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

[seeingreen]

I want to be able to be more self sufficient but I just haven’t raised meat birds. I do have duel purpose but they are a heritage breed and take so long to mature it’s not worth it. I can get an organically grow chicken from the grocery store for five bucks. Maybe in the future as I breed them culls will go in the pot, though honestly I’d still have a hard time doing it.

 

[Ruthster55]

An often overlooked point. I like that the hens here can sit and hatch. It is after all what they lay eggs for. However, most people can only house and feed a finite number of chickens. Here predation by other creatures and by me allows a more natural cycle to their lives.

Indeed. Everything from small city egg flocks of 4-5 hens to free range and pastured egg production has limits on how many chickens can be housed and fed!

Where I see problems of overpopulation of chickens, it’s usually either a commercial production situation, or it’s someone who lets the chickens reproduce with abandon, but doesn’t know how to select for their “designer” flock. That’s because selection involves culling.

With my mutts, I can’t really go by any Standard of Perfection, but I can learn what the defects and disqualifications are for most breeds. For example, I can cull out (eat) wry tail. Kenny Troiano of the Bred To Perfection podcast says that duck toe is another common disqualification. So are crooked toes that admittedly may result from incubator problems. The podcast is on Youtube.

You can also get pdfs from the Livestock Conservancy that help with selecting chickens according to confirmation for either meat or egg production. Just Google “livestock conservancy selecting chickens pdfs” .

I can sell hens that throw recessive white. There was no way I was going to eat that hen and her chicks, because she is a good broody girl.

So, I sold the whole lot for a reasonable price because I don’t have space for birds I don’t want to raise. I invited the person to whom I sold them to grow out the cockerels and eat them around Christmas or New Years.

 

[Rose Quartz]

I hatch my own and sell chicks. I've ended up with plenty of boys, and they have to go somewhere. There is the occasional extra boy that sticks around longer than planned because he especially stands out. But once fighting starts I can't justify keeping them around just to suffer under the rule of the other roo. I have to choose one. Right now, I actually rehomed the adult roo because he was such a good boy, and one of his babies is being given an extended chance to fill his place.

My plan for chickens did include what to do with the extra boys, so it wasn't something I was unprepared for. I grew up with my parents growing chickens and turkeys for only meat though so I was pretty used to the idea.

I don't really buy chicken from the store, though I did before I had my own.

 

[sloanbychoice]

My current flock are pets. They’re my girls. I don’t think I could eat one. If one died, or if I had to cull for mercy, I think she’d have to be buried.

That said, I’d actually have no problem raising chickens for meat; in fact, I’ve thought about it.
The biggest reason I don’t yet is the time I don’t have to spend raising them right now.

But I would love to have our meat come from our own animals. I don’t ever feel weird eating chicken or their eggs. I don’t like the idea of how commercial chickens are kept, and that’s the only uncomfortable feeling I have eating chicken. I’d much rather raise them, treat them fairly, and then feast.

 

[little blue coop]

I'm a new chicken owner, so it hasn't come up yet, eating our chickens. But my husband and I agreed when we got our chickens (for eggs) that they would not be pets. We especially got the eggs to share with others, since it's only the two of us and we have 5 chickens. We love our chickens, and treat them very well. But when the time comes that egg production goes way down, we will be using them for meat.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I'm a new chicken owner, so it hasn't come up yet, eating our chickens. But my husband and I agreed when we got our chickens (for eggs) that they would not be pets. We especially got the eggs to share with others, since it's only the two of us and we have 5 chickens. We love our chickens, and treat them very well. But when the time comes that egg production goes way down, we will be using them for meat.

Its just my wife and I, we have a considerably larger flock (admittedly, 1/3 aren't laying yet, though half of them probably should be - Brahmas, always late to the party...) but unless you selected one of the more prolific egg laying breeds, or you rarely eat eggs, five birds likely won't satisfy your needs. If I exclude my ducks, I have 12 demonstrated layers in their first year of life. During the summer, I was getting 6-7 eggs a day. Now that there is less daylight? 1 egg yesterday. 3 eggs today. And my eggs run medium to large, so that's basically breakfast. No extras currently for quiche, baking, or batters.

I hope your girls meet your needs, but as you look to the future, there may be a bit of chicken math involved.

Very Best!

 

[Allthefloofs]

I have never eaten much chicken to begin with, and I don’t think my consumption has changed much, but our girls are pets so they won’t be eaten. We have lost a couple and one was buried and the other was cremated and returned after she was necropsied. I would feel weird not doing that for them after having cats and dogs and performing the same “death rites” for them. That being said, I completely respect people who never want to eat them again, and also those who eat the chickens they own. I feel like it isn’t any of my business what they do and also, our modern day chickens were primarily bred to either produce edible eggs, or to be eaten as a protein source so I can completely understand it. I sometimes wonder if having chickens so early in life might sway my kids toward vegetarianism, which is fine with me.

 

[karenerwin]

I raise chickens for eggs and for meat. I currently have 7 meat chickens (Cornish Cross) that are 6 months old. They will eventually be butchered like the rest of their hatch mates. But as someone else said on here, I know they had a good life ( and definitely a longer one than most meat chickens). I like knowing what they were fed and how they lived. They usually go into the freezer long enough that I no longer know "who they were specifically" when we get around to eating them.
Oddly enough I don't eat as many eggs as I used to but that is only because I can't keep up with the demand from those who buy my eggs.

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

I only eat my own chickens nowadays.

I used to be a vegetarian but due to my husband’s IBS, it was either make 2 different meals at all times or find a way to eat meat that made me feel ok morally. While we lived in town I bought only pasture raised meat and now that we live out of town we grow most of our own meat. Mostly we eat rabbits (raised in a colony), goats, and our cull chickens. I hope to raise extra chickens next year to replace some of the rabbit meat. And my parents raise cows so we get some beef from them, lucky us!

 

[Kiki]

I eat chicken but not my own, yet.
I do eat my own quail.