We were talking about chicks the other day and hubby mentioned about some dying which prompts my ? to the group: is it difficult to keep baby chicks and see them thrive? I know death is a fact of life, but I'm here to learn all that i can and to be ready when we bring our babes home.
It reads as if many folk here have chickens as pets vs. for family eating. Is this correct or no? I don't want to be writing something and offend anyone.
In my mind we would have chickens and I would treat them as pets but when come time to butcher, the family's got to eat. Is that a realistic view or am I joshing myself?
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Never name anything you will potentially eat. Pets are pets and those mention for the freezer have no name ever. Chicks are not hard to raise with some basic knowledge and common sense. (food and water, shelter) these are some poultry that are harder to hatch and harder to make it to adulthood ( call ducks=hard to hatch, Peafowl=hard to raise) but this doesn't mean it can't be done either.
We are prepping to order a set of meat chickens soon, we also raise rabbits and quail both for food. At the same time we have some rabbits who are bred for pet purpose.
It's based on your needs/wants and what you are willing to do. If you want food then you must be willing to butcher. It isn't cost effective to raise and then pay someone else to butcher for you.
I feel you can have both pets and food animals, but you have to view them differently.