does anyone ever get used to killing and eating their birds

[Delmar]

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My guess is if you keep approaching it that way you will be given more roos to process! My freezer has been filling up faster than we are eating them.

 

[marymac]

We have become soft. Since we don't have to raise and butcher our own meats it makes it harder for many to do it when the time comes, me included. I'm pretty sure if we all had to participate in the butchering, slaughtering there would be more vegetarians . I have slowed down on my chicken consumption since we have butchered our extra roos, and a couple old hens, I don't like doing it but I can do it, except for the killing, but now I don't want to eat quite as much chicken. How many of us would be eating beef and pork if you had to do the butchering? Seriously, it's a big job. We take a lot for granted, just go to the grocery store and buy it. If you had a eye to eye relationship with that little piggy or that cow that comes to you would you be able to kill it? Every one is different. Some people can do harm to other people and have no conscious.

 

[remadl700]

I didn't read all the responses so I am throwing my 2cents out there.

I have been butchering animals for meat since I was 5-6 years old. I got hooked on raising and eating what we produced around the farm. It was a don't count on anyone else but yourself mentality to a point about providing for yourself. My dad had a hard time with the butchering but I looked at it almost scientifically during the process. We have had pet rabbits and chickens along with the meat providers so I always separated the two....

The way I explained it to my girls is that we have always eaten meat from the store with no issues. We are now raising our own instead of purchasing from some place that we don't know how they lived or how they were treated. We treat the animals with respect, give them food and water and in our case let them free range until we butcher. I have to say that our chickens really do have great life, are free to roam the property and not "COOPED" up at all.

We are now raising pigs and just butchered 3 of them and the girls helped out with everything. It’s a mind set and understanding to know where your food comes from and who is providing it.

 

[booker81]

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Actually, I think it's more of the lack of know-how to process and understanding your food, if my past class has anything to say. Processing an animal for food doesn't have to be a gory shrieking bloodfest, doesn't have to be loud, doesn't have to be messy. Most people don't know how animals are processed other than from old activist videos, have never been in a slaughterhouse, have never done anything to do with an animal from field to plate. It doesn't mean they can't or won't however, if given the knowledge and tools to do so. That's what is lacking, not one's conscience. Taking back the control of your food doesn't mean a decrease in empathy, if anything it increases it. Each life you take is valuable and should be treated such, and each animal that is homegrown and home processed is one less animal that you pay someone else to raise in impersonal conditions, and slaughter in an assembly line. It's an empowering thing to be able to control and raise your own food, be it a small herb garden or a cow.

 

[Mofarmgirl]

A lot of really good comments here. The saying goes, "I never eat a chicken I know personally." LoL
I think it does help if you know right from the start that those in a certain pen are to feed the family, and only call them by the name, food. If we were starving Im sure we wouldn't find the job nearly as difficult.

My dad is the axe man but mom and I do the rest. I can't lie....I reeeeelly don't like it but there are no processing places here for chicken.

 

[chickens egg me on]

Hi Sandcat.

At my house, I'm the partner that has done the killing of our chickens. I learned to do it as a child and grew up on a farm. Last year, I had a chicken attacked. Came out to find her in the middle of the pen. In all the years I've raised chickens, I never had this happen. I brought her in and ended up sewing her intestines back together with a needle and thread. She sat very still while I did this surgery, although I did have my partner there, a psychologist, who I agreed could help our hen 'manage her pain' during the surgery. She lived in our bathroom for 2 months recouping. Every morning we went in and always spoke to her. It took a little while before she began nattering back and forth with us. At Christmas this year, I brought her out with the family and she had dinner sitting there on my lap. When she got her first bite of pecan pie, she looked up at me with delight--and no, I'm not kidding. She ate that piece of pie darn near whole, and I let her.

Long story short, I don't kill our birds anymore. I don't eat meat--and neither does my partner. This might be about being 'soft', but I don't care. That's the way change happens sometimes.

Good luck in your endeavors and don't be afraid to accept your own reality.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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I will cull the hens if necessary but won't eat them. Somehow, it seems easier to "process" the roos and put them to use. Maybe it's because I'm twice divorced????

 

[marymac]

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I will cull the hens if necessary but won't eat them. Somehow, it seems easier to "process" the roos and put them to use. Maybe it's because I'm twice divorced????

 

[Rebeccap422]

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This is so well put, and it's exactly how I feel.

Same here.

When I did it first time, our extra rooster did help make it easier by being the one that always made sure he was 2 inches from my ear when he would crow at the top of his gamefowl lungs! When it came time to eat him we did stare at the fried chicken for a bit before anyone made a move to get a piece. My Hubby, my oldest son and I each had a piece but my youngest could not bring himself to eat a piece as it was one of the ones he raised.
We don't have chickens anymore but we do eat the extra male coturnix once or twice a year. All our birds set to be food, get an extra special day with extra treats,etc. the day before and I do give each one a little pet and a thank you before doing the "deed".
It usually takes me 15 minutes of wishie-washie before doing the first one but after I start I do ok.

 

[dottie1111]

Sicnce having Chickens as pets I do not eat poulty anymore.