Maine

[MustardTiger]

Regarding the limping...I have had a chicken with Mareks before and I am fairly certain this is not what this one has. This is the same bird that got attacked by something a couple weeks ago. We cleaned her up and her wounds healed but I think there may have been some internal damage or scar tissue that is bothering her. I am keeping an eye out but if it continues and she does not seem to be enjoying a decent quality of life I will cull her This will take me down to 6 hens and 2 roos. only 2 of the silly things are laying right now!

 

[IZZYBELLA]

I do need to toughen up and eat some of my own birds. I am just kind of hesitant to eat something that I had as a pet. I am a hypocrite, I'll eat chicken from the store. lol. I was a vegetarian for a while because I realized my hypocriteness. I do believe if one eats meat they should be able to slaughter an animal. Ugh.

I have the same dilemma! I feel like if I keep animals I should be able to slaughter them. I would be ok eating the meat, because I would at least know the animal had a good life...it's the slaughter part that I don't know if I'd be able to do. Since I've had my chickens I will say my chicken intake has decreased dramatically, although I've never been a big meat-eater. I also feel like a hypocrite because I know the male chicks get killed at the hatchery, so maybe I should take straight run and give the males a good life for awhile. First world problems.

 

[Widget]

Ha, ha backyard chickens "bleeped" the word d a m n! I didn't think that would be a curse word. LOL Are their children on this forum? PG only.

Unfortunately people seem to get offended by any and every word these days. Political correctness will be the downfall of us all.

 

[Widget]

Just got off the phone with Westons. They have a few openings for turkeys this coming Saturday. So I have three turkeys scheduled to go to freezer camp.

 

[ashandvine]

I wouldn't know one of them, would I?

We lost our favorite hen. My son closed them up last night and she wasn't there this morning. She has been known to dawdle. The sad part of course is that my toddler and this bird were kind of friends. She could pick her up and carry her around. It was great. was.

About the limping... that sounds like... MS? I can't recall. I will have to ask. MG, MS and IC were running around a lot. You can also see some issues due to molds and things like salmonella. MC effects the joints and is otherwise silent but deadly. I know there was at least two farmers with it in Maine selling their birds and I do think its transovarian. Again... my facts are hidden in my tired brain at the moment like Easter Eggs.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I have the same dilemma! I feel like if I keep animals I should be able to slaughter them. I would be ok eating the meat, because I would at least know the animal had a good life...it's the slaughter part that I don't know if I'd be able to do. Since I've had my chickens I will say my chicken intake has decreased dramatically, although I've never been a big meat-eater. I also feel like a hypocrite because I know the male chicks get killed at the hatchery, so maybe I should take straight run and give the males a good life for awhile. First world problems.

It is incredibly difficult to take care of an animal for months, learn its personality and look it in the eyes as you're about to kill it. I am proud that I can slaughter and dress a bird but it's also something that I'm a bit ashamed of because it's so violent. There will never be a way for me to be completely at peace knowing I am eating someone I knew intimately but I've come to accept it and I'm thankful every time I look in my freezer and see the birds, or pull one out to use. However, I certainly cannot eat something that didn't have a good life or a good death. It is not feasible to keep all the roos that one hatches or to find good forever homes for them. Therefore, in my eyes, the best of all the situations is to hatch your own (or get straight run), give the roos a good couple of months and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible and use everything you can - make stock, use the organ meats. And this is what I do. However, you can only do what you can do. You're not me and I'm not you. You only have to reckon with yourself. I have been emotional when certain roosters, turkeys or ducks are slaughtered and even though we've done it for years it doesn't get any easier. Now, I grant you, there are certain roosters that I can't wait to slaughter, and I am quick to slaughter them when they're jerks. That being said, once the head is off I "turn it off" and can unemotionally scald, pluck and eviscerate the bird. That's just the way I am though, very task-oriented.
The following link is how we learned to butcher and it is really in tune with what I've said above: http://www.countrysidemag.com/94-4/homestead_poultry_butchering/
I also post a few times a year that I'm butchering and invite people to watch/participate/learn. If you're unsure if you can do it, coming to watch others do it (where you have no emotional attachment to the birds) might be a way of feeling out if you can do it or not. I won't be doing it again until probably May due to my hatching schedule.

