ELI5 Why do so many ppl treat chickens expendable??

[BigBlueHen53]

Sounds to me like we need to be swapping chicken recipes! I can’t eat beef, and I’m lactose intolerant, my husband doesn’t like pork (I know he’s weird) so fish and chicken are our main dinner dishes.
I’ve, as I’m sure you know all about, have so much time, money, and work into my little flock, my chickens are literally worth too much to mistreat. The way I figure my $6 RSLs are now worth about $900 a piece lol.

Nah. We don't eat pork for religious reasons and i have a sis-IL that says it makes her sick. Ppl have all kinds of reasons for why they don't eat various things. Some people actually like beets and Brussels sprouts, lol.

Oof, I'd be in trouble if I couldn't eat meat, I strongly suspect I have anemia as it is so a vegan or vegetarian diet would be a no go (funnily enough my mom was a pescatarian) and I hate seafood and my body plain tolerates it poorly. Not to mention I just plain love meat and dairy lol. I absolutely love vegetables, but I can't subsist off of only vegetables (or at least not without my health suffering)

Beans (legumes, includes peanuts) are a great sourcr of protein and iron; green leafy vegs are high in iron as well.

 

[z3lda3]

This turned into one of "my books".
Might want to get a cuppa'...



Again, I beg to differ on at least 2 points.

I have in the "way past", handled my /our chicks extensively. From hatchery purchased to incubator hatched. I've had quite a number of cockerels change, not just when hormones kick in, but later as well. After making it thru puberty, I'd naively expected to be OK. But I have been attacked, flogged & injured badly enough to need stitches & antibiotics (hatchery RIR - surprisingly close to SOP, but...). After going through the various "training/handling" techniques professed to work by folks here on BYC. Shoot, I even have given out references to those threads here both on BYC & to folks at feedstore & flock swaps.

Since my granddaughter spent many hours & huge $$ in ER, attacked by a 2 yr old EE roo who had been "her baby", not so much... She is still afraid of all male chicks/roosters, and if one of her 4H chicks this year would have been a cockerel, they had it set up for him to go elsewhere. She conquered general "chicken fear" to show at county level 4H fair & her pullet is now producing eating eggs. I believe that she will have a chick or two next year as well...

Now, I don't handle our birds/chicks as much. Didn't have chicks this year - bad car accident last fall, then broke my ankle in Feb. W/ some other issues, couldn't do SX right away & then at first, wasn't healing well. Now, things more smooth. Have graduated to lace up & velcro support boot & a cane... Thing is, I couldn't easily defend myself from an attacking critter right now (or in future?), so my handling & cooping is going to be different going forward. If necessary, may keep a separate coop for breeding roosters, but not sure how that would work...

I am in process of getting some meat breeding (BPR) & show bird line (New Hampshire bantams -1st pair shipping from NH this week, probably on Thursday). If any of the resulting chicks next year turn aggressive, at any age, they will be culled. That WILL NOT include selling to someone. A - i have found aggression to be highly heritable & I have no desire for someone else to experience what I & our granddaughter did. B - I want protective & good w/ his flock but also good w/ humans. I want none of my future stock known as "human aggressive", when I get to the point I will sell them.

A little more background on me... I was not raised on a farm, but am a Navy bratt, then joined the Army - seen animal husbandry in various states here, HI, Korea, Germany (different areas), Austria, Switzerland, Denmark. My mom WAS raised on a farm in IA. They had commercial sows (different then, farm shots from original Wizard of Oz movie accurate). Grand kids (me/my cousins) all kept away from from pens/barns. Those sows were BIG & aggressive & known to attack & had killed farm hands. From 5 yrs of age, I was known to "collect animals" & a lot of our dogs/cats/ponies & horses, over the years, have been rescues. Some due to neglecting, some due to injury & others due to personality/aggression issues. I dealt w/ mostly horses & dogs, but saw chickens/coops overseas. I experienced my first horse aggression in CO during a routine 4H visit to a stallion station. Didn't see it 1st hand, but noise reverberated throughout barn. Farm hand didn't make it to ER. That stallion was a high $$ horse, even then in 70s & his semen was "valuable". About 20 yrs later, after returning to the states & wanting to get back into horses, I viewed some yearlings for sale here in NC. While there, a yearling FILLY (female horse), jumped over the bottom stall door, a 5' fence & then chased down 2 people w/ teeth & hooves. They escaped, filly put up. Found out she was directly related to that stallion - in 3 lines.

After, I worked w/ 2 vets before age 21. I ended up doing some of my own stitching on both dogs & horses when vets weren't readily available - both in teens & in early adult. Now - us caring for our animals is considered wrong & is restricted, yet finding a "farm vet" is difficult!

Some of the worst injuries to both animals & people occurred during county fairs In the early-mid 80s. PETA & ASPCA "fanatics" turned a bunch of animals loose @ fairgrounds. I wasn't there, but knew some of the 4Hers & adults @ time. I don't support either of these groups & research (or try to) rescue groups our dogs, cats & horses have come trough.

I am not a pro trainer, but have taken lessons from & worked w/ some of the well known (now) vets & trainers of horses & dogs in the industries.

