do you eat chicken? just curious....

[walkswithdog]

If I raise it, I know what it ate, how it was housed, how it lived, that it was clean, that it was handled properly and humanely.

Commercial birds(and most commercial meats) are fed atrocious substances, the meat is handled by people who often don't care, things are added to the meat and done in it's processing that most people scarcely understand. Yet they still FEEL better because someone else killed and processed it for them. If they knew the conditions, the feeds, the meat handlers, the processing, they might have another opinion.

Home grown, home fed, home raised and processed cleanly and humanely is the only way I want my meat. Nothing weird basted, injected, irradiated or fed to it, no growth hormones.

Can't wait to get this coop done and the chickens in. I finally found a local butcher who gets in all local meat, grown and processed locally. Now I don't have to buy any CAFO meat at all.

Making cheese, pesto, tomato paste, some spaghetti sauce and ice cream this weekend. I like knowing exactly where my food comes from. This weekend it comes from the garden and the dairy up the way...

Being able to do for myself, to see it done well. I like that. And yes even critters with names eventually meet the pot at this house. But I was raised like that, simple fact of life. It's food, first last and foremost. I feel better that at least the animals under my care knew what a hug was.

 

[dangerouschicken]

I love to eat chicken. I had a food sensitivity to chicken for years and didn't eat it at all. Then I had gastric bypass, and now I can eat chicken again. I LOVE IT.

We eat our roosters, btw. Growing your own meat tastes SO MUCH BETTER than anything from a grocery store and it is much more humanely raised.

 

[2boxers]

We are trying to become more self reliant, so our chickens are dual purpose and we will eat them.

We had a few store bought chickens in the freezer at the start of summer, but we cooked the last of those this week. Everything else in the freezer now was raised here on 5A Farm. If I can't find homes for my four extra roosters, they will be in the freezer before the end of the month, too.

So it's kind of weird in a way, but I can eat them, no worries.

I'd rather feed my family home grown. I know what I've fed them, I know their lives have been good (spoiled rotten is what they are) and they've been able to live like chickens should. Happy chickens make good dinner

 

[dichotomymom]

Our chickens are dual purpose and we will process 1/2 of them in just a few weeks. I feel really good about what we're doing and hopefully my husband can get a little more on board w/eating "pets". I spend alot of time w/my layers and try and ignore my meat chickens.

 

[zumachicks]

WOW. Thanks for the info...it looks like there are alot of us who do and alot of us who don't...i'm leaning for the don't after reading some of your posts! i do love being informed and i appreciate your compassion towards these lovely little beings...i can also appreciate and understand raising and eating your own..at least you know how they were raised.

For now, I'm going to simply stop making chicken for my family (or any other meat) and see how long it takes my darling husband to realize it!

Cluck.

 

[mmajw]

Quote:
Us too... I would rather eat my own than store bought.

 

[dichotomymom]

I named my layers and cuddle them but I try my best to ignore the meat pullets.

 

[zumachicks]

This entire topic has transformed me! Though i do not eat my chickens, i DO eat chicken, but from now on, I will only buy from local farms (i did a ton of research for my area - california) and found a few really great farms, that will ship. I feel really good about this and thank you for enlightening me!

 

[k8]

I haven't eaten any animals since 1981 and I'm so glad I don't.

 

[vermontgal]

If you can't raise your own chickens but want to eat happily-raised chickens - you might be able to find some local small backyard farmers who will sell you chicken. In Vermont, you can sometimes buy a chicken share -- you give the farmer money before he or she buys the chicks, and then they can pay for the chicks, feed, slaughter -- and this is often cheaper per pound. There are some local farmers who raise meat birds on pasture - space to run around, decent life, etc.

Ways to find this type of deal: go to your local farmers market and talk to anyone selling meat or eggs. Go to your local overpriced natural food store and take down the number of any farm that has chicken there (they will often have local labels with address, maybe phone #). Call them up and ask about buying farm-direct in bulk quantity.... Post an ad on craigslist in the farm & garden section. (Get references, depending on your community. I bought a pig (pork) from a craigs list ad, but I googled around to find out that the person selling it was a local physician, so I felt ok about that, and it was USDA inspected!).