"It must have had a lot of hormones!"...

[wjallen05]

My husband finally killed the third of our four CornishxRocks two days ago. I wrapped it in foil and baked it in the oven for 1 1/2 and boy was it GOOD!!! The other two didn't turn out but this one was so good I will have to raise up some more (probably White Rocks though this time...)

ANYWAY... my husband told me this morning that he was talking to a lady at Ingles in the deli, and told her that we raised/ate our own chicken last night and it weighed nearly 5 lbs (I weighed it before I put it in the oven.. was curious.. it was a BIG chicken!) and she replied "Wow! I didn't even know chickens could get that big. It must have had a lot of hormones!" My husband did inform her that it did NOT have any hormones. She couldn't believe it!

 

[georgialee]

Some people....

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

 

[jaku]

That conversation would annoy me because would want to correct the ignorance, but would feel weird educating the deli counter lady about raising chickens.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

The industrial chicken farmers in this area raise them to 36 days old. I would imagine the only chicken deli gal has ever seen is the fairly uniform 36 day old carcasses she works with, all around 3 lbs. I can understand deli gal's confusion.

On pasture and high protein feed offered 14 hours of the day we got to 7 lbs in 8 weeks with CornX birds supplied by the local industrial chicken producer (gift to 4-Her's, we all start with the same stock so the differences are truly in the management)

What a difference a three more weeks make!

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

In defence of the Deli Girl they only know how to work the slicer and weigher other then that that is the only thing needed to work in the Deli I would have thought different if it was say the butcher but then again isn't this why we raise our own? So we may avoid the harmones and other things we don't know has been added to their feed?
I always try to educate people on the facts of why I am raising my own chickens to eat and for the eggs that are farm fresh, some have no idea and others say that it is just easier to go to the store and buy it, some can be taught other you must just allow to go on being who and what they are...

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Well, some do feed their livestock and poultry hormones for a variety of reasons, so she was not totally off target. Don't be so hard on people.

 

[wjallen05]

Don't be so hard on people.

ok? I wasn't being hard on her....​

 

[dancingbear]

Though many commercially raised birds are fed antibiotics, they are not fed hormones. It's illegal, and even if it were not, it isn't economically feasible.

All creatures have hormones. All plants have hormones. What we want to avoid are added hormones, and synthetic hormones. Which is one of the problems with dairy cattle, injections of BGH to increase milk production. I don't know if meat cattle are fed hormones or injected with hormones or not. I don't think pork is treated with hormones.

There are other things at issue in commercial meat production, as well.

The bottom line is that if you raise your own, you know what it eats, how it's treated, and how it's processed and handled.

 

[wjallen05]

Though many commercially raised birds are fed antibiotics, they are not fed hormones. It's illegal, and even if it were not, it isn't economically feasible.

All creatures have hormones. All plants have hormones. What we want to avoid are added hormones, and synthetic hormones. Which is one of the problems with dairy cattle, injections of BGH to increase milk production. I don't know if meat cattle are fed hormones or injected with hormones or not. I don't think pork is treated with hormones.

There are other things at issue in commercial meat production, as well.

The bottom line is that if you raise your own, you know what it eats, how it's treated, and how it's processed and handled.

I am not exactly sure what you are trying to say there. There has to be some way to get a 6 week old broiler chick to get so big. Mine sure as heck weren't ready to process at 6 weeks of age. The owner of our local feed store has hog houses and he told me that they do feed them artificial hormones and that they are over 300 lbs at 7 months old. Our 7 month old hog weighed 140.​