All this to say - culling - isnt a bad thing culling a cockerel, even at a young age. Many ways to do it. I don't understand any bird being culled & actually put in the trash... Even day old chicks can become dog/cat food or treats, reptile or large cat feed (zoos, habitats, even wildlife parks). To throw them, literally in trash, is SAD. There are expected to be thousands of reptiles at the Repticon Expo in Raleigh in Nov/Dec 2024. I get "hebe-gebes" around reptiles, but may be a good resource for bird owners... At least 2 of our daughters find reptiles enjoyable... shudder, shudder.

One thing I've not seen here on BYC (maybe in Meat bird section?) is donating processed (or even unprocessed?) birds to families in need (food pantries, veterans groups, welfare, assisted living groups)... I'm talking to a couple of places myself - laws & hoops & "all that"...

Ok - rant & current book over...

Firstly, I hope you’re healing quickly! Secondly let me say, I do care for my birds very much! However if one of my birds or dogs for that matter EVER attacked one of my children, right then right there DEAD no exceptions.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

culled a rooster because 'It made too many baby chickens' and

Ridiculous. It can't make baby chickens unless they either incubate or allow a broody hen to incubate the eggs. I'm calling a technical "fowl" on this one. Put that guy in the penalty box!

 

[z3lda3]

Firstly, I hope you’re healing quickly! Secondly let me say, I do care for my birds very much! However if one of my birds or dogs for that matter EVER attacked one of my children, right then right there DEAD no exceptions.

And let me add I wouldn’t give a flying fig what happened to their corpse.

 

[FrostRanger]

I probably should have worded it better and added more context.
SOME birds are nice and polite not all, I understand that some roosters' are aggressive and attacks humans, so in that case they must be turned into dinner. But I have seen some posts on this site and heard a few stories about people who would simply kill off a hen or roo because they would eat one of their plants in the garden instead of maybe putting a fence around it. two blocks down from my house somebody culled a rooster because 'It made too many baby chickens' and a neighbor across the road told me about their son who killed a hen because it was not as cuddly as their other birds.

Wow, I am not against culling, but those are absolutely abysmal reasons to cull a bird. They're chickens, of course they're going to eat your plants if they're unprotected and of course a rooster is going to mate your hens, it's his job. I am hoping they meant they wanted to bring in fresh blood to avoid too much inbreeding and not that he mated too many hens and they hatched too many chicks that he fathered. As for the non-cuddly hen, perhaps they had a breeding program and were breeding for a particular temperment. Not that I'd cull for that personally. The pullet in my profile picture is my late girl Sage who passed from wet fowl pox last year. She was very much skittish and absolutely did not want to be petted and if you managed to pick her up, she'd angrily give you a lecture until you put her down. Sure, I got easter eggers 'cause I heard they were friendly but I still loved that girl just the same - probably because I found her relatable as while I love petting and holding animals, with people I am totally hands off. She was still friendly in her own way. She may have hated getting pet, but she still followed me around, wiped her beak on me, gently pick at my feet and even perched on me very rarely. She also had an amazing resting grump face which combined with her lovely high pitch voice made her seem always annoyed even when she wasn't xD

 

[z3lda3]

Wow, I am not against culling, but those are absolutely abysmal reasons to cull a bird. They're chickens, of course they're going to eat your plants if they're unprotected and of course a rooster is going to mate your hens, it's his job. I am hoping they meant they wanted to bring in fresh blood to avoid too much inbreeding and not that he mated too many hens and they hatched too many chicks that he fathered. As for the non-cuddly hen, perhaps they had a breeding program and were breeding for a particular temperment. Not that I'd cull for that personally. The pullet in my profile picture is my late girl Sage who passed from wet fowl pox last year. She was very much skittish and absolutely did not want to be petted and if you managed to pick her up, she'd angrily give you a lecture until you put her down. Sure, I got easter eggers 'cause I heard they were friendly but I still loved that girl just the same - probably because I found her relatable as while I love petting and holding animals, with people I am totally hands off. She was still friendly in her own way. She may have hated getting pet, but she still followed me around, wiped her beak on me, gently pick at my feet and even perched on me very rarely. She also had an amazing resting grump face which combined with her lovely high pitch voice made her seem always annoyed even when she wasn't xD

“Resting grump face”

 

[FrostRanger]

Nah. We don't eat pork for religious reasons and i have a sis-IL that says it makes her sick. Ppl have all kinds of reasons for why they don't eat various things. Some people actually like beets and Brussels sprouts, lol.


Beans (legumes, includes peanuts) are a great sourcr of protein and iron; green leafy vegs are high in iron as well.

Yes, but their bioavailability is different. Not all protein and iron is the same

 

[FrostRanger]

“Resting grump face”

The more family friendly version of another term lol

 

[z3lda3]

Yes, but their bioavailability is different. Not all protein and iron is the same

And as one with anemia just an fyi iron supplements cause constipation. I know it’s off topic, just sharing lol

 

[z3lda3]

The more family friendly version of another term lol

I get it, as matter of fact I have the same resting “grump” face lol