Pets or Produce?

[Tracydr]

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I have 16 of those red packing peanuts from Ideal right now. Some given to me, some with a replacement order. Getting slightly roo-ish, will get processed soon.
How did yours turn out? I'm thinking these will be nice for recipes that the Cornish X, which I grow to enormous sizes, are just too big for. They look nice, picked one up today and he's pretty stout for 14 weeks.

 

[zrossk]

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[Kevin565]

My birds are pets. I've been a vegetarian my entire life.

 

[Mum]

My chook journey began with a rescue hen, so she was a pet that I wanted to live out her life as naturally as possible; never had an edible egg from her. Entertainment value was 100%

Moved house, great big garden and decided to put the eglu to good use and get some pretty bantams. I got those from a woman who rescues unwanted cockerals and does a bit of breeding. One of those ladies I knew would never lay, but the other two did and that was just a bonus, not a goal.

As each chook has died, more have replaced them.
They have individual personalities which means they each have a different role to play.
They follow me around with a cupboard love devotion and I adore them for it

They listen to my woes and are cheaper than therapists.
Some times they give me eggs which also act to seal my neighbourly relations

diplomatic gifts

Their fertilizer enriches my soil and is bringing glorious garden gifts to life.
The animated view of my chooks from the kitchen window brightens even the gloomiest day.
I cannot have a cockeral, so breeding my own stock is not an option, but last year I hatched fertilised eggs under a broody - that was a humbling experience and put life into perspective. So, that makes them my educators

There may come a point when my confidence grows and I feel I could try the meat route; I'm not at that place yet.

Now, if I could persuade dh to let me have a goat ....

 

[adillenal]

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Better make that two goats. They are very social creatures and are addicting also.

My goats are for milk and show. We do not butcher goats since we also raise and butcher pigs and steers. I give my excess goats to someone else to butcher and use as meat. Works for both of us.

Anyway, back to chickens.
My chickens are for eggs and meat. I have a dog for a pet. Although when my son was young and raised broilers for 4-H, he kept a few of those ginormous briolers cause he was attached to them. When he got older and raised broilers, he viewed them as a project and was more interested in the livestock show sale than the individual birds.

Anyway, we will process any extra roos we have when they are big enough. I am starting back with the laying hens so at this point everything is too young to worry about old hens but when the time comes, they will also become meat. We are trying to become almost self-reliant with food that we have raised ourselves so we know what is in it. That is the way I was raised and from a health standpoint, that is what I want for my old age.

 

[speckledhen]

What chickens are to you is more a function of what YOU are than what they are, IMO. No right or wrong way to look at it, no matter what anyone says, just what they end up being to you. They make great pets, they make great soup, either way. I personally get tired of the merry-go-round discussion of it. Some groups *in the U.S* treat dogs as livestock, most are horrified by that.

 

[centrarchid]

Both. Birds regarded as pets serve as barometer for health of flock because those individuals allow routine close inspection.

 

[Pony Trotsky]

I believe the word "produce" usually refers to vegetables, so I guess I'd say, "somewhere between pets and livestock."

Before visiting BYC, it never would have a occurred to me that this could be such a huge issue.

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This does seem to be the question of the day! I wonder why?

 

[speckledhen]

Well, yes, it would technically be livestock, not produce, but that ruins the alliteration of the title. I don't know why the huge question. They are what you want them to be and they're great for either/or.

 

[Pony Trotsky]

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Has it always been a big issue, or is this a more recent development?