Goodbye, dream of Silkies... not kosher, sorry. :-(

[NovaAman]

Very interesting read. I really do enjoy knowing these things, though I am a Christian. Leviticus gives us the same directions on food consumption, but being "Gentile" gives a much broader leway. Anyway, I was going to say, you can tell the difference between silkie eggs usually. If you want them as pets, just do not keep cockerels. If you keep only hens, then you will be able to separate their eggs out. I have 20 birds, and I know who lays what egg. I have always been able to tell the silkie eggs from the others. They are a small/medium egg, off white to creamy in color. Since you can not make profit off selling them, you could just donate to food banks/charities that do not follow Jewish strictures maybe? Or scamble them up in a pan and utensil specifically for use only for those eggs and feed them back to dogs or cats. You aren't going to eat the dogs or cats... Just don't feed them anything dairy at the same time? Or better yet, get older silkies that are no longer laying, or lay so sporadically that you won't have to worry of non kosher eggs? I have a silkie who is going on 3. She lays egg every other week or so. LOL. I swear where it happens she is stunned!

 

[Flock Leader]

Very interesting read. I really do enjoy knowing these things, though I am a Christian. Leviticus gives us the same directions on food consumption, but being "Gentile" gives a much broader leway. Anyway, I was going to say, you can tell the difference between silkie eggs usually. If you want them as pets, just do not keep cockerels. If you keep only hens, then you will be able to separate their eggs out. I have 20 birds, and I know who lays what egg. I have always been able to tell the silkie eggs from the others. They are a small/medium egg, off white to creamy in color. Since you can not make profit off selling them, you could just donate to food banks/charities that do not follow Jewish strictures maybe? Or scamble them up in a pan and utensil specifically for use only for those eggs and feed them back to dogs or cats. You aren't going to eat the dogs or cats... Just don't feed them anything dairy at the same time? Or better yet, get older silkies that are no longer laying, or lay so sporadically that you won't have to worry of non kosher eggs? I have a silkie who is going on 3. She lays egg every other week or so. LOL. I swear where it happens she is stunned!

Actually I've been thinking more along the lines of getting a pair of silkies, or a roo and 2-3 hens (depends on what I find) and breeding them, and selling the chicks as pets to other people. Silkies are supposed ot be broody so they could also help me with hatching eggs from my non-brooders.

 

[firedancer57]

Extremely informative thread. I have never really thought about having any restriction on the type of animal that you could raise or have as a pet. Thank you for this wonderful gift of knowledge and understanding.

 

[Little Peep]

Man that suck you cant get any!

 

[nok13]

that is why kosher animals are slaughtered and inspected by a mashgich (sorry, havent a clue what the english version of the term is, but for those that dont know, it is a person who represents the rabbinute , who make sure that the various laws pertinent to jewish religioun are followed. anyhow, the mashgih is a 'watcher over' all things concerning food: so in our hotel kitchen we have a mashgiah who makes sure that we check every two eggs to be sure they werent fertilized, therefore rending them non kosher for eating (meat/non meat problem), makes sure that our veggies are washed and cleaned thoroughly to be sure there are no bugs, and of course every kosher butcher has a mashgih to certify that the animals not only were slaughtered according to jewish laws, but were kosher to begin with (no broken bones, no growths, no illness, no extra toes, or anything else that is considered NOT kosher (which is where the expression 'things dont seem kosher' comes from btw). so for isntance on our kibbutz, some of us will take the chickens that were deemed NOT kosher before slaughter (broken legs, or other wierd things that dont affect our health but arent kosher) and we will take them , otherwise they are usually dispensed with (given to non jewish employees i.e. foriegn workers like thais, or to animal owners, or to folks like me who dont keep kosher at all.)
to most non jewish and many jewish americans (westerners/europeans) that all sounds so wierd, but in israel, its par for the course, even those of us that dont keep kosher know and are used to all the various regulations. it makes life slightly /very complicated but its a matter of getting used to things.

many many jewish farmers here keep fancy chickens, but mostly keep them separate from the 'baladi' types (the arabic/mediterrenean black./red yard chickens ) who most people keep for their eggs. if anyone wants to eat their own chickens they have to bring it to a kosher slaughterhouse. same for lamb, goat, beef.
interesting , i will have to ask friends (all of whom are old geezers from morroco, kurdistan, and some from european background) who are all religious practicing (spharadim/ashkenazi orthodox/// those of u who understand what im talking about), what they do, as many of them , besides raising goats/sheep, also keep fancy fowls: pea fowl, guinea fowl, ducks, geese... for their own pleasure and also eggs .
fancy chickens are now becoming a really big thing here also, it used to be only the 'old geezers; and childrens' petting zoos taht kept and raised unusual fowl which was considered a rich man's hobby. chickens, the baladi arab chicken, were for eggs, and/or the white battery chicken coop chicken.

, now , besides the silkies and cochins, all the otehr breeds are coming in to the country, and more of us 'backyard' less rural folks are raising them. which raises the interesting point of kashrut. (my kibbutz no longer has milk cows, egg chickens, meat chickens , only orchards and factories and unfortunately even our kids are forgetting that milk, cheese eggs and shnitzel come from animals..

well, long as usual, i will have to investigate... hope this is of interest

bina

the the poster who queried about the unusualness of kashrut (kosher ) and animals and food but there is actually huge amounts of dos/donts pertaining to animals in jewish law, some of which i posted above, a few posts ago, howevr, there are lots of additional 'question/answers' that jewish religious leaders deal with in connection to animals including the one from a few years ago if it is breaking jewish religious law by raising pigs on jewish land, even if the pigs are for 'bomb squad' use and not for food... (google for kibbutz lahav and pigs)...


israel

 

[Flock Leader]

Bina, thanks for taking the time to type all this out... I know all you're talking about of course, but I'm sure many people on this forum don't, and I would never have ploughed through explaining it all.

Just a little note: I'm pretty sure all my eggs are fertilized; when we took several random eggs from our chickens and incubated them, they all hatched. But I check every egg and as long as there's no blood spots I believe it's OK.

 

[NovaAman]

I personally am enjoying reading what Bina has taken the time and effort to explain. Very cool indeed.

 

[Gargoyle]

Wonderful thread, thanks everyone for contributing. Lots of great info.

This is a bit off topic, but... in the first half of the 20th Century Petaluma, California was known as "The Egg Capital of the World". After WWI there was a large influx of eastern European Jewish immigrants who bought ranches there and became chicken farmers; a film was made about them 10 years ago. Of course, they were into production chicken raising, so I would doubt there was a single non-kosher Silkie in the area.

Here's a little clip from the movie titled "A Home on the Range: The Jewish Chicken Ranchers of Petaluma"

 

[Flock Leader]

Wonderful thread, thanks everyone for contributing. Lots of great info.

This is a bit off topic, but... in the first half of the 20th Century Petaluma, California was known as "The Egg Capital of the World". After WWI there was a large influx of eastern European Jewish immigrants who bought ranches there and became chicken farmers; a film was made about them 10 years ago. Of course, they were into production chicken raising, so I would doubt there was a single non-kosher Silkie in the area.

Gargoyle, thanks for posting the clip, that's so interesting! I had no idea there were any Jewish ranchers in the US; of course in the "old country" many kept a few chickens, geese, goats etc in the household (like my great-grandparents did in Hungary) but I thought upon moving to the US all Jews became urbanites!

 

[Ashburnham]

How does the mashgich tell whether an egg is fertilised?
Does he examine it under a microscope?