Never planned to eat my chickens, but...

[schellie69]

I had a layer get injured and I did not have the time to treat the wound so we processed her she was the best chicken I have tasted since I was a kid. I just slow cooked her all day then added some BBQ sauce after I de-boned her. I have 2 roosters that when they get big enough will also be processed My DH did the whole processing thing. He said it was not that hard. Good luck I told my self that she full filled her duty.

 

[NevadaRon]

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They're probably worried about noise drawing complaints from the neighbors, rather than anything to do with readiness to butcher.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

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They're probably worried about noise drawing complaints from the neighbors, rather than anything to do with readiness to butcher.

You nailed it. They're all edible even if little meat.
One neighbor is 150' from one of the coops.
I don't want to lose the hens because of noise.

 

[carress]

I'm in the same crowing boat.
My freedom Rangers are starting to holler now, so they need to go ASAP.
Luckily, I only have one neighbor, and I don't think he can hear the crows. He won't turn me in though..maybe just yell at me.

I have lived in the city my whole life. I've had a little garden most of my adult life, and when I bought a house in a more rural area, I jumped on chickens as quickly as I could.
I didn't know anything about raising or processing the chickens, so thank god for the internet.

I learned to process by putting an ad up on craigslist and going to a guy's house. The guy who answered my ad said he'd been doing it for a million years, and he gave me one very thorough lesson, patiently explaining why I was to do everything the way he said. He gave me a way of thinking about the chicken- "It's no different from that zucchini you grew in your garden."

Even if I kill them in the end, I know those birds lived better than any chicken I've eaten previously.

 

[Denninmi]

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Well, my mother grew up on the farm, but I grew up here in the 'burbs on an acre. We always have had gardens, that sort of thing, and bought shares of farm beef, pork, etc. But doing it myself is a first for me. They're 3 weeks old today.

It seems a natural extension to grow produce, having eggs and bees, etc. My biggest motivation is the desire to grow high quality food where I can decide what goes into it, and then feeling the pride of accomplishment. Plus frankly, it would be nice long term to be able to grow a share of my own meat cheaply. I know that that is NOT going to happen with Cornish cross, between the cost of buying them and the cost of feed, but I consider this more of a trial balloon than anything else. Long term, I'm thinking about things like quail and ducks that I can raise easily, are relatively cheap to feed, and that to some extent I can feed with my leftover produce so as to not have to feed them exclusively purchased feed.

 

[BarredBuff]

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1. You can "eat" any chicken but breeds vary with size.
2. There are no places near me and its not that hard to do it. We had never done any meat animals and I just butchered it and then was hooked. They are different in taste and healthier.
3. Last Fall, I was raised on a farm (and still am) but we only bred the animals never processed them. I consider myself backyarder/farmer Im the happy medium

 

[oherin]

I just put up 5 of our extra EE roos. They were 23 wks old. They had begun crowing and fighting amongst themselves. We are happy with the meat we got off of them.