Harvest hesitancy

[BlessedChaosHomestead]

I can say you're not alone as I too struggle with the thought of having to end a critter's life.
Thankfully I have my husband who will do it for me.
For me it's more disturbing I feel. As a teen, I watched my grandfather & uncle do it; helped process. Wasn't a fan but it was whatever.
Now though, I know I can do the processing, but it's the ending of life, I would struggle with.
We got into chickens spring 2022. Since then hubby has dispatched 2 ducks, 1 rooster, 2 5wk old chicks, and sadly our young rabbit who had internal organ failure. Of them all the rabbit was the hardest because he was a pet. But I'm so thankful he was here to do that.

We've talked about getting meat birds, but that's been one thing I know I couldn't do, end their life.
But I do think, if in a situation where my families life depended on it, it wouldn't be as hard. And probably the same for you. If a crap hit the fan situation happened, you'd be able to do it more so than now. But that's just my opinion.

Either way, I do say, don't beat yourself up over it. There are some things people can do and somethings they can't. Find your strengths & weaknesses & then maybe find someone else who can compliment your weaknesses & vice versa. So you can benefit each other. Grow extra in a garden, if you do that & barter with someone else who can process for you. Meat & veggies for their time, etc...

 

[bhaugh]

As others have said, it is never easy to take the life of a bird that isn’t sick or in distress. For me, I have to put my mind in that space where it makes it easier to process the bird. Instead of having chickens and processing them, try a smaller bird in the beginning and move up as time goes on. I’ll process out quail which is speedy fast. One quick snip with the scissors and it’s done. I can tell you with absolute certainty that you will come to appreciate the work and time it takes to bring birds to market. Processing your own birds for food will give you a completely different perspective on how those of us who live in the US, take things for granted. I think that every single person on the planet should be required to raise their own food, if only for a short time so that they can see the difficulties in raising food for all.

 

[samanthaoverton]

Hubby usually does the putting down part and I do the gutting/ plucking/butchering part. I wanted to do the actual putting down part but was worried I wasn't physically strong enough or that I would harm them during the process. I was raised around butchering so it was nothing that bothered me. I just wanted the best for my chicken at the end of their life. Recently Hubby had hip issues and he could barely walk (and i had 2 roos to dispatch) and I knew, hey Sam you can do this and do it right. Looked up several methods and yes settled on broomstick. It was so quick..like 10 seconds maybe quick. My dad always removed the head with an ax etc, and that's how Hubby does it. However I was worried I'd chop my hand off or not land the ax or sharp tool right and hurt the roo unduly. Broomstick is not as bad as people think. When done fast and with force it is quick. Just as quick as a sharp ax landed with precision. As a side note..I was leary of broomstick method till I realized it's the same thing as taking the head off. Pull just right the head is off but not out of the skin..so no blood. Pull harder and the whole head comes off. Butchering isn't for everyone but you never know what you are capable of till you try. It's like ripping off a bandaid metaphorically.

 

[JennieLamb]

Hi everyone...

I want to increase my self-reliancy & I know the time is quickly coming when we will have to depend on what we can raise instead of what's in stores for atrocious prices. My problem is that I'm an extreme animal lover. I connect SO much more with animals than I do with people. I've resisted the temptation to name my hens or treat them like pets but just the thought of killing one of them...or any animal...has me in tears as I type this. I've read in other places where people pray over them before harvesting & thank them for their sacrifice.....but I'm still not sure I can do it & I know I *HAVE* to get over this now before it becomes an absolute necessity.

Are there any tips on how I can overcome the emotional part of harvesting?

I completely understand this because I kept saying I was going to do it I got all the stuff to do it my husband who's in extreme animal lover told me he would refuse to help me and I told him I didn't expect him to help because he wouldn't be able to do it and I knew he couldn't since he couldn't even pull the trigger during deer hunting and hasn't been able to do so since he was about 15. But he did help me build the post and get the drill and drill plucker together and I dispatched them by myself and I was violently shaking and one of my tricks was telling myself I could do this this is what I raised them for they had a better life than any chicken in a factory could ever possibly have. I gave them hugs I gave them pets and I told them thank you. I actually had to harvest our silky rooster so we wound up with 11 instead of 10. And I had to harvest one of our guineas that wasn't integrating well with the flock to begin with and was being ousted by the remaining three guineas. So one of our orpingtons got to stay of execution. So I harvested 11 in about a total of 9 hours including a 90-minute break because it was hot as heck out the other day. So overall it really only took me a total of 8 hours to do 11 birds and honestly the guinea fowl was the easiest and boy that thing was big.