Is overall health tied to breed?

[DemeterAD9]

That's the biggest problem!! No confidence in my ability to get rid of chickens I should get rid of Maybe in several years I'll be able to get to that point, but for now I'm a soft touch and have ended up keeping surplus roosters as pets.

Oh man I could never, if I kept all the boys I raised this last spring I’d have at least 20! Then it wouldn’t be just one or two roosters crowing at the moon at 3am and people would get mad. But I am pretty good about taking life as I grew up hunting so it isn’t too hard for me, in fact it is easy when the cockerels start acting like they do. Extra easy if they give me attitude! Now my turkeys… I might cry if I had to butcher them.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

Oh that's interesting about the major hatcheries! Totally makes sense though. I'll keep an eye out for common heritage breeds.

Genetics is a fascinating subject; I can see why chicken math is such a common joke in the BYC community. If I had more confidence in my abilities I'd be super tempted to cross some of my best chickens just to see what I ended up with.

I highly suggest australorps if you have not already acquired some in the past. My almost 6 year old hen Phyllis has not had any illneses, injuries, or reproductive problems knock on wood. She is an extremely friendly girl and is very peaceful with the other flock members.

 

[MyCircusMyMonkeys]

Oh man I could never, if I kept all the boys I raised this last spring I’d have at least 20! Then it wouldn’t be just one or two roosters crowing at the moon at 3am and people would get mad. But I am pretty good about taking life as I grew up hunting so it isn’t too hard for me, in fact it is easy when the cockerels start acting like they do. Extra easy if they give me attitude! Now my turkeys… I might cry if I had to butcher them.

I would pay real money for a sliver of your ability to take life!! Not kidding. I struggle to kill any animal except mosquitoes, ticks, and crop pests. There's always a part of me going "aww but... they're not hurting anyone..." and "is it really my place to decide?" etc etc until it's easier to just not try. This being said I'm totally fine feeding my flock living soldier fly larvae so clearly there are loopholes in the system!! I wish I was better with circle of life stuff; I admire people who are. I know I sound like the biggest baby, and I'm worried about hatching eggs and getting 100% roosters and then liking all of them!! Then I'll just spend all my time and money on rooster-keeping. (In my defense, I like petting my animals and my roosters seem to enjoy snuggles more than my hens! But it's a thin defense... eggs are more nourishing than hugs. )

What makes the turkeys so special? Do they hug?

 

[MyCircusMyMonkeys]

I highly suggest australorps if you have not already acquired some in the past. My almost 6 year old hen Phyllis has not had any illneses, injuries, or reproductive problems knock on wood. She is an extremely friendly girl and is very peaceful with the other flock members.

Oh man, lots of people love australorps! I'm happy to get this recommendation. We have one australorp pullet who looks ready to lay any day and she's very pretty and easygoing. Wishing Phyllis many more years of being a great and healthy girl!

 

[MysteryChicken]

I would pay real money for a sliver of your ability to take life!! Not kidding. I struggle to kill any animal except mosquitoes, ticks, and crop pests. There's always a part of me going "aww but... they're not hurting anyone..." and "is it really my place to decide?" etc etc until it's easier to just not try. This being said I'm totally fine feeding my flock living soldier fly larvae so clearly there are loopholes in the system!! I wish I was better with circle of life stuff; I admire people who are. I know I sound like the biggest baby, and I'm worried about hatching eggs and getting 100% roosters and then liking all of them!! Then I'll just spend all my time and money on rooster-keeping. (In my defense, I like petting my animals and my roosters seem to enjoy snuggles more than my hens! But it's a thin defense... eggs are more nourishing than hugs. )

What makes the turkeys so special? Do they hug?

I've got educational videos on YouTube on how to slaughter poultry, & butcher videos.

 

[DemeterAD9]

I would pay real money for a sliver of your ability to take life!! Not kidding. I struggle to kill any animal except mosquitoes, ticks, and crop pests. There's always a part of me going "aww but... they're not hurting anyone..." and "is it really my place to decide?" etc etc until it's easier to just not try. This being said I'm totally fine feeding my flock living soldier fly larvae so clearly there are loopholes in the system!! I wish I was better with circle of life stuff; I admire people who are. I know I sound like the biggest baby, and I'm worried about hatching eggs and getting 100% roosters and then liking all of them!! Then I'll just spend all my time and money on rooster-keeping. (In my defense, I like petting my animals and my roosters seem to enjoy snuggles more than my hens! But it's a thin defense... eggs are more nourishing than hugs. )

What makes the turkeys so special? Do they hug?

Spent a lot of money on hatching eggs. I hatched the two, even had to help them during hatching. As chicks they’d follow me around and cried out when I wasn’t nearby. They really think I’m their mom and the black one likes to sit in my lap and get pet. Apparently turkeys are great guard dogs going by how the delivery people react, one even had to call the house and make sure they are friendly (both were on his car). Far more entertaining than the chickens and ducks too. I will only butcher them if they get mean or if they get seriously injured.

 

[talkinboutchickens]

Wishing Phyllis many more years of being a great and healthy girl!

