meat birds as pets?

[hooligan]

There have been numerous threads on this in a few other sections on this forum, doing a search would give you lots of opinions, but in the end it is up to you and what you think you can manage at your place.
I have refugees called 'The Broiler Boys' that came from factory farms and 3 of the roos and the 1 hen are doing quite well. She is about 4 mos old and has started laying but so far only two eggs on her first day and that was a few weeks ago. I went out yesterday to find the smallest boy (1/3 the weight of the other boys) is unable to walk so he is a house chicken now. We will probably be having a talk with the vet tomorrow to discuss options etc. But right now he is on Rimadyl for any pain he might be in.
This is a common problem in broiler chickens and so is heat exhaustion, heart attacks and strokes.
These birds in personality are no different than any other and in fact Bob (the biggest boy) is one of the friendliest chickens I have had the pleasure of knowing.

 

[Cluckysnap123]

I think that, although short lived, you should raise them as pets and enjoy them while they are there.

 

[pinusresinosa]

I ignored my instincts and got some sickly ducklings from a lady in the town over last summer, trying to re-establish my duck flock that got ravaged by predators and murderous drakes. She had like 20 some broilers that she couldn't stomach to butcher, although that was the original purpose of buying them supposedly. They were horrible smelling, covered in sores on their breast areas, legs, and many of them had behinds just piled with poop. They just sat there, on their sores, parked in front of the pile of food she dumped out in the middle of this mud pen for them. Was disgusting and heartbreaking to see.

We're raising our own broilers for the first time this year and I can tell you this. We've already lost one to a heart attack at about two weeks old. Just literally flipped over and died almost instantly- saw it happen. This is expected I guess with some so I haven't felt too much of anything about it. The rest? They sit, fat butts parked in front of their feed and hardly move. They just scoot forward on their breast areas when they poop behind them, sort of leaving a trail of poop behind a fat scoot mark in their bedding. We're going to seperate our broilers out of our giant communal brooder this weekend and send them to their own covered and heated brooder outside- the amount of poop they make and the fact that right now there's no way to make them get up and walk much for their food is worrying us. We want a lot of meat fast, but we don't want to eat birds that just sat their whole lives barely moving out of their own poop.

These meat broilers are the laziest, most un-enthused and lackluster birds I have ever seen and therefore, I can't imagine that they'd make good pets despite being chickens. They get sick easily when they grow to butcher size. They have heart attacks. They're just not interested in doing chicken stuff. I don't get the appeal of pets with these unless you're too selfish to butcher and in that case.... yeah.

That's my rant for the day. Sorry guys!

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

The most friendly rooster I ever had was my 1st Cornish X. I had him and 5 hens that stayed around until about 15 weeks. He would come to me so I would pick him up whenever I entered their coop. Guess its luck I very rarely have leg issues with meat birds. Or drop dead syndrome (Heart attack). He thumped the ground when he walked though, started looking for cattle that broke thru the fence but realized it was him walking around in the coop. But he was BIG, so not a lap bird for anyone smaller. By far, though not saved he was my favorite rooster ever.
I have 3 pullets pardoned from last years freezer camp. And they all different. 1 smallish, a medium and 1 huge girl. 2 are laying I believe if not all three. Since I let my birds run free and don't trap nest or anything of that sort I can't be sure. Jumbo is laying, although with some issues every so often. But she working it out. 1st was just a shelless egg, not even a skin. Then a full egg, but crushed (though inner skin was still intact. Now she is laying eggs bigger than our rouen duck. I'd say they lay every other day or so, almost being a year old and making the winter with the DP birds I am happy with them. And their demeaner is always calm unless provoked even then not overly excitable. They do not seem to have a ravenous appetite like when younger either. Plan on trying to hatch a few of their eggs and see what I get from them and my X breed roosters. With 60 more coming tomorrow I may pardon a few more and even a rooster if I can this year.