Not getting emotionally attached

[Dogfish]

I have no issues with my CX. They are food, plain and simple. I bought 2 BBB turkeys and they are literally growing on me. I got lucky and got a tom and a hen, now 8 weeks as of today. Pretty cool birds, and the hen calls back to me when I walk away. The hen's name is TG (Tank), and the tom's name is Chris. That might be an issue when it comes time to butcher. If they could breed, that might be a different story, but they are sort of doomed by genetics.

I have 10 ringneck pheasants, which shouldn't be an issue, and I want to get a few quail, maybe 50-100. I don't see an issue with those either, as their numbers are relatively high, and the chance to bond with an individual bird is low.

 

[jarcoo0153]

I ordered my first batch of chickens my freshman year of high school. They sent me a bunch of roosters for free. I couldn't have them in town, so my and my Grandpa butchered them. I had a hard time, but once we got the feathers off it wasn't that bad. Today, I when I order chicks, I order some for egg laying and some to butcher. So I give all the attention to they egg layers and in my mind i tell myself that the others are for food. This helps!

 

[Sidhe13]

We have a rooster in with our hens who are young and virile. I am thinking ahead to the day when we have baby roosters and preparing myself for it. I am a motherer and i know it. I have watched the videos and read the posts with and without pics and have concluded that, like the rabbits we hunt, i can skin and butcher, but i just cannot kill.
Reading this thread had given me some good ideas and helped me a lot...we will see qhere we end up

 

[candr01]

I try to remember what my dad always said: that our chickens live a very happy life, green grass to nibble, bugs to chase and catch, sunshine on their backs, room to run and flap their wings. And then they have one bad day. I think a happy life and one bad day is pretty good for a chicken.

 

[CrazyTalk]

I don't have chickens, quail, ducks, etc yet but I'm struggling with the horrific thought that I will buy the eggs, hatch them out, raise them up and when it comes down to it, not be able to butcher them (and have 100 birds eating me out of house and home). No one in my family is a grow-it-yourselfer and so I have never been exposed to this type of lifestyle. I have watched several killing videos and some make me very, very queasy. I want to do this, but I am afraid I will end up becoming attached. How did everyone else deal with this situation? I'm sure if I was raised with the "animals are for our table- now go out and kill a chicken for dinner" mentality I wouldn't be posting this now. Is there any easy way to look at those little babies and 8 weeks later send them to the freezer? Is it easier to just not think about it until the day it needs to be done or do you kinda prepare yourself everyday until it comes?

I don't have a lot of problem with this sort of stuff, so I have a hard time giving advice here - I think I gut my first fish at about 10 - so the blood and guts wasn't really an issue for me. I didn't grow up with livestock though. That being said, I'm sitting here now with 4 roosters, knowing I really have to get down to 1 or 2, and having trouble actually deciding and making it happen. I'm not sure how much is indecision (they're all good, but flawed), and how much is me not wanting to go through with it because I've had these birds since they were chicks, and I've spent a lot more time with them than the first batch of cockerels that got culled (the heavily flawed ones). So I understand a little.


My advice - find someone who keeps birds for meat, and go over their house on harvest day. Have them teach you the process, do a couple birds yourself, and the atleast you'll know what you're doing, and you won't have that getting in the way. You'll also have a better idea of whether or not you can handle it. If you can't do it, you can't do it - and then you buy a couple of laying hens/sexed chicks and keep them as pets. If it doesn't bother you too much - then you buy mixed/meat birds/whatever you want.


As far as day of, I like to have everything set up and ready to go before I even grab the birds from holding (they get a day of fasting before processing) - so there's no sitting around thinking.