Thank you! Thats so sweet

 

[NatJ]

I would pay real money for a sliver of your ability to take life!! Not kidding. I struggle to kill any animal except mosquitoes, ticks, and crop pests. There's always a part of me going "aww but... they're not hurting anyone..." and "is it really my place to decide?" etc etc until it's easier to just not try. This being said I'm totally fine feeding my flock living soldier fly larvae so clearly there are loopholes in the system!! I wish I was better with circle of life stuff; I admire people who are. I know I sound like the biggest baby, and I'm worried about hatching eggs and getting 100% roosters and then liking all of them!! Then I'll just spend all my time and money on rooster-keeping. (In my defense, I like petting my animals and my roosters seem to enjoy snuggles more than my hens! But it's a thin defense... eggs are more nourishing than hugs. )

What makes the turkeys so special? Do they hug?

Practice does help.

I'm partly thinking of practice in the actual mechanics of doing (kill the bird without making it suffer, harvest the meat and dispose of the parts you don't want to eat.)

But I'm also thinking of practice in the way your brain perceives it. Deciding to kill a chicken, and finding reasons that you can live with, does become easier with practice. You might find one thought process that always works for you, or you might find that you have different reasons for different situations (for example, a sick chicken vs. a rooster that is aggressive but healthy vs. a chicken of either sex that is healthy and good-tempered but they do not fit your breeding program or you just have too many of them.)

One possible set of thoughts: Any animal will die eventually. This one will die as painlessly as I can manage, after living a good life. And if I eat this chicken, it means I do not buy and eat a different chicken that had a less-pleasant life.

A different set of thoughts: If I butcher these cockerels, I have space to raise more chicks. Chicks are fun! (And then think about new chicks while doing the butchering.)

I do not know what kind of thoughts may help you. It tends to be very different for different people.

 

[MyCircusMyMonkeys]

Deciding to kill a chicken, and finding reasons that you can live with, does become easier with practice. You might find one thought process that always works for you, or you might find that you have different reasons for different situations (for example, a sick chicken vs. a rooster that is aggressive but healthy vs. a chicken of either sex that is healthy and good-tempered but they do not fit your breeding program or you just have too many of them.)

One possible set of thoughts: Any animal will die eventually. This one will die as painlessly as I can manage, after living a good life. And if I eat this chicken, it means I do not buy and eat a different chicken that had a less-pleasant life.

A different set of thoughts: If I butcher these cockerels, I have space to raise more chicks. Chicks are fun! (And then think about new chicks while doing the butchering.)

I do not know what kind of thoughts may help you. It tends to be very different for different people.

I really appreciate your candid thoughts on the subject. <3 Having lost two chickens to illness now, I'm getting more used to them dying, and I think in time that familiarity with death might help me be more practical about it. I have to admit I've gone pescatarian since getting chickens (sorry, fish!) but my family hasn't, and I know any chicken I butcher will have lived a better life than one we buy from the store. So there may be some mileage there for me! And gosh, chicks are SO FUN. The thought of getting to breed nice healthy chickens from the very best of my own flock does hold such excitement for me, and I would so happily raise a bunch of babies from my Best Girl. But how do you not get attached to an animal you've had since it was a wobbly little fluffball? Or does attachment not matter so much if you have more of that practice?

Perhaps if I knew I was raising a mixed flock (as opposed to mistakenly thinking I had sexed pullets) it would be easier to at least accept I wasn't keeping everyone. We really went whole hog on naming our chicks and spending lots of time getting to know them. I don't regret that exactly, but I've learned a lot since then.

I've got educational videos on YouTube on how to slaughter poultry, & butcher videos.

I would appreciate seeing these! Knowing what it looks like removes some of the mystery, I hope. Would you mind sharing the link here or should I DM you for it?

 

[NatJ]

But how do you not get attached to an animal you've had since it was a wobbly little fluffball? Or does attachment not matter so much if you have more of that practice?

I think it varies a bit from one person to another. Yes, practice does help there too.

A few ideas, in no particular order:

It can help to know from the beginning that you will butcher some of them. (Example: purpose-raised meat chickens, or buy 4 cockerels and plan to keep one for breeding, then spend the whole growing period looking at them for reasons to eat this one or that one.)

Having more of them at a time can help. Having birds that look alike can help. It is much easier to become attached to the white one and the brown one and the black one, than to become attached to every one of twenty same-color ones.

I remember the explanation my mother gave when we first got rabbits: these cute little bunnies will be pets. When they grow up, they will have bunnies, and we will eat those. We kids had plenty of advance warning, we had an adult making sure it did happen, and I think it did help that we knew certain ones were going to stick around. (We did not keep any of them into old age, but after a few years it was not such a big deal to butcher the formerly-pet ones and replace them with new breeders chosen from a recent litter.)

I regularly see complaints about people who get an animal (example: puppy), and when it grows up they get tired of it, get rid of it, and get another young one. That is considered bad when it happens with dogs that are kept as pets. But an attitude like that can be helpful if you are dealing with animals that you DO intend to eat. Focusing on the new fun ones can make it easier to butcher the not-as-new ones.

If you want to practice killing & eating a chicken that you did not raise yourself, maybe consider buying one or more live chickens for that purpose. (Some people need to get rid of old hens or extra cockerels, don't mind them being eaten, but don't want to do it themselves.)