On another lighter subject, isn't it odd that it was 65 degrees and sunny yesterday and it's grey and spitting snow today?

 

[Widget]

I wouldn't know one of them, would I?

All depends. I am taking three and the first three males that I catch are the winners.

Actually the one in question has been behaving himself lately but that does not mean if he is too slow during round up that he wont be making a trip.

On the subject of culling. If it ever gets easy than I think it is time to stop. I have a gallows sense of humor and that has always helped me get through the task. I spent over ten years working with rabbits and euthanized more than I can count. The last was no more easier than the first. I never enjoyed it but I knew it was something that had to be done. One thing that helps, or at least helps me, is the thought that there are worse things than death.

 

[ashandvine]

He'll be food then. He was never much for running away, always with the, 'what have you got?'

I am not sure your way of thinking makes me feel any better ... worse really.

 

[MKandtheforce]

I have some cheapo solar lamps--Dollar Tree kind--that I use in the coop. I was suprised at how much light they give off. Winterizing--plastic around the bottom on the coop. Pen wrapped with a tarp on North & West sides. DH helped me put up a small fenced in area for the girls. Nothing special but hopefully will keep the girls in our yard and not 2 houses up the road.

So sorry to hear about Blanche. Hugs

My 2 leghorns have been telling the 5 new RIR's who's boss. They don't get off the roost until the leghorns are out in the pen.

Ohhh, I didn't know the Dollar Tree sold solar lamps! I had been planning on buying ~$40 ones on Amazon, but if they have some tolerable ones that are cheaper, that my save my pants.

Lol, from what I've seen, leghorns are such little demons!! We called one of them "Yellow-footed b**** chicken" when we first got them, haha. Until my brahma really grew, they ruled the roost. They still kind of do-- they duke it out with the brahma from time to time!

 

[IZZYBELLA]

It is incredibly difficult to take care of an animal for months, learn its personality and look it in the eyes as you're about to kill it. I am proud that I can slaughter and dress a bird but it's also something that I'm a bit ashamed of because it's so violent. There will never be a way for me to be completely at peace knowing I am eating someone I knew intimately but I've come to accept it and I'm thankful every time I look in my freezer and see the birds, or pull one out to use. However, I certainly cannot eat something that didn't have a good life or a good death. It is not feasible to keep all the roos that one hatches or to find good forever homes for them. Therefore, in my eyes, the best of all the situations is to hatch your own (or get straight run), give the roos a good couple of months and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible and use everything you can - make stock, use the organ meats. And this is what I do. However, you can only do what you can do. You're not me and I'm not you. You only have to reckon with yourself. I have been emotional when certain roosters, turkeys or ducks are slaughtered and even though we've done it for years it doesn't get any easier. Now, I grant you, there are certain roosters that I can't wait to slaughter, and I am quick to slaughter them when they're jerks. That being said, once the head is off I "turn it off" and can unemotionally scald, pluck and eviscerate the bird. That's just the way I am though, very task-oriented.
The following link is how we learned to butcher and it is really in tune with what I've said above: http://www.countrysidemag.com/94-4/homestead_poultry_butchering/
I also post a few times a year that I'm butchering and invite people to watch/participate/learn. If you're unsure if you can do it, coming to watch others do it (where you have no emotional attachment to the birds) might be a way of feeling out if you can do it or not. I won't be doing it again until probably May due to my hatching schedule.

On another lighter subject, isn't it odd that it was 65 degrees and sunny yesterday and it's grey and spitting snow today?

I really like your view on this and have major respect for both the fact that you are able to do it and the fact that you say it still isn't always easy. What you describe is exactly what my ideal would be. It seems the most humane and ethical way to eat meat. You know the chicken was treated humanely in life and death. I very well may take you up on the next time you are slaughtering.

The weather was quite an unpleasant surprise this morning! Thankfully it was sunny here, but the wind whipped through to the core.