Help me feel better please 🙏🏼

[Chicalina]

I can’t see raising males for that long to just waste their life and not eat them…

My animals are raised as pets and for eggs as this is my hobby. I couldn't eat them any more than I could eat my dog.
No shade on those who raise poultry as livestock, but that's not for me.
I did think about processing and feeding the bodies to my dogs but I couldn't face it. I needed to bag them up and not look at them because I felt so guilty. I know. I'm soft!

 

[Chicalina]

A quick end, we should all be as lucky. There are no guarantees that they would have long lives. Could be eaten by a coon, or a neighbor dog. A much more miserable end.

A good life and a quick end. No guilt for that.

There are a lot of real things to be guilty of, but being responsible is not one of them. Let yourself off the hook. Remember them fondly, and enjoy your flock.

Mrs K

You are very kind Mrs K. I appreciate you.

 

[Altairsky]

I had to cull my 2 favorite cockerels this morning. U-bird was growing too big for my bantam girls and Arlequin carried high testosterone genes I don't want to pass.
I processed them and I will eat them. I find to be disrespectful to the bird to let it rot in a bag (and yes, I think it also is disrespectful for humans to rot in a coffin and not be part of the circle of life, but that is a personal religion thing and I prefer to keep it to myself)

 

[ksbkeys]

I've been keeping chickens as pets for many many years, and hatching chicks to renew my little flock and rehoming roosters and any flock members that don't fit in.

This year I had an excess of roosters (not unexpected when you hatch chicks) and I couldn't find homes for them. They were SO noisy and my neighbours were getting really annoyed. It really was an unreasonable level of daily din. I culled them and now I can't stop thinking about it and how it feels wrong to take a healthy life, especially one that you created.

I eat meat but I don't raise my chickens as food. Their bodies were disposed of.

I know in my head that it was the best thing for my flock, for me and for harmony with my neighbours. So why am I racked with guilt and keep reliving the act and feel absolutely terrible and the worst person ever?

I know y'all will understand. Please help me come to terms with it.

When I started keeping chickens, I had a neighbor who had a lot of chickens so I would ask her questions. I asked her about the tough decision to cull chickens. Her reply "You put your "farm face" on and do what needs to be done." That has helped me so much over the years.

Whenever we have pets or raise animals, we have to make decisions for them all the time and unfortunately, like everything, there are tough times and tough decisions that have to be made. You can't have the joy of pets without the heartache. They go together.

I have had to cull roosters before and even did one thinking he was causing problems and found out after the fact that it wasn't him. To top it all off, I had tried to rehome him with no success only to get 2 calls about him the day after I had culled him! I did feel very badly about that. However, I have learned to let things go by placing them into God's hands.

You did your best. Don't be hard on yourself. As I said, pets and difficult decisions go hand in hand. Fill your mind with pleasant thoughts and let this go.

Another future option might be to hire someone to do the culling.