot, whack to the head, sharp axe or I guess tying a rope around the neck to the ground and then pulling may work to dislocate the neck w/o causing much tissue trauma.

 

[TerriG]

We dispatched our first bath around Thanksgiving. We've used a pellet gun on the babies that we've had to cull (enteritis). We tried that on the fryers and it didn't work as well (ds was shooting it in the back of the head, like where you would hit it. Figured out afterwards that we should do the X between the ears and eyes and shooting where the X crosses). Dh tried hitting one in the back of the head and we won't be doing that again. He missed the mark, so we ended up with a crying rabbit. That carcass was also *much* bloodier. We ended up bringing out the .22. It went well, but makes me much more nervous. I would much rather they be able to use the pellet gun. We are in city limits and have a chain link fence. Don't want any neighbors freaking out.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

We dispatched our first bath around Thanksgiving. We've used a pellet gun on the babies that we've had to cull (enteritis). We tried that on the fryers and it didn't work as well (ds was shooting it in the back of the head, like where you would hit it. Figured out afterwards that we should do the X between the ears and eyes and shooting where the X crosses). Dh tried hitting one in the back of the head and we won't be doing that again. He missed the mark, so we ended up with a crying rabbit. That carcass was also *much* bloodier. We ended up bringing out the .22. It went well, but makes me much more nervous. I would much rather they be able to use the pellet gun. We are in city limits and have a chain link fence. Don't want any neighbors freaking out.

It has to be a pellet gun with at least 600fps....I use a pellet rifle, with about 1250fps. I aim at the base of the skull, pointing toward the nose.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

I would guess they use the pellet gun between the eyes then immediately bleed-out/de-head before the rabbits returns to consciousness.

It should be between the ears. There is no return conscious.This is the only way i do mine. There is only one shot and that is it.very easy. No mess around the neck ect.<br /><br />__________ Thu Dec 13, 2012 2:28 pm __________<br /><br />

It has to be a pellet gun with at least 600fps....

Here, You cant get it that high... You can only get 495 and it works no problem.

 

[TerriG]

I will have to ask my ds after he gets home from school what the fps is on his rifle. I know he used predator pellets.

 

[ollitos]

We whack on the head with a pipe and hold it upside down until it's done bleeding out. Then he tries to take the head off rather quickly so blood doesn't pool around the neck. Also, when the neck/shoulder area is very bloody, I spend a good amount of time cleaning/rinsing to get as much of the blood out as possible.

 

[TerriG]

Ds says his pellet gun is 750fps.

 

[BroodCoop]

I have the water hose handy as I work. Soon after removing the head and before the blood has much time to congeal I use the pressure of the water hose to thoroughly blast the neck area. It makes all of the difference. Must say that I don't use the squish the neck method and if you are seeing bruising, trauma, etc you might need to address that separately.

My favorite videos on the subject:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpDmHG_8pwE

Deboning video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6ud68Qmdyc
This guy is an artist.

 

[Zab]

What I've seen is that when eople whack the head, pierce the throat-skin with a knife and cut upwards to the spine, they then hold the ears and the knife in one hand, the hindlegs with the other and let the rabbit bleed while keeping it's body fairly still.
The other way I've seen is whacking the head and decapitate, which has caused more blood pretty much everywhere since the rabbit was difficult to hold still when bleeding.
You hit the cross between the eyes and the ears.
That's (with one exception) the only legal way here so it's what I've seen.

I've seen the broomstick method on youtube and frankly find it quite bad. The thought of being pushed to the ground for several seconds (that surely feels like minutes) while someone moves in posiion and then pulling the legs up before a quick yerk finally ends it.. when you could just be hit on the head knowing nothing of it untill it's all dark.. I try to be objective/neutral but that is the one method I don't care for even if it would be legal here (I also don't like the whole ''carrying them around in the hindlegs before clubbing them in the head hanging upside-down method.. I just find both of thse too stressful before the kill actually starts). I've seen other neck-breaking methods that looks much less stressful, where the head's been slid in between a pipe and the wall while the rabbits in a fairly normal position, and then a quick jerk down/to the side to break the neck.
Apart from my personal preferenses, I can imagine the broomstick method giving bruises ( = damaged meat) around the neck. So clubbing might be a better way to go f you want to avoid that?

 

[DanaYares]

I think the Rabbit Wringer is the best way. There is no guessing or aiming with a gun or bat. It's very non-violent and quick death for the rabbit. I can break the neck hand and decapitate in about 30 seconds.

I do get a bruised neck, but it is easily removed by trimming during processing.

 

[Diamond]

Learn your rabbit anatomy and locate the jugular vein. You can find it by parting the hair around the side of the neck (between back of the jaw and the shoulder) and watching/ palpating for the pulse. It is an exercise I incorporate into bunny handling. Pierce the skin at the side of the throat and cut the jugular vein, rabbit bleeds out in about 45 seconds. Can be done in one simple, quick move with a sharp Exacto type knife.

It is easier to have one person hold the hinds when doing this; hold the head up by the ears when locating and severing the jugular. I can do it solo by squeezing the body between my legs.

I used to try to break the necks at the same time (with a quick backward bend/lift/twist motion) but find this to cause more frequent violent outcomes than simply bleeding them out. I watched a professional processor do a batch of rabbits for me and he showed me the jugular vein method. None of the rabbits he did had any considerable distress, and I have been quite successful doing my own since then.

 

[Zab]

Diamond: Do you stun them first and if so - how?
The method you described sounds exactly like the method I've been taught to bleed them after stunning.

 

[Diamond]

No, I do not stun them and have had very few distressed/ violent deaths. As I mentioned, the professional processor uses the same method. Squeezing seems to sedate the animal naturally, when I catch them I squeeze and hold until they calm down, and use a body squeeze method when holding them between my legs.

 

[hoodat]

I've tried just about every method and still got a bloody neck quite often. I use the pellet gun to the area where the spine and skull meet and aim up into the brain now. It's the least traumatic method on the rabbit. I just don't worry about the congealed blood. I cut that part off and use it with the heart, kidneys and liver to make my soup stock.

 

[3mina]

Doing it on my own my preference is the Wringer or some variant of. My hands won't take doing it manually anymore and that's unacceptable to me for the quick painless death I require for my rabbits.

 

[GBov]

I use my table top dispatcher and did get lots of staining to the neck area so I tried hanging them by the head instead of the back legs.

MUCH less staining!

But at the end of the day, the blood just adds flavor and the staining doesnt bother us so I went back to hanging them by the back legs.

Every now and then I manage to catch some of the blood and it goes into the pan with the livers, kidneys and hearts to simmer gently in butter and garlic. The blood is crumbly and rich when fried.