I thinned our chicken flock today.

[uppityperson]

2 roosters found new homes this week and I now have 6 bags of chicken to go into the freezer. It was tough. Even though I bought 6 cornish to butcher, and didn't name them, and hardened myself to not grow attached, and even though they had a good life socializing with the other chickens, running around outside eating bugs and getting wet and dirty, still I am now off meat for the next couple weeks at least until I grow detached enough to partake of what I raised, killed, cleaned, froze.

Long time back I raised rabbits for food until 1 day I couldn't kill any more bunnies, and stopped. Chickens aren't as bad, but back to vegetarian food for a bit for me. I do think that anyone who eats meat should, at some point, do this. Gives you a lot more respect for your food and the whole process.

RIP my fine feathered friends. Thank you for living with me and giving me your lives.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. I couldn't do it.

[1620rock]

2. Ugh, how cruel. Why not go veggie?

[uppityperson]

4. I don't like the screams of carrots as I rip them from mother earth

Because I am an omnivore and being so take responsibility for being omnivore. I don't like pretending meat is plastic wrapped food, but would rather know my food, and have my meat have had a good life, good food, all that, rather than being locked up in cages eating chemical crap. It seems much more respectful, being involved, being able to bless them rather than have them run through machinery.

Simple answer, because I am an omnivore, responsible for my food choices.

[Mind_your_head]

3. Thanks for sharing that

I spent my DU downtime looking at the Polyface Farm website....I'm not finished reading it all yet either.

http://www.polyfacefarms.com/

[hippywife]

14. His methods are incredible!

Susatainable farming at it's finest. I just finished reading one of his books, Pastured Poultry Profits, and thoroughly enjoyed it even tho we have no intention of raising chickens for sale at the moment. We have a very small flock and there was good information there for us to use, too.

We've been using a portable chicken pen (his or his father's idea) for sometime and the chickens just love it! They can't wait to get moved around for fresh forage.

His whole approach is simply amazing in it's simplicity! :hi:

[hedgehog]

5. The reason I hated eating our chickens is that I missed having them around the yard

making noise.

[uppityperson]

6. I have 16 hens and Arnie the Rooster living in my yard still.

I like eggs, I like having chickens around saying "look look look look look" and eating bugs, slugs, scraps, while giving my garden manure.

Look look look look look look look look look. But we have 1 chicken who says "dah dot dah dah" in a different dialect. It is pretty funny, didn't know chickens had accents but she sure does.

[galledgoblin]

11. well, that

and you're always told me that the meat was never as good as professionally raised.

[hedgehog]

17. One rooster was so tough that we couldn't eat him even after I had him

in the pressure cooker for a couple hours! The other birds were delicious.

[lapfog_1]

7. My dad grew up on a chicken farm

old style, not one of these factory barn things.

His job as a kid was to feed, clean up after, and kill the chickens.

When I was growing up we NEVER ate chicken.

[Confusious]

8. I could wack the head off a chiken Np

I just have problems with mammals. I eat beef like once every couple of weeks or maybe some bacon every once in a while. There was this rooster my mom had when I was visiting, damn thing didn't know what Fing time it was. I could have gone out there and wacked its head off NP.

[Mind_your_head]

9. You 'love and respect' your "charges"

I'm a suburban-raised girl, so I don't understand the "ways" of a rural family who has to butcher their 'Bessie, the cow' without any problem. But, it's been 'necessary' through the 'ages' (otherwise, we all wouldn't be here). I'm currently 'not in line' with this thought-process, but there is something "there"....that we don't understand/rebel (?) against? I dunno.....

Peace,
M_Y_H

[Warpy]

10. Thank you for owning it.

I remember watching my sweet granny wringing a chicken's neck on Saturday morning, chopping its head off when it quit flopping, and hanging the body on the clothesline to drain into her vegetable garden. I never saw her clean or pluck them, guess I was off playing with neighbor kids. Since I was a little kid, I barely connected the dead bird with the wonderful chicken dinner the next day.

My next door neighbor lets her laying hens die of old age, usually inedible by the time she finds them.

Somehow, I think a quick death is preferable to growing old and infirm and dying alone in the yard.

However, eating meat should involve owning where it comes from. You can honor the chickens by cooking them well and by using their bones and skin for soup, making sure nothing goes to waste.

It's all part of the circle of life.

[TygrBright]

12. "Respect Your Food" should be the rallying cry of our future.

We evolved as omnivores; we evolved to eat and use the highly efficient calorie package that is meat; we benefit most from a highly varied diet that includes as many minimally-processed food sources as possible.

"Minimally processed," BTW, does not mean "raw," or "unmixed with other ingredients." It means food that has been molecularly altered only by the low-tech processes of exposure to heat, water, and other food ingredients. "Minimally processed" food is NOT comprised of short-chain chunks of food molecules disconnected or constituted using high-tech physical or chemical processes for the purposes of enhancing "shelf life," "mouthfeel," providing cheap bulk, etc.

ALL life lives at the expense of other life. Our task is to respect that.

