don’t you feel bad?

[Frog Bog]

I've been raising poultry for a long time. It's never an enjoyable day when it's time. It is something that is often required in animal husbandry.

When you take nature out of the picture, you need to act as nature would to maintain the health of a flock. The Drakes are not going to be real happy living by themselves. I feel there is a difference between living and thriving when it comes to my birds. I do what i can to help them thrive. And that means being letting them be as chicken as possible, as Duck as possible, and culling.

Would those birds live 10+ years in the wild? Should they live 10+ years lonely in a cage? It's not easy and it's not a decision anyone else can make for you.

 

[Duck mommy 2019]

Why are you on the meat bird section posting this topic?
Do you get a kick out of trolling people?

no, i’m just asking and meat birds is where the killing (culling?) questions are asked right?

 

[Mybackyardpeepers]

If I had the guts to, I would raise at least my own meat chickens. I 100% agree that I would rather eat something I know how it was raised till culled.

 

[Ridgerunner]

i have ducks, drakes, and everyone says to kill them. i’m not going to. my question is how do u kill at a few months old when it can live 10+ more years? not to upset anyone this just makes me so sad when i see my ducks playing and swimming...

I'm still not exactly sure what you are asking? who is telling you to kill them and why are they saying that? This sounds like it may be a difference of opinion between you and family members who have different goals. When families have this type of disagreements it can get rough. But all that is your business and for you to manage. Good luck!

What are your goals? Why do you have ducks to start with? Lots of people keep them for things other than meat. I think you need to manage them in a way to keep the numbers where you can properly manage them, you do have responsibilities when you own animals, whether that is ducks, dogs, or cattle. For you that might mean don;t let any more hatch of or find a way to get rid of them.

One of my main goals is to raise chickens for meat. They would never have hatched and lived to start with if I were not planning on eating them. I try to raise them the best I can. Some I hatch in an incubator or buy from a hatchery and raise in a brooder. These are usually out scratching in dirt, eating grass and other vegetation, and chasing insects by 5 to 8 weeks of age. About half are raised by broody hens with the flock. I think mine get to live like chickens in a flock and have a pretty good life up to the point they have a very bad moment. I try to make that bad moment as quick as I can.

I don't feel good when I kill the chicken though the rest or the butchering isn't bad. I try to use as much of the chicken as I can so nothing is wasted. When I butcher I have two buckets. One bucket gets the stuff that I will bury in the garden or orchard to rot and be used by the plants. The other bucket gets stuff that will be fed back to the chickens. That upsets some people but the chickens enjoy it and it gets used. I cut off traditional parts of the carcass for the table. I feed the liver to the dogs. I keep the wings, back, neck, gizzard, heart, and feet to use in broth. I save the bones from the parts I eat directly for broth. I pick the meat out of the stuff I cook up as broth to use as cooked meat. The only thing that goes to the landfill is the bones after they have been used to make broth.

I don't feel good when I do the actual killing but I don't feel bad either. I'm going to be eating chicken anyway, even if I have to buy it from the store. I can buy it cheaper from the store than I can raise it and it would take a lot less work. But it is worth it to me to raise them myself, know where the meat comes from, and treat them the best I can and still meet my goals.

 

[MrsClark]

It is not a good day when we cull chickens or ducks. It starts before we ever purchase/hatch the animal. We ask ourselves is this an eater or a breeder? Everything works on the farm. If you are a breeder and your laying days are done you are now an eater. As far as meat birds are concerned it might be helpful to remember that we have genetically altered some of these breeds to best serve their purpose. Cornish Rock Cross for example should be culled early. Forcing them to live with so much weight that their legs break and the suffer with congestive heart failure is not a comfortable existence.

 

[bigz1983]

i have ducks, drakes, and everyone says to kill them. i’m not going to. my question is how do u kill at a few months old when it can live 10+ more years? not to upset anyone this just makes me so sad when i see my ducks playing and swimming...

How many drakes to hens do you have?
If they are anything like roosters and start fighting I guess you will find out soon why people butcher their extra or excess drakes.

 

[pintail_drake2004]

Its business, not personal. I eat meat! I either hunt or raise all the meat my family consumes. I give them the best life I can up until the point I take them for food. I feel everyone should know where their food comes from, then we'd have a lot less waste in this country.

 

[ThracianHorse]

i have ducks, drakes, and everyone says to kill them. i’m not going to. my question is how do u kill at a few months old when it can live 10+ more years? not to upset anyone this just makes me so sad when i see my ducks playing and swimming...

Nope. I don't feel bad at all.

I suggest also reading up about the self-destructing tendencies of the cornish cross. There is something it is more merciful to kill than allow it to live past a certain point. Same for broad breasted turkeys.

I am of the opinion that if you are unwilling to take the responsibility of slaughter and butcher at least once (if not more), you have no business eating meat. That goes for... pretty much everything. Sad, how we've devalued a life into sterile supermarket packages. I reject the premise that I should feel guilty about slaughtering my own food. You aren't going to find that, here. (This does seem to be the meat bird forum, after all... can't have meat without slaughter.)

Just because they can live for 10 years does not mean they will. Any number of wild animals can live a handful of years in the wild compared to a decade or more in captivity, and that is doubly true for animals that are typically fare for other animals... like ducks.

 

[Coopscraft]

I am just honest with myself about my place in the food chain. I don’t enjoy making things suffer. I also don’t criticize any creature for being carnivorous—not a lion or a human. Anatomically, biologically, socially, humans are clearly within their nature to eat animals. I don’t judge that. I do have trouble accepting the idea that it’s okay to eat prepackaged animal products but I am somehow heartless if I can kill the animal myself. That’s not sympathy, it’s hypocrisy. Anybody who thinks a lion is innocent eating meat but a man is guilty, is just being irrational. That having been said, I don’t think it makes sense to eat a pet, regardless of species. But I don’t make pets of my food.

 

[CarpCharacin]

This thread has been cleaned up. If the fighting continues, it will be closed.