How long do you keep your chickens?

[suzettex5]

Every chicken gets its time around here-

Roo's- if youre nice, and are handsome enough to be allowed to reproduce, you stay for life (as long as you keep producing chicks) otherwise, youre dinner

Hens- you stay till you stop laying at least 3 times a week, then youre dinner.

I have to be kinda tough with the 'who gets to stay and who is eaten' rule since I have a large (human) family to feed, AND a flock of HUNGRY Jersey Giants who LOVE to eat all the time, I have to make sure I am getting my moneys' worth out of the feed.


I do have a 3 chicken sentimental policy (lets call it more of a guideline,

) that allows for a special, or very loved chicken, to get what we call a lifetime pass. Those get to stay with us for free forever- no eggs or chicks required.

 

[chickenlorena]

Thank you everyone for your replies! It's great to know there are so many other like-minded people on these boards that have decided to extend their circle of compassion to all living beings. Glad to be here among you all

 

[annie3001]

I keep our chickens till they go over to "rainbow bridge".
they are my pets, a part of our family.

 

[NottinghamChicks]

I keep my chickens for their lifetime. Their production does slow down (sometimes quite a bit) but they are my pets and it gives them a free pass. I have in the past culled excess roosters and I do bring my favorites to a vet for euthanasia when all avenues are exhausted.

My new interest is going to be breeding Bantam Cochins this Spring/Summer and I am hoping that I will be able to sell all the offspring, but I may have to cull some roos again (which is a shame because these lines are amazing). I think as long as I lay off the naming of them I should be ok

 

[Naughty]

I plan to let my hens die natural deaths ... I even adopted a couple of older hens from someone ... I knew they wouldn't be good layers - but I have the room and they will live out happy.... they only lay about once or twice a week but they are huge eggs! I have a banty that is young and has gone on strike for the winter - but I get plenty of eggs from the ones who are laying - so I don't worry too much.

Roos have a happy home as long as they don't start attacking me or the kids. If they are mellow and realize their place in the pecking order - they can live. I am lucky to have lots of room - and am not restricted by law or neighbors. However if they don't learn their place - I will get rid of them. I try to rehome them - but will cull if needed.

Our rule is they don't get named until we know what they are - makes it a little easier.

 

[cubalaya]

chickens are livestock. they can be pets that feed you breakfast by laying you eggs. if you cant kill a chicken then you have no business breeding them. there will be culls. what we have a hard time doing is to kill a hen that has been with us for 3 or 4 years so we dont. there are a few hens that will stay here until they die a natural death. there are other hens that will be sold. we kill all the extra cockerels to eat. we use the roosters in our breeding program a few years and they are sold. we have a cubalaya cock that is blind in one eye from a scrap with another rooster. he will stay here his whole life.

 

[happymorrows]

I am somewhere in the middle of the road on this one. If you eat chicken from the store, or at a restaurant, you are taking its life as surely as if you were wielding the knife or axe. The difference is that chicken didn't live a happy healthy life. There is a chicken processing plant in my town and I watch those chickens get hauled in big trucks smashed in to cages (I have seen a broken leg here and there) from giant cramped chicken houses. So unless you buy free range chicken that is processed by a small operation, you are supporting the painful life, and death, of a chicken. We keep our flock small so that my laying hens can live out their lives (they are pets) without too much expense to us. But I let my broodies hatch their eggs, and if I have a surplus of cockerels that can't be rehomed (to a pet family), they go to freezer camp after a healthy happy life under the sun. They are disposed of with as much dignity as possible and their sacrifice is noted at the dinner table. Otherwise I buy free range chicken.

 

[Fred's Hens]

There are folks who take a very practical, no nonsense. "farmer" philosophy here, and there are some who indulgently relate to the chicken as a pet. Some fall somewhere in-between, I suppose.

It's not easy for those with differing points of view to understand and/or appreciate those on the other side of the spectrum.

It's not easy understanding someone who love reptiles and snakes as their pet either. It is what it is.

 

[chickenlorena]

I understand your point of view happymorrows, and the terrible inconsistence of eating chicken at a restaurant for example (that most likely came from a factory farm) and not your own chickens. We are vegetarians so we don't deal with that ethical relativism.

 

[F50myster]

vegeterians rule!!! nice!