This may seem odd to many of you it does to me, at times. My husband is a supervisor at a poultry kill facility, they do chickens. We have plenty of chicken anytime I'd like some but I much prefer the thought of meat raised at home, since I know how it was cared for, what it was given and how it lived. We have several hens past laying age and a few roosters that are a few too many. I want to process them. He does not. He's extremely uncomfortable with killing our "pet" chickens. I've even tried to explain to him that winter is coming on, many of these girls are old and I am the one buying the feed for these "useless" chickens. I don't quite understand where he is getting this mentality, considering that he supervises the death of about 100K chickens a day! I've only ever been able to convince him to kill one chicken, a mean rooster. We've raised hogs and killed them, he's an avid hunter, I just don't know how to break through the mentality. He says "Sell them!" to which I reply, "Who wants an old hen who might lay 2 eggs a year?"
Quote:So process them. You don't need his help. He's extremely uncomfortable with killing our "pet" chickens. I've even tried to explain to him that winter is coming on, many of these girls are old and I am the one buying the feed for these "useless" chickens. I don't quite understand where he is getting this mentality, considering that he supervises the death of about 100K chickens a day! It's all in his head, he never expected to need to kill your laying hens. He thinks of them as part of the family. When you raised hogs, they were meat from the start, when he goes hunting he's going out with every intent to kill the game he runs across, when he's at work those are meat chickens meant for meat. Your laying hens, in his mind, are not meat chickens. Process these by yourself and any you add to your flock in the future tell him from the start, these will be soup when they're done laying. They're not pets.
Yes but me processing them personally could quite possibly lead to WWIII in my house. Not something I want to deal with, if that makes sense.
So put these ones on craigslist for free (you'd be amazed at the stuff people will take for free) and my advice stands for future birds. Just make sure he knows from the get-go after they're done laying, they're soup.
Quote:i don't think this free craigslist idea is really the best one... better to take responsibility and ensure that a humane death is offered rather than leaving it up to chance that a kind soul will get the birds rather than one of the many sickos out there.. JMO ~ unfortunately coming from personal experience in rescue - many of these animals started out offered for free, and i'm not even going to mention the state some have been recovered in
That's a tough one. The only thought I have is to offer them to somebody who would appreciate them. If they process them, they process them. And your husband gets to know that they went to somebody that appreciates them. Good luck. Tough dilemma.
Ask your vet how much it would be to put one down. Tell him that when they start suffering from old age that is what it is going to cost if he is unwilling to do it. Around here it's $50 per bird/animal.
Maybe he likes to mentally have those home chickens separate from work. Maybe he sees no joy in the chickens at work and some joy with the chickens at home.
I really do understand his mentality & I would not kill them. Maybe find a farm to give them to & if they want to cull them, so be it. When you harden yourself to death at work & then have somebody try to bring it to your house where you though it was your safe zone, it can be very hard, traumatic even. I really wouldn't push this if I was you. Find someone to take them.
