How do I keep from getting attached?

[cjdmashley]

they are only cute for a week. Best way not to get attached.............go out to their pen RIGHT AFTER IT RAINS....TAKE A BIG WHIFF.....ATTACHMENT GONE!

 

[mstricer]

Quote:
Off subject.........What do you do with hissing cockroaches?

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

feed them to the chickens?

 

[savingdogs]

(s)

Thanks for all the great ideas and the laughs are welcome, too!

I still don't understand how hatcheries produce the birds, they are crossbreeds?

It does seem like you would have a harder time getting attached if you only have them a few weeks. What hatcheries have the ugliest ones?

I'd need mine to be nice and ugly.

 

[pgpoultry]

I will never manage to detach myself.....and I have to accept this.

The consequence is I have too many roosters, a blind ram and an ancient ewe, a ewe lamb with a broken leg, a very old cat, a rather aggressive billy goat, etc etc.

Sandie

 

[LauraG]

I agree, this is the only dilema that has kept me from raising meat birds.

It is not possible for me not to get attached, it is just not my nature.

I really really want to raise some meat birds because they would have a great comfortable life with me for their time here and I believe in raising your own food as much as possible.
I hate that I'm like this but maybe one day I'll be able to put my big girl panties on and give it a go.

 

[Ridgerunner]

At the commercial operations, they are not hybrids. I'm not sure how the hatcheries do it but I very much suspect it is like the commercial operations. I thought they were but this video shows otherwise. Pay attention right at the beginning. I suspect the flocks the hatcheries use are not as well maintained genetically as the ones the commercial operations use, but they are still a lot better than I can do.

At one time, the ancestors of these were probably a cross, probably a Cornish (for the broad breast) crossed with a white hen like the white rock (to get the color), but a separate breed has been developed to produce the meat birds. You can cross a Cornish rooster with a dual purpose hen and get a pretty good meat bird, but it will not have the growth rate or body development of the meat birds produced in the commercial operations. This video cleared up a lot of misconceptions I had about the process. I think it can help you, especially in showing what they go through to keep the breeding flock's weight down.

 

[Jared77]

Would it help if you sent them to a processor to do the work? You drop them off, pay a small fee, and then pick up the finished product? I know its helped a few folks on here to do it that way.

The other thing to do is maintain them as mentioned above. No treats, no hand taming, just add food, add water, move the tractor, look them over to make sure everybody appears ok, then walk away. I don't spend a lot of time lingering around them, then go onto other chores. I do this from the time they go into the incubator till they are ready for the freezer. Easiest way to not get attached.

 

[ondreeuh]

I plan on getting Cornish (not CX so either Red or Dark Cornish) that will be ready by 12 weeks, and getting *only* cockerels. I don't want to keep any roosters in my flock so I expect it will be easy to only think of them as temporary guests.

 

[savingdogs]

I'm dying to watch that video Ridgerunner but I'm on the dinasaur computer and will have to wait for hubby to get home with his laptop. Jared my hubby is the "processor" and I don't have to do it, but your ideas sound like what I should attempt to do, not spend much time, because I'm like LauraG, I'm such an animal-lover that they all pretty much win me over eventually.

I love that idea of getting just cockerels ondreeah.........

So ordering from hatcheries is the way you guys are doing it.....are cornish fairly ugly and flighty? lol I still think I could eat them easier if they were not pretty and not friendly. And keeping them just six to eight weeks? That sounds so short, I can't imagine they get big enough....they must grow at an incredible rate.

We had originally planned to eat "retired" hens and I have a feeling that by the time I have a hen long enough to think it is time to eat it, it would just stick in my throat and not go down. We have tried to not name them, etc., but ours ended up with names like "the roo", "pretty", "unpretty", "goldie", "the white one", feather, rhodie, etc. so they got named by default so we could talk to each other about which one we were discussing.