Is it advisible to eat your layers after they quit laying?

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WalkingOnSunshine said:
I know this is true--which is why I said that I know some people like the taste of spent layer. I've also processed birds, but to me it's a lot more than just time-consuming. It's hot and stressful and dirty and bloody and time consuming. I've put my foot down and won't process any more birds unless the revolution comes and the grocery stores aren't open.

I'm also not a person that likes canned meat. <shudder> To each their own. Funny story: we lived in a very rural area of Western Ohio for several years, and my husband's boss bought us a canned meat assortment for Christmas. A big case of cans, each with a different animal on the label. I did try. I made chicken and biscuits, and a beef pot-pie. <shudder> There were... things in the beef. We're talking smooth, round things with strands coming off them... perhaps lymph nodes? We gave the cans to the local food pantry.

We do raise meat birds--but nice, meaty, 6-lb broilers and some cockerels from our hatches fed high-protein feed and slaughtered at 12-14 weeks by a wonderful USDA-inspected processor that charges $1.80/bird. But I've never had a problem selling an aged layer for $3-5 each, so we do that.
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I agree - to each his own.
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If I had round, stringy things in my canned beef, I'd have a problem eating it, too. It guess it makes a difference when you raise and can your own meat and know what goes into it. I'm all for a quick, easy meal when it's busy (planting and harvesting seasons) around here, and that's one way to do it. We don't have anyone near here that processes birds. I think the closest place is over 100 miles away. If I had alot of birds to process I'd maybe consider it if I had a place closer that would do it for less than $2 a bird. I also grew up hunting with my step-dad and learned how to clean pheasants, ducks and geese. My DH is a farm boy, raised here where we live, and his family raised and butchered their own meat all the time. So, I guess it's all a matter of one's perspective and experiences.
 
bobbi-j said:
I agree - to each his own.
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If I had round, stringy things in my canned beef, I'd have a problem eating it, too. It guess it makes a difference when you raise and can your own meat and know what goes into it. I'm all for a quick, easy meal when it's busy (planting and harvesting seasons) around here, and that's one way to do it. We don't have anyone near here that processes birds. I think the closest place is over 100 miles away. If I had alot of birds to process I'd maybe consider it if I had a place closer that would do it for less than $2 a bird. I also grew up hunting with my step-dad and learned how to clean pheasants, ducks and geese. My DH is a farm boy, raised here where we live, and his family raised and butchered their own meat all the time. So, I guess it's all a matter of one's perspective and experiences.
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Funny--our processor IS over 100 miles away! But he's less than 10 miles from my father's house, so we count it as a visit to PaPa's house and my kids play on the farm while I wait for the birds to be done. We also drive the distance because the guy's inspected, which means we can legally sell the meat. Selling a few birds for $15 + processing each really helps to drive the costs down for the meat I end up keeping.

You're right, it is a matter of experience. I'm a farm girl, but we had dairy cattle. We did everything we could to keep those ladies alive for 10 years if possible. It was a loss to have one go to beef. So I def. didn't get the butchering perspective growing up. And after 'Nam, my dad never wanted to shoot anything ever again, so no hunting. But I have a ton of respect for hunters--we need more good ones--and more power to you!
 
Thank you for your post. My hens are called the Golden Girls and all have names. They are definitely our pets. I wouldn't butcher and eat them any more than I would butcher my cocker spaniel!
 
AParmer said:
It's funny you should ask about eating them after they are done laying. I'm in the process of reading a book called Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Damerow and I just covered this very topic. I will quote a few sentences from the book.

"After a few years, all layers become "spent," meaning they slow down in production. At that point, they don't have much meat on their bones, since their energy has been concentrated on laying. A good layer fleshes out slowly, so it never would have made a good meat bird in the first place. If you're interested in chicken barbeque, consider a meat breed."

Hope this helps. Good luck!
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Please discount most of what you read in the Storey's Guide...that lady has only had chickens for a few years and she does little of the hands on working with them. I've spoken to her neighbor....
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She couldn't be more wrong about so many things chicken, but especially in this. How meaty a carcass is depends on what breed of chickens you have. If you have layer specific breed, they won't have as much meat as a dual purpose layer, but they still have flavorful meat and golden fat good for soup making.

Those keeping these chickens until they die and are unwilling to eat them are merely wasting the meat of their "friends" and dishonoring that life by throwing it away like a piece of trash. There is energy to be obtained from that meat and as such it's a valuable thing, whether you are wealthy or not or have a store on hand or not, to waste food is horrible when so many go hungry each day.

Here's a few pics of spent hens with "not much meat on their bones"....

Black Australorp hen



White Plymouth Rock hen






bobbi-j said:
Quote:

I agree! I'd take those chickens off your hands in a heart beat! With fermented feeds being fed, an older chicken has a mellow, flavorful taste that cannot be matched by any meat bird out there. Canning any older chicken renders it tender as a young bird but with ten times the flavor and much better stock and fat quality. It saves you money and provides healthy food for your family, while recycling something of great value.




What is not being considered is the safety and health aspect of the chickens you are consuming out of the store~dangerous pathogens abound and a recent study showed 98% of chicken from the three major brands of store chicken had these dangerous bacteria found on and in the meat. Also, there is the fact that those chickens are raised in extremely inhumane circumstances and any person that professes to love chickens is a strange bedfellow with the commercial poultry industry...when you support them, you support the torture of millions of birds.

Another issue with letting layer hens age out until they die of old age is that this rarely happens...they usually die of laying issues or illness, which is a pretty cruel way to let your "pet" die.

Is it advisable to eat spent laying hens? If you truly value the life of your chicken, if you want healthy food for your family, if you don't wish to support a cruel commercial food industry, if you don't want to waste a valuable energy and nutrient source...then, yes, it's advisable.
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:goodpost: Yup! One of the many reasons I got into chicken-keeping - I want to know where my food is coming from and what went into it! Yes, my chickens are like pets (some more than others) but when it's time for a chicken dinner I grab the biggest rooster and, well, make chicken dinner :p

I'm still working out breeds for myself. I've learned that the production reds have zero meat to speak of, so the two I have that no longer lay have been designated as chicken soup for the next time we get sick. This means they'll likely be around for another year or so, though; we rarely get ill :D I got australorps this year but the hens are quite small compared to their brothers which are the size of small turkeys. They're great layers, but when they're done we'll see what happens. I got 2 dorking/houdan cross hens, hoping that crossing them with the keeper BA or the blue australorp/houdan roos might make me bigger hens. The idea I have is to let my flock perpetuate itself and any roosters my hens raise will be supper, females I'll keep a few of the best, sell the rest or - if not many boys hatched - keep the biggest ones also for meat. And, of course, spent layers except for Hedwig, the phoenixes and maybe Emmy, will go in the pot.
 
cary 1973 said:
I think it all depends on you and what your birds are to you. for me my girls are my pets first, egg layers second and meals never unless its the end of the world and I have no other food source. If you want to eat them there have been many good suggestions on here what to do or give them to some one who wants to eat them. For me my girls will be with me for the rest of there life or mine what ever comes first. If I go first they are in my will and my cuz will be taking care of them for me.
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