It would not be practical to eliminate all meat from everybody's diet. But meat should return to being an expensive luxury that we feel fortunate to consume in moderate amounts a couple of times a week rather than entitled to consume in massive quantities on a daily basis. And if we eliminate the cruel and unhealthy (for the animals AND the eaters) methods of meat production from our food chain, that will come to pass.

A quick and efficient slaughter after a healthy life is far kinder than turning our backs on factory meat production and leaving the problem for others to solve.

I buy meat from farmers who are pleased when I (and other customers and CSA members) come to visit and see their farming practices in action. Yes, it means paying a LOT. We don't eat meat often, but we use every scrap when we do. And appreciate it. Sausage from local artisans made with local ingredients... Fresh label rouge chicken... Grass-fed beef... local lamb... Guilt-free and delicious!

Respect your food. I like that.

appreciatively,
Bright

[shireen]

13. excellent comments!

totally agree....

[hippywife]

15. Agreed!

Really excellent outlook.

We have been doing the same with regard to meat, buying from our co-op and only eating it about once a week. The health benefits have been amazing already! :hi:

[newfie11]

16. It always took me about 3 months

to get over the smell of plucking chicken feathers and everything else involved before eating them. Hogs were easier even though we had to scrape the hair off instead of feathers. Of course I didn't have to actually kill either creature. Thats what a husband is for.

[kestrel91316]

18. In vet school we had to learn how to kill a chicken for doing a postmortem.

Break the neck over your thigh, then cut open and look around. And I have for years bought whole chickens and cut them up into pieces for use, rather than buying pieces. But I have never eviscerated and plucked them........I think I would probably be ok with it. I am not terribly fond of chickens since my grandparents' rooster atacked and bit my sister when we were kids.

Some day I will keep laying hens and probably raise a few fryers, too. We shall see what stuff I am made of when the time comes, lol.

[uppityperson]

19. Well, I did it. Ate one of them. It took 1 month and 2 days.

The first night I cooked it, it was difficult to eat, so I put it all back into the frig (made up a cattitore sort of thing) and let it sit overnight. Now, it tastes fine. Nice to know I can do this.

[hippywife]

20. If it makes you feel any better...

I was reading Joel Salatin's "Pastured Poutry Profits" book. In the part where he talks about processing day, IIRC he was saying that the customers and friends who come out to help usually can't eat theirs right away, either, and they didn't raise 'em. He may have been referring to some of the family, too, I just can't remember exactly. It's just not very appetizing work so I can see why someone would be a little put off for a bit. Heck, I have a sister who won't eat it from the grocery store if she has to clean and cut it. LOL

We aren't going to kill our chickens for the meat, just keeping them for the eggs but one of our coop producers is in the process of mimicing Joel's pastured poultry operation. I did think about going up and helping on processing day because I feel like I should. Husband said he didn't think he could do it, and I probably couldn't really do it, either, but still it seems like we should.

[uppityperson]

21. It gives you a lot more respect for what you eat, that's for sure.

And makes you realize you are part of a cycle of life (cue lion king music). However, it can be difficult to do. My Mr said he didn't want any part of this process, but decided to help out when time came, perhaps felt out macho-ed by me? I told him he didn't have to, having experience nursing I can dissociate myself a bit.

[joshcryer]

23. You must be well fed.

I grew up in a family with 3 other brothers, so a family of 6. We were always always poor, the staple food we had was rice or potatoes. I remember many a night eating both. We had our own garden and grew corn and potatoes and watermelon, oh and green beans and tomatoes. But we could only indulge in those things after the spring crop, canning them for later.

So when I got into the whole hunting thing I saw the animal not as another "sweet creature of earth" but something to devour. Something wonderful and delicious to devour. I've spent time off the grid and have enjoyed it more than any other time in my life, and I killed many an animal doing it.

It just takes being a bit hungry for natural instincts to kick in.

[SmokingJacket]

22. Having chickens made me realize I don't like eating meat that much.

Sure, I'll eat it if it's put in front of me. But is it worth it to raise these guys, feed them every day, watch them grow and enjoy life, and then chop their heads off? Nope. Chicken meat just isn't that delicious! I'd rather eat a plate of potatoes or something.

I have twenty chickens and love their eggs. But if I ate *them* I wouldn't enjoy it.

[LWolf]

25. My mom agrees.

She's been keeping some hens ever since I gave her some of my "extras." She treats them like pets. She's decided she can't eat anything but fish any more; interacting with them means they can no longer be "meat."

I empathize. I don't go quite that far; I'd rather eat animals raised in healthy, stress-free environments, treated with care and respect, that had a good quality of life before becoming food, than those raised by factory farms, which are the real travesty.

[bvar22]

24. Thanks for this post.

This is our first year with chickens.

We bought our baby chicks from the local feed store last March, and they have just started giving us delicious eggs. We have one rooster and eight hens. Despite our pledge not to name them, they all have acquired names, and we have come to enjoy their company in the yard and garden. We generally sit in the yard around sunset, hand feed them corn niblets, and watch them return to the coop at sunset. We have been surprised by their individual personalities and intelligence.

At some time in the future, it will be necessary to thin our flock.
It is enlightening to hear from someone who has the actual experience.
We love the way you describe your relationship with your birds.

Thanks

bvar22 & Starkraven
Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas