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

[MMPinVA]

Right now I only have 4 hens, and they are for eggs. As someone above said, they were a pandemic project. I've been surprised by how much personality they have, and how much I enjoy watching them! I guess you could say they are "working pets." If I had the space, I would like to have a rooster and raise some chickens for meat, but I think I would avoid naming those.

I was raised in a hunting family, so the butchering process wouldn't bother me, except the moment of actually killing an animal is always a little solemn for me. But since I'm a carnivore, I think it's important to make that connection... eating meat means taking a life. It's too easy to ignore that in our society.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I eat mine. Name them too.

and now eat more eggs than I used to, as well. Mostly because we had so many of them and I was just trying to empty the fridge, accidentally formed a habit.

That said, I'll be the first to admit I am not wired emotionally in the way that most seem to be, or perhaps I am merely more honest about areas where the socially expected amount of empathy do not seem to be present in me. But mostly, I think my psyche is just not put together in the typical fashion.

 

[JDonn127]

I only have 4 hens. I keep them for the eggs .. i have no problem eating chicken but never thought of eating my own... but now this has me thinking about what I’ll do once they stop laying.... I kinda dread that day

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

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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!)

As I answered in the poll, I eat chicken, but not my own.
My chickens are a small flock, currently nine hens, and they are pets to me. I do eat their eggs. Eating their eggs doesn’t bother me at all, I actually appreciate their eggs more because they are from them.
I could not eat my birds, and I could not give or sell one of my birds to be eaten by someone else.
At the same time, it does not offend me that other people eat their own birds.
I am okay with livestock being raised for food, what I object to is the cruel practices of factory farming. Food animals should still have a normal happy life and be fed and treated well before they die.

 

[JoePa]

Years ago I bought 5 chicks from a. hatchery that sold only hens if ordered that way - this was my first go at raising chickens - ate the eggs and was thankful for them - then as time went on over time a hen would die - I didn't know why so I just threw the dead hen out into the woods for some animal to eat it - eventually 4 of them died - ended up with only 1 hen - knowing the chickens didn't like living alone I shot it and threw its away - when I look back I often thought that I should have eaten the hens but since I didn't know why they died I wasn't sure if that was the thing to do -

Would you eat a chicken if you didn't know why it died - they will all eventually die naturally

 

[Pye Wacket]

I don't feel weird about eating any sort of meat that is commercially available here (dog, camel, horse not being available and I WOULD be weirded out by those) and it makes no difference to me whether it was my chicken or a battery chicken. Well other than for reasons of flavor.

That said I don't actually care that much for meat, but I have to eat a lot more of it these days due to turning up diabetic. Meat has no carbs.

However (as posted at some length in another thread) I find I no longer have the stomach to slaughter them myself. In fact I have trouble just jointing and deboning a whole chicken from the grocery.

It's general squeamishness. I've never felt a pet-like attachment to any of the various livestock I've had over the years. Not even the chickens we had when I was a kid. Possibly because after having been attacked by a particularly aggressive White Leghorn rooster as a child, I don't see them as cute friendly animals, LOL!

 

[21hens-incharge]

Years ago I bought 5 chicks from a. hatchery that sold only hens if ordered that way - this was my first go at raising chickens - ate the eggs and was thankful for them - then as time went on over time a hen would die - I didn't know why so I just threw the dead hen out into the woods for some animal to eat it - eventually 4 of them died - ended up with only 1 hen - knowing the chickens didn't like living alone I shot it and threw its away - when I look back I often thought that I should have eaten the hens but since I didn't know why they died I wasn't sure if that was the thing to do -

Would you eat a chicken if you didn't know why it died - they will all eventually die naturally

One should never consume an animal that dies in an unhealthy state or that the health at time of death was not known to be good.

 

[FortCluck]

Also I find it a myth that homegrown tastes weird... actually it’s the store bought that tastes weird and the homegrown that tastes flavorful. My family doesn’t eat store bought at all anymore

 

[Baumshell28]

Got my first ever chickens in April! I specifically bought dual purpose so that when they quit laying, then they could ful fill purpose #2! I’ve changed my mind slightly as I’ve cared for and gotten to know them as animals/pets who each have their own personalities. Only in the fact that i fell in love with them, so as long as they continue to lay, then I will continue to treat them as pets. I still plan they should fulfill their duality. Only, they won’t die at my hands, or go into my freezer. Once they stop laying & start to become more of an expense, I will assure them of my love, thank them for providing & giving. Then I will pass them on to someone who can afford to feed them as pets, someone who will eat them, or donate them to a butcher who gives to those in need.

*I do not feel any different eating chicken as a chicken owner, but I definitely AM conflicted when I think about eating MY chickens.

 

[Ruthster55]

Living in Latin America gives an interesting perspective.

I live in a meat-eating society. I probably eat less meat than my neighbors do. There are very few vegans here, although there are some vegetarians.

Here, butchering chickens is a woman's job, and it's something that is familiar and common. Some women learn how to do it really early. A nearly-15-year-old neighbor girl already processes chickens to feed her family. (Men usually butcher much larger animals like cattle).

I've seen a woman butchering chickens right in the middle of a busy market. She and the chickens were amazingly quiet while doing it. She had lots of practice!

When I need to butcher a chicken, the chicken often goes principally to feed someone else. I also have sold several culls to the neighbors in the full knowledge that they will be the guest at someone's dinner table.

The widespread lack of squeamishness toward butchering chickens here makes things like selective breeding easier, and it also makes it possible to hatch plenty of chicks and not worry too much about cockerel hatch.

We were doing a construction project last month when Orange Fellow started mounting the hens. He had to go! (although I did like the feather feet).
.

The old-timers in the 1910s-20s who improved dual-purpose breeds like Barred Plymouth Rocks and who trap-nested Anconas and Leghorns for egg production weren't squeamish about eating chickens that weren't producing. If a hen didn't show up enough times over a few months in a trap nest with her egg....she was history. The producers had to tend to the trap nests almost constantly to let the hens out and record data.

Long story short - the ability to process one's own chickens lets a lot more chickens have the opportunity to live normal chicken lives and hatch chicks here than if there were restrictions or unwillingness to sometimes process a chicken. I can let my hens go broody and not worry too much about how many cockerels there will be.