Official BYC Poll: What Is Your Perspective On Chickens For Meat

[Nifty-Chicken]

IMPORTANT NOTE: We know this can be a sensitive topic, and we'd like all our members (those that do and don't eat chicken), so let's keep the discussion very specific to the poll questions. Any meat specific discussions can go in the section: Meat Birds ETC

In the 16 years I've had chickens, this has been the MOST frequent and diverse question I've received, and I'm curious where our members and visitors stand on this topic.

When answering the poll question, select your current status as it relates to your thoughts on chickens used as meat.

BONUS QUESTION: While eating chicken (or even eggs) do you ever feel weird thinking about what your eating in relation to your own chickens?

Please also reply to this thread with your experiences around any changes you've experienced in your perspective, people asking you this question, etc!

(Check out more Official BYC Polls HERE!)

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I'll start...

I still eat chicken, but not my own. I'll be honest, I've found myself throughout the years randomly feeling a bit odd eating chicken.

When I first got chickens and they started laying, I even had a little bit of a "huh, I'm thinking about the details of where this came from and what it is." and felt a little odd

As time went on, I definitely feel much more "weird" eating chicken that was on the bone, and especially chicken that still had "skin" (like KFC drumsticks).

These days I still eat quite a bit of chicken, but I'd say 99.5% of it is boneless, skinless breasts.

I've heard / read a lot of discussions about us "city folk" having a pretty big disconnect between where our food comes from, and how it got onto our plates. I'll be the first to admit I totally fall into that camp.

Interestingly enough, my daughter stopped eating chicken a while after we started keeping them as pets. This eventually lead to her not eating any land-animals, and then a few years ago becoming vegetarian.

 

[chickenlover007]

I keep chickens and I eat chicken, but I eat a little bit less of it now that I have my girls. I don't feel weird eating their eggs because they are not fertilized. I could never eat my chickens. They are my pets. I guess I fall into the same camp as @Nifty-Chicken I will eat chicken if I have never seen said chicken alive. I guess I'm a bit of a hypocrite . I didn't bet on the fact that I would feel like their mom and protector, but what can I say?

 

[Laura_BelgianBantams_63]

Interesting topic. Ever since owning my chooks, I've tried to eat less of chicken. This was mainly because I was more aware of the torment some meat chickens go through in factories. I'll have it sometimes, but not that much anymore

 

[AllenK RGV]

I don't eat the eggs of mine either, but the dogs, cats and chicken sure don't mind when I scramble them up some. I don't like throwing the eggs into the compost bin and everyone is a winner when I get that weekly task all done.

I do need to get rid of around 10 roosters this spring so hope I can find someone who will process them for their dining table. Where I live in borderland Texas that will not be culturally hard. I'll be keeping 3 survivors of the winter hawk migration hunger games(keepers will hopefully have battle scars) plus another with color traits I like. My wife names them just to spoil my desire to eat them.

 

[BleuSaphir]

I eat chickens but I would never could bare to eat my own pets! I don’t feel weird to eat chicken even if I own them as pets.

 

[BantyChooks]

BONUS QUESTION: While eating chicken (or even eggs) do you ever feel weird thinking about what your eating in relation to your own chickens?

I eat both my own birds and those purchased from the store. Whilst I would prefer to switch entirely to my own birds, unfortunately I do not currently have the infrastructure that would be required to raise and process as many birds as I and my family consume.

Eggs, I have never had a problem with. I did engage in some reflection on the morals involved before I first started butchering my own birds, but I came to the conclusion that it was not mutually exclusive to care for my birds and eat them too. I think that recognizing that link between the neat packages at the store and the living, breathing creatures I care for daily is important; it keeps me from regarding the lives of those birds flippantly, as I may otherwise unconsciously do. Hopefully that's not too specific for this thread! If it is, I'm happy to take it down.

 

[Molpet]

I don't like how commercial chickens are raised. Mine have a good life and one bad day. It's a lot cheaper to buy it from the store than to raise it, but I know what they ate and how they lived.

I let the broodies hatch so I have cockerels and turkeys to eat. The meat I eat is mainly from my flock. I do trade Fertilized turkey eggs for pork and beef, so I guess they are providing that too.

 

[Cazook]

I eat the ones that have to go (too violent, usually). But mine are all layer breeds, I've never done chickens for meat solely.

Definitely have reduced my meat intake since raising chickens though. Knowing how much it costs to look after chickens (the feed and work involved) the £2 for a processed chicken at the store scares me now...

 

[Shadrach]

I only eat chicken that was hatched and raised here. This amounts to at maximum half a dozen a year; usually less.
I don't eat much meat in general. I've lived on a Vegan diet and a Vegetarian diet in the past. If I had more interest in cooking I would probably settle for eating fish as my only source of animal protein.
I will be eating chicken raised on a farm further up the mountian when they've got better established. They have a similar free range set up to that which I have here.
I wonder if more chickens were kept like this,
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/true-free-ranging.1343242/
people who otherwise won't eat chicken would.