Has getting to know your ducks changed your mind about the freezer?

[grawg]

I think raising your own food and getting to know it lets you be truly thankful for the cost of that food. I know I am guilty of taking for granted the luxury of eating meat. By treating meat casually I support the current ways in which it is raised and slaughtered. If getting attached or even acquainted with my food makes me hesitate eating it, then I see that as a good thing.

And if you want to break it down further, even being vegan has life sacrificed to support that lifestyle. When I started my garden I had to clear over 100 trees. I can understand there is a habitat loss/alteration that will affect what life that land can now support. But by the same token, land must be cleared for most all crops to grow. If I grow my own food I can control what goes into the growing of the food. Will I use pesticides? Petro-fertilizers? Cover crops? Cold Frames? These are all questions I can answer for myself, where as when I buy produce from a store I accept whatever methods were used.

So one way to rationalize it would be to ask yourself, "Is knowing where your food came from and how is was grown/raised important to you?" If the answer is yes, then perhaps you use that to ease your mind on sending food to the freezer.

I'll get off the soapbox now

Oh and x2 to what zzgypsy and oregon blues are saying...

 

[dumb_cluck]

I'm sure most of this forum are "backyard" breeders,etc. And not commercial nor wana be butchers.

I gave my opinions on when you acquire a species (no matter what), you had a specific purpose in mind.

I live in NY where we just had a devastating flood in the Susquehanna Valley.

I was amazed at the people who had "pets" and abandoned them to drown because "they are just animals".

All I was trying o convey was that, if your intentions are to butcher, than so be it. BUT, if you are on the fence (so to speak) think about what you are about to do (to them).

PEACE.

 

[zzGypsy]

dumb_cluck, no contentiousness intended, just responding to your comments and question here:

Quote:
we all evolve our ideas and behaviors, sincere discussion is one way to do that. points of view I don't understand, I ask about, and learn, as well as share and discuss my point of view.

peace, indeed, for all involved, you, me, the animals that are raised for food.

 

[NYRIR]

It can be difficult to go from "pet" to "food" mode of thinking. I have to prepare myself ahead of time for slaughtering. I know from the first which ones are "pets" and which ones are "food". The "food" gets no names...the "pets" do. Usually it's not too bad if I have my mind set up front....but once in a while you get one you like too much to butcher. It also helps to realize how many you can keep and keep the space and area they live in large enough and clean enough. I also like to hatch my own for food so that I know right where they came from and how they were cared for. Slaughtering helps me keep my numbers of male/female right as well.
I do not enjoy it but I do feel good about the meat my family eats. It's WAY more humane and healthier too. I myself do not do the "deed" my DH does because I can't (yet) physically make myself do it since I love my birds so much.However, It has proved to be more humane,logical and better for us, so we trudge through it. I have learned to enjoy the ones I have for breeding and give the rest the best I can before slaughter.
good luck in whatever you decide to do...and remember, the first time is the hardest!

 

[RunnerWhisperer]

Quote:
we all evolve our ideas and behaviors, sincere discussion is one way to do that. points of view I don't understand, I ask about, and learn, as well as share and discuss my point of view.

peace, indeed, for all involved, you, me, the animals that are raised for food.

I can see both sides shared here in this thread. Me I could not do this! I would not be able to come to peace with caring for an animal and making sure it has a good cared for life, just to take it in the end. I understand the other side of things too. Yes it would make me feel better to eat what I raise in a sense, but vegetables and animals are quite different. I understand it and I accept it, but I won't partake in it either!

 

[DB_Tex]

I want to thank everyone immensely for their feedback. Your experience has been truly invaluable to me. This is why I joined the board!!

I'm building up a duck egg business so I have my "pet" layers. I figured if I kept a mental wall up between my layers and my roasters I would probably be ok. Even my layers I only named to help distinguish them in the first place, and I'm really only terribly fond of one or three of them in particular thus far. Hubby and I have mutually agreed that the only ducks that are safe from the pot are the ones that lay, and the rescue bevy (they've already had hard lives and deserve time to make up for it.) I've already got him on the hook to do the dispatching and the gutting. I take over on the culinary end, and at that point I doubt I'll be able to tell them apart enough to get sentimental. And hey, some pekins turn out to be fantastic layers. Some girls may get a reprieve and a branch transfer before the end

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
I totally agree.

For the most part only roosters, male ducks, rams and rabbits are processed. There are NO females of any kind that get processed at my house and I DO NOT process any geese or turkeys whatsoever. All females live out their lives at my house. I know up front when hatching season comes, that there will be an abundance of roosters, so I already know that they will go to freezer camp. Same thing for the drakes. However, I do try my BEST to re-home all of the drakes. I know up front that any extra rams will be taken to the slaughter house for processing. This provides food for me in addition to the roosters and drakes. I still cry like a big ole' baby when any of my animals are processed. I am pretty much banned from the butcher's shop (my family has banned me) because I cry when they bring my rams out and begin to cut into cuts of meat. When they do the deed for the roosters and drakes, I have to go inside so that I do not witness anything. When the deed is done, I can go back outside and begin to pluck feathers but it's still hard.

