Strictly pet chickens! Anyone??

[tdgill]

Pets here too.

Though I admire and at times envy people who can raise their own food.

 

[RachelFromTheBlackLagoon]

I was wondering how many veggies were on this forum! With upwards of, what...30,000 members? I figured my chances of meeting at least a few were pretty decent! Haha.

I don't disagree with eating meat or raising your own food either. I just could never do it myself, and don't 100% understand it. I quickly become deeply attached to animals (probably because I have social anxiety and zero people skills

haha) and it's difficult for me to understand how others make that emotional disconnect. I look at my pets and think "how could you not completely fall in love?!"

 

[allmypeeps]

ME ME ME ME!!!!

I LOVE chickens and when I have more land will be 'collecting' more of them. I plan on making a sign for my house that says: Happy Hen Farm

They will not be eaten/culled and they will earn their keep with eggs and live out their years as old ladies whom, when the time comes will be humanely euthanized by a veterinarian.

I have also mentioned before I would like to acomplish making at least one a certified 'therapy pet' to take to see people/kids that could benefit from animal interaction.

I know some things on here seem barbaric to those of us too sensative to 'raise and cull' our own meat. No one actually LIKES that part of the deal, even those that DO raise their own meat or cull sick birds when they have too (those that think that part is fun would have to be mentally SICK!)

however people do get desensatized thru the years which may be why some posts may seem offensive to a 'strictly PET' person.

In either case- Don't leave BYC just yet...tere are LOTS of us whom tend twards being more like yourself (not that there is anything wrong with anyone else) but I know what you mean when you want to talk about how to HELP your bird friend and every one starts shouting 'cull cull CULL!' ....(not exactly the response you want.)

In that instance just disreguard those comments and if however majority seems to say cull- perhaps you should consider it....only feel free to head off to your VET to have them do it!

Cheers, and welcome to BYC!

e

(elizabeth in Maine)

Here's our egg factory rescue Delilah taking guitar lessons from my husband...or maybe its the other way around!

 

[RachelFromTheBlackLagoon]

Awww haha, I LOVE the enthusiasm, Elizabeth! And those have to be some of the CUTEST pictures ever!!! Thanks for the encouraging words and for making me smile!

A therapy chicken would definitely be awesome!

 

[ams3651]

I wouldnt consider my chickens pets, they are farm animals with personality. They have jobs, the girls lay eggs and Don protects the girls. I dont intend to eat them or sell them, even when they stop laying they can stay. Im a farm girl, I just cant say farm animals are pets.

 

[willow13]

i just got chicks, but that's what i am going to do. they are my "pets" and they'll be with me until they pass naturally. im a animal loving vegetarian, and would never consider eating or getting rid of them just because they stopped producing eggs. lol. plus chickens are so cute and smart.

 

[citrusdreams]

When I first got chickens, I didn't even think about eating them. I wasn't adverse to it, but it wasn't in the plan. They were for eggs and bug control. Plus they were so pretty roaming about the property with the dogs. I just liked watching them. I wouldn't say they are pets though...at all. Not like my dogs.

But then I saw a segment on TV about the nasty conditions in which store bought chickens are kept. They showed video of dozens of chickens crammed into little cages, defecating all over each other and pecking each other. They were sick too. In another chicken "factory", there was a guy there who said that his job was to walk around the barn (which was crammed to capacity with chicks) and pick up the dead ones that didn't survive the smooshing and disease. It really broke my heart.

The more I thought about it the more it made sense to me to raise them here at the farm, allowing them to free range and supplementing their bug-fests with good feed, clean water, and a dignified dispatching. IMOHO, you can't treat them any better than that. They *are* food to all of us who are not vegetarians, or even for those who don't ever eat chicken.

I don't think I could eat an animal that I have named, or come to care for in a pet kind of way. But I have definitely been able to buy or acquire an animal for the sole purpose of table meat, and it's not that hard if that's how I see the animal from the beginning (but I haven't been able to switch a button from permanent resident to dinner). I still treat it with dignity, I care for it when it's injured, I feed it well, I care for it when it's sick, I protect it from predators, I still give it attention, but it's for the table. I don't name it Buttons, Baby or Pretty; I name it T-Bone, Bacon or Eggs.

To me, it's much better to grow your own and have control over their conditions and processing than to eat that chicken from the store that has been tormented from the day it was born till the day it was killed. Even though I didn't see it happening, I *know* it did and it really bothers me. I can't just forget about it because I already know about it.

Unless my family is begging for chicken (and I don't have any slated for the freezer), I avoid buying it from the store. Besides, every time I buy chicken from the store, there is an offensive odor and touch to the chicken that I just don't get from farm-fresh. So, I like to incubate eggs for meat, and again, I know they're meat from day one and just don't get attached.

However, I can easily see how one can have chickens solely as pets and I think it's sweet.

 

[allmypeeps]

GREAT POST Citrusdreams!!!!

I was a vegetarian for a while...I won't lie- I missed eating meat...it was everywhere and offered to me by everyone. I gave up being veggie but still it DOES morally bother me...I mean, its NATURAL to eat meat....its just not natural for them to live/die tortured in the factory lifestyle. I will not support cruelty.

I kept trying to 'educate' to my friends/family what was happening to their food and by buying it they were supporting it to keep happening....They just turned their heads in disgust and refuse to listen...to them, if they tuned it out it didnt exhist..... I find that ignorant and pathetic. Its not that hard or expensive to just eat something else or find somewhere else to get it...if the WHOLE nation did that for only 1 month seriosuly only one measily month in protest, the meat industry would take a big hit and have to consider change....

I do give credit to those who HUMANELY raise/cull their own meat I personally dont think I could raise animals for food myself because I am too sensative, as a child I bottle fed lambs and played with bunnies that were then slaughtered. I was forced to help pluck chickens...it really messed with my emotions. however it would be nice to someday once we relocate, get a big freezer and find someone who we can buy humanely raised meat from.

e

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

our chickens are pets. The roo's go to other homes if we have more then one. Our ducks and quail are also pets.

 

[BigSkyChickens]

I bought my chickens for eggs, and have fantasies of being a farm-girl, but I am a softie! I named them and became attached while raising them as chicks. I know attachment leads to human suffering......and I find the idea of wringing their necks very disturbing.

I can only have 5 hens in my city, and I hadn't really thought it through - that they may stop laying someday. In a few years I may have to change my screen name to "Barren Hens Retirement Home"

I do eat meat, and I appreciate the awareness that is growing about where our meat comes from, and how it is raised.