PREPARATION OF POULTRY PRODUCTS 



313 



struggles. When many birds are killed, it is a good plan to have a pail or 

 other vessels to catch the blood and prevent its being wasted. 1 



Sticking. Sticking is done with a short, 2 sharp knife, the cut being made 

 either in the neck (outside), severing the jugular vein, or in the mouth (inside), 

 piercing the brain. The latter method is preferred, because the cut is con- 

 cealed. The bird is sometimes stunned by striking the head against a post or 

 by striking with a stick on the head or back before sticking, but this tends 

 to prevent proper bleeding, and is not as commonly practiced as formerly. 

 The details of killing by this method vary considerably, particularly as to the 

 position of the operator and of the bird when the cut is made. These depend 

 upon the method of picking and upon whether each picker kills his own 

 birds or whether one person does all the killing for a gang of pickers. 



FIG. 320. Sticking fowl held with FIG. 321. Sticking fowl suspended 



the hand by the legs 



When each picker kills his own birds, one at a time as he wants them, he 

 usually works sitting down, with a coop of live birds at one side and a box 

 for feathers at the other, and holds the bird between his knees with the head 

 extended from him while making the stick. Sometimes, however, especially 

 when picking large birds not easily stuck in that position, the picker stands 

 up and holds the body of the bird between his arm and his side, with the head 

 extended forward in the left hand in a convenient position for sticking. 



When one person does the killing for a number of pickers, as is usual 

 when poultry is scalded, the birds are often suspended in loops, by the feet, 



1 The blood may be fed to poultry either separate or in mash. 



2 Regular poultry-killing knives are short, but some pickers use a common 

 butcher knife. 