 

[cassidy22]

I have a small duck flock that we purchased because a restaurant customer asked us for duck eggs. We do chicken eggs by the hundreds every week, and thought we would try a few ducks.

We also do several hundred meat chickens each year (Cornish Rock X need to be butchered, because they get so big they can't move, makes it easier, because I would rather butcher them humanely, then watch them slowly die)

Anyhow - before we got our ducks, we had a friend call in a panic, they had several ducks and turkeys they had already butchered and their plucker went on the brink. So they brought them all over so we could help them, and use our equipment. After that experience, I looked at my husband and said, "no matter how many people beg us to raise ducks for meat, after trying to pluck them, I never will!"

Then this year, when our local poultry processing plant went out of business, we offered to help another farmer process his ducks for a high end restaurant. We did over 200 ducks over the summer. We got much better at it, still, I don't want to pluck a duck if I don't have to. It's SO hard to get them clean, even with a scalder at the right temp, filled with soap, with a dry-pre-pluck, and with a team of patient volunteers. UGH! I won't do it by choice, and I won't raise ducks for meat!

Regardless of all of that, I don't like killing anything. But if I have raised it for meat, and I know it is being killed humanely AND respected throughout the process, then I have a much easier time with it. Because we have hundreds of birds, they don't all have names, and meat chickens have no personality. I do get emotionally attached to birds that stand out, like a certain hen who comes to visit me every day, or a special bird I hatched myself, or a rooster that's a character. My husband keeps me sane and makes us process roosters because we don't want 300 chickens and 150 of them being roos. So we eat some - I have to say goodbye. I respect these animals. I also know I would rather eat meat that I raise, because I know they lived their life free range, they were treated with respect, and they die humanely -unlike meat bought in a store. and I am not a vegetarian. I have gotten quite good at processing chickens, it's part of what we do.

And ducks do seem so much more regal than chickens, although they try my patience at times. If I decide to raise an animal for meat, I can't change my mind... But I can name them, love them, kiss them goodbye, thank them for providing me a meal. But indeed, once they have been killed - the rest of processing isn't as hard. At that point they do become food to me that needs to be cleaned. that's also not to say that at the end of a processing day, I don't go sit in the corner and have a good cry. This from the girl who names all of her lambs, yet they all go to the processor and come back in bags. I kiss them all goodbye as we unload them, I thank them all, and my processor knows that is part of what I need to do, and are patient with me.

You can love an animal, and eat it, too. If I kept everything we raised as pets, I wouldn't get to hatch anymore chicks, or have any more lambs be born, because our land would be overrun. With death opens up the opportunity for more life.

 

[dumb_cluck]

OMG!

They (animals) that *we* take in should not be murdered.

My take is: if you are a large processor or farm that does this "normally". so be it.

This (I thought) was a place for "backyard" chicken/ducks owners. Am I wrong?

 

[zzGypsy]

Quote:
I'm a backyard owner.
I'm not a large processor.
I raise goats for milk and meat
I raise sheep for milk, wool and meat
I raise ducks, chickens, geese, turkeys for eggs and meat
I raise guineas for eggs and bug control
I keep horses, dogs, cats, all of whom have a job.

it is my opinion that *people* are murdered, *animals* are killed. people and animals are not interchangeable.
we are omnivors - we kill, or are responsible for the killing of animals we eat. we kill, or are responsible for the killing of the vegetative life we eat as well.
it is the nature of life on this planet that things die so that others may live.

if I eat eggs, have I not deprived the potential chickens of their lives?
If I eat corn, have I not deprived the potential corn plants of their lives?
If I eat grass, have I not prevented the plant from fully flourishing and producing seeds, thereby depriving the new plants of their lives?
how far does this extend?

I am not a murderer because I raise and eat chickens and ducks.

I am a backyard chicken/duck owner as are you.
this place is for both those who eat meat and those who don't.
it's for those who slaughter their own meals and those who don't.

if you are so passionate about protecting animals that you lead a fully vegan life, my hat is off to you, it is not an easy way to live.
I believe it is not the way we're designed to live, but it takes commitment to one's moral beliefs to live that way, and that is worthy of respect.
If you only hold to protecting the lives of the animals you know, but eat meat and do not object to production conditions for commercially raised animals, I will admit that is a viewpoint I do not understand.

still...
You have backyard chickens.
I have backyard chickens.
You post.
I post.

Life is good.