Should I involve my children in my first slaughter of roosters?

[Mortos]

I have 4 roosters and 4 hens and I need to get rid of two roosters. I want to be able to kill my own and utilize them for food. My kids are 6 (boy) and 11 (girl) and I would like them to realize where all those chicken nuggets come from but I don't want to scar them for life. This will be my first kill so I don't know how I am going to handle it. Any advice on kids and food prep of live animals?

My daughter has already expressed that she DOES NOT want to be any part of it (but she is an unapologetic meat eater). I explained to her the hypocrisy of her attitude but she wasn't swayed.

 

[MeatKing]

I think if your daughter doesn't want any part of it, well you need to respect her wishes. (My kids are only 4 & 2) So what do i really know

I think maybe you should wait till you've done it a few times, before letting them help. Just in case you have any problems.

once you get it down to a tee, I would eventually maybe make dd, help cut them up and bag them. Get her used to that, then plucking, slowly expose her?

Good luck, I can't wait till I have the guts to do it myself!

 

[Mortos]

To tell you the truth, I am a little askeered of doing it for the first time. I like all my roosters but I have picked out my favorites. The losers are a beautiful SLW and an ok EE. The EE is kind of mean to my only EE hen. The SLW is just bottom of the totem pole but he doesn't do anything mean. I guess nice guys do finish last.

 

[shellyga]

One of the strongest memories I have from raising my own rabbits as a child was my dad clobbering them over the hear {more than once in some cases} and being forced to "help" with the skinning and dressing.. not a good memory. Hence, I am unable to kill my own birds and will look for someone in my rural area that might do it for halves.

As a teacher of elementary school children I would not force them into participating in this activity. It is difficult for children to handle death of any sort but will usually process the information and move on. Have the visual of a dead carcass imprinted in their mind.. not to mention all the lovely stuff that comes with killing and dressing a bird.. is not a choice I would make. Let them just see the finished product and RESIST have the urge to say " Here is poor Henry..{or whatever the name is} and we are going to eat him for supper"

Give them time, children are naturally curious and will want to participate on their own time table. .. or maybe not.. but please let that be their choice.

Shelly

 

[langshan]

My youngest boy (who is now 20) was 4 years old and wanted to help. He was amazed with "the guts" and stuff as he back then put it. Now you can forget it. Just me doing the deed. I would say it depends upon the child. If they want to help great, but never push them.

Mike in NC

 

[Judy]

I share property with my son and their kids who were about 6 to 16 at the time we did the first processing. Some were very interested and some wanted no part of it. No one was shielded from the process, and it was done on a day they were all here. Those who did not want to be involved had to help in less direct ways, hauling ice chests or ice to and from the house and such. Some had more trouble eating the results than others and this was also not forced. I thought it was handled well, and over time, the reluctant ones became more accepting.

Of course, as Grandma, I didn't have to make these decisions!

 

[Mortos]

My kids are very bright (don't we all say that?) and I will respect their wishes. I would just like them to understand that the chicken, turkey, beef and pork they eat comes from a living animal that has to die in order for them to eat it. They disassociate the two things now and I think knowing the process would give them more respect for the value of their food. It kinda makes me mad too when they say no but still wolf down the end product.

My dad also killed animals for food. He clobbered rabbits, rung chickens necks, gigged frogs, shot ducks and geese and, once, killed our easter chicks (back when they used to die them pink and blue) after they had grown up. He even called a yearling calf with a bucket of feed once and then shot it in the head to take to the slaughter house. I am kind of a wimp when it comes to those things but I never held it against my dad. He was always my hero, maybe more so because he was a rugged country boy who could do all that stuff and more.

 

[Sootsie]

im with your daughter i cant kill an animal, i dont want to see the process i know where meat comes from, i understand all the pros and cons for home produce, im 46
my sister aged 14 was made to watch a film in school about slaughtering and processing pigs, she has never eaten pork since. my friends mum got a rabbit for xmas every year, it always ran off xmas eve, yep u guessed it was xmas dinner. Again from the day she found out she has never had rabbit again.

my guess is it will be hard enough for your daughter just knowing the chicken dinner once ran around the garden without witnessing its end. if she doesnt want to participate then please respect her wishes and say nothing about it again. Some of us are hypacritical about meat i prefer it to arrive in a packet not on its own legs.

i drive a car that doesnt mean i need to be able to build one to appreciate it. its the same with food, computers, in fact every product you use or wear everyday. like i said you dont need to see and participate in each step of its production to appreciate how it arrived

 

[Luvroos]

I'll admit that I'm with others here pertaining to not killing animals and then allowing your daughter to maintain her freedom of choice where culling your roos are concerned. I have 5 including a lowest in peckng order SLW roo to 9 hens and just continually reinforce my authority over them. My largest problem with them is when one sees another mounting a hen, they are mounting each other by this time. They have all grown up together from hatch and are a very close nit family style flock and might react as normal roos and end up killing each other however I believe that actions as such are also in who and how they are raised.

My grand father had always culled his own but, he saw things differently than myself, I would never have the heart to cull my own and as a matter of fact I am a complete vegetarian while not appreciating the killing of any animal for food when it's so much healthier grown from mother earth regardless of the benefits that chicken obtains.

Good luck in your future cullings and I wish you the best with it as a beginner, congrats on being determined over it.

 

[booker81]

I would leave the choice up to them. Inform them of where you will be, what you will be doing, and they can leave, watch or help.

I watched my babysitter's husband process a deer when I was 7. My brother was 5. Everyone knew what was going on in the polebarn. My brother freaked out and ran. I watched the whole thing. That moment is burned in my memory of the moment I decided I would do my best to learn how to hunt or raise my own meat, and process my own meat when possible. If I would have known more, I would have asked to help probably