Advice needed for doing the deed....

[AllChookUp]

What seriousbill said.

x10.

 

[Bizzybirdy]

Quote:
I too use a processor, an organic one who seems to handle the birds with care. I got in my car and sobbed after dropping my first group of 15 off several months ago...didn't think I would ever do this again. After tasting my first home grown roasted bird I ordered 25 more!

My rationing for the guilt is that Cornish X's will not live much longer than the 8-12 weeks it takes to grow them out so keeping any is out of the question.

I love mine for the short time they are here and will shed a few tears when their time comes but they get very good care...somedays even better than my layers...not like those poor souls in commercial houses...and they are treated much more humanely at the end.

 

[groovimum]

Hi all I would like some advise too if I may. My hubby and I would like to know at what age should roosters be butchered so that they are not hard and chewy. I don't like doing the deed bur I figure If I have them why buy them commercially. God helps those who help themselves. any input is well appreciated.

 

[Davaroo]

Im always a little baffled with these threads, so bear with me as I learn. I guess Im just an insensitive boor.... but, why does everything with our chickens have to be some weighty, melodramatic issue?

Maybe it's because I did more than a little time on a family farm that I feel that way. There, it was a chicken. That's all - a chicken.

If it must be dispatched, well then, that is what must be done. Maybe it's for meat, maybe because it is diseased or maybe, it is being culled so it doesnt taint the rest of the flock with undesirable qualitites. Whatever the reason, so it is.

We are reasonably bright, erudite and capable people here. Our very BEING here is proof of that.
How come some of us are so ready to succumb to a paralyzing crisis of guilt over killing a chicken?

AM I off base here?...

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Young. Eight to 12 weeks and you have a nice little "small fryer/game hen" type table bird.
After 16 weeks or so, the testosterone kicks in, the
fibroid tissue develops and the tough qualities begin to come to the fore. I wouldn't go beyond that.

- You COULD battery rear them after a fashion, each to its own cage and not able to move around much until they are slaughtered.

- You could also caponize them, if you were up to that.

Were it me, I'd do the small fryer thing to keep things simple. 16 weeks, they're done.

 

[Farmer Gab]

Since I started this thread, I'll give you (Elderoo) my reasons....

I am the perfect example of how removed our society has become from our food sources. I agree with everything you stated and yet, any animal (prior to buying our little farm) that I have fed/owned/been responsible for, has been a pet. Therefore, I have always related to animals with those same emotions. My husband and I are fed up though with where our food has come from and everything that was or was not done to it before we brought it home in little styrofoam packages. I truly believe for us we just need time and experience for this to become just a simple household chore. AND, believe me we have made a lot of changes over the past two years: city folk with zero farm experience to farmsteaders with goats, chickens, pigs, turkeys, gardening (well trying anyway), and more.

Don't worry we are not all lost causes!

Hope that helps explain why at least some of us start these threads...

 

[Beekissed]

I agree with you, Elderoo! I was killing chickens in grade school....I'm not hard-hearted but neither am I guilt ridden. It is just life to us and we don't put more emphasis or drama on it than the occasion calls for. Raised in a different time and in a different way, I guess.
Never ceases to amaze me, though, the number of people who can calmly sit through scenes of horrible violence on TV or a movie, and get maudlin over the killing of an animal for food. They can argue that what they see depicted is acting and what we do is real, but the fact remains that most scenes acted on a screen are done so to elicit a certain emotion or response. Or it wouldn't be called drama, now, would it? When they fail to be outraged or saddened by this depiction, it speaks of a numbness for human suffering for which I want no part.

Now don't get your panties in a twist at this opinion as it was not meant for the OP! Stepping down from soapbox now....sorry to have strayed from the thread, but this has always puzzled me also, I guess!

 

[annaserv]

Today half my Cornish x are going to be butchered. The way I see it the biggest regret and guilt would be to let this guys get to this size and have them dropping over from heart attacks from the real heat that will be coming. Now that would be a real waste.

I know I can talk a pretty good game about butchering steers and chickens and eliminating predators from the yard, my neighbor jokes that I must be pretty ruthless, (killing cute Little raccoons, foxes, big beautiful hawks, yeah right) But look in my laying hen coup and nearly every hen gets to die of old age or eggs laying problems.

 

[miss_jayne]

it is often heard at our home- mom's wearing her big black boots and running sideways with a firearm, get outta the way!

if a raccoon or possum is after our animals or especially if it is ill, i pop em. i don't ever feel guilty, but i do feel bad that the animal was either starving or suffering with rabies etc.

my chickens all have names...but i see them all looking best right next to the mashed potatoes. i treat them all very well. i pet them every night when they get on their roosts. i love the crazy things, but they will all be dinner eventually.

 

[lewisfarmgurl]

Let me say "Sorry for upseting anyone" in advance , just incase someone takes this the wrong way.

When I was younger I helped out on my Grandparents farm learning alot about the facts of life and death that goes along with raising animals. My Grandparents both came from Farmer stock back many generations and what I saw was how they did things the "old way" . They drowned deformed or sick chicks as soon as they were born if needed. They would break a chickens neck to put it down if it was sick or injured , not try to "save it" because it was not how they were taught a good farm was run.

They did however take good care of all livestock on the farm and had a vet look over them twice a year to be sure of the over all health of everything on the farm. They had two flocks of chickens, one for eggs and one for meat but both were cared for equally as the other and in excellent health. We would kill 150 birds in a day with the whole family helping with the killing, plucking, and dressing out the birds. They would do the chopping block method for the killing and I helped with the chopping and plucking.

I believe the birds to be what they are,"food" not pets or members of the family. I had my favorite birds back then but understood why they were there. You just have to keep telling yourself that you are raising a food source for your family and doing it in a more healthy way without having to worry if it was sick or full of chemicals that aren't healthy for your family.

I'm proud of you and others like you who have the guts and forsite to look out for the well being of their family by taking the steps to insure they are eating healthy home grown food!!

If you have done right by the flock of meat birds and insured a healthy bird for consumtion then you have Nothing to feel guilty about. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done and enjoy the fruits (meat) of your labor.