New chicken mama

[Kjcm16]

Hiii new chicken mama here!
Well we ended up with 4 meat chickens- red rangers anddddd we are attached, the kids understand the food process but we don’t necessarily want to butcher them for food.. I’ve heard they can get infections, over weight etc so my question is, if we were to keep them for pets should they be monitored food wise or is there something we can do about this? or is it just not humane to do so?
They are about 4x bigger than my egg layer babies!
Pictures of play time outside yesterday
Thank youuu!

 

[007Sean]

Howdy, and Welcome to Backyard Chickens.

Happy to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!

Thanks for joining our community!

 

[janiedoe]

Welcome to BYC! I've never had red rangers, but as I understand it, they are much hardier, and longer lived, than the typical meat bird. I believe if they are given a little free range time each day, or even plenty of active time in an enclosed run, they will keep their weight down and live at least a few years.

 

[fldiver97]

 

[GoosesGeeses]

Welcome to BYC!

 

[GoosesGeeses]

Your chickies are sooo cute! I cant wait until i can hatch again!

 

[N F C]

Hi, you can get more info by posting on this forum: Meat birds, etc but I would guess you can keep them healthy somewhat longer with limited access to feed and encouraging more activity.

Good luck!

 

[pennyJo1960]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens. This is a great place to hang out.

 

[Bsmac]

Hello! Welcome to BYC! Sorry I can`t really give you any advice as I only have layers. But I tend to agree with the advice @janiedoe gave you!