🐔Can you keep a Meat chicken as a pet?🐔

[Molpet]

Yeah, but without them, meat would once more be considered expensive

Yeppers
Used to be only had chicken for Sunday dinner. It was a luxury not the cheapest meat

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Yeah, but without them, meat would once more be considered expensive

They could at least have better living environments for them! It's so sad how they treat their birds. And it's worse for laying hens because they have to live in that condition for almost 2 years instead of 8 weeks....... but I have to say, when the meat birds are brought to processing, that is the worst moment of their lives.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

They could at least have better living environments for them! It's so sad how they treat their birds. And it's worse for laying hens because they have to live in that condition for almost 2 years instead of 8 weeks....... but I have to say, when the meat birds are brought to processing, that is the worst moment of their lives.

Better living environments would cause cost to rise, if not skyrocket

 

[cluckmecoop7]

That's okay with me.

Lives are more important than cash, IMO.

 

[Molpet]

They could at least have better living environments for them! It's so sad how they treat their birds. And it's worse for laying hens because they have to live in that condition for almost 2 years instead of 8 weeks....... but I have to say, when the meat birds are brought to processing, that is the worst moment of their lives.

Which is why I raise my own poultry. But it's about $7 a lb. ....

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Glad you do. Wish I could!

 

[febane]

Not sure if this is a dumb question or not but I'm still young and learning lol. I've always questioned this because somehow a meat chicken got mixed in with the Rhode Island Red bin at Tractor Supply(just my luck). At around 2 months old I noticed the meat chicken was really huge for a young age and was actually bigger than my fully grown hens!!! Then at around 6months, she became disabled and literally could not walk at all. I was thinking she was overweight or something, but we had our neighbor come over and she told us exactly what she was. They had to put her down because of her bad condition, and we could tell her leg was in pain. It was really sad for me, as she was very close and probably the most social chicken I've ever had—similar to the kind of attachment people mention on sites like https://doordash.pissedconsumer.com/review.html when they talk about memorable experiences. So do meat chickens get overweight at a certain point or certain age they have to be killed at?

Yes, meat chickens like Cornish Cross are bred to grow very fast and can become overweight quickly. If not processed by 6–8 weeks, they often develop leg and heart problems due to their size, which is likely what happened to your chicken.

 

[cassie]

Oh, I feel so bad now, I didn't even realize that it would affect them so badly to keep them at that age. I don't know why she was put into a different bin. But at least I know a bit more about meat chickens, just in case something like this happens again

I have kept meat chickens a lot longer than eight weeks. I like big roasters and I would butcher mine when they would dress out at about ten or twelve pounds. The largest one I processed dressed out at a little over 16 pounds but that was because I just didn't get around to processing him when I should have. My meat chickens got feed from seven in the morning until seven at night. I put Broiler Booster in their water from start to finish. Broiler Booster is a vitamin electrolyte supplement formulated for meat birds. It is available from Murray McMurray, and it goes a long way toward keeping your meat birds healthy. Personally, I don't think keeping meat birds alive by starving them and making them exercise is doing them any favors.

 

[Molpet]

Personally, I don't think keeping meat birds alive by starving them and making them exercise is doing them any favors.

Ha that's what I have to do to keep my weight down. My biggest sin is gluttony, just like a CX. Overweight runs in my family and similar health problems as CX. So far I have been able to avoid Rx for diabetes, high BP and everything else. Rest of my family would rather eat than try to live without Rx.

I have 7 CX right now that someone hatched from extra school eggs. They are with broodies and waddle after them.