weird question for a newbie...

[BarkerChickens]

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Usually 2-3 years is there "peak" production years; however, they can may irregularly after than. A friend of ours had a 9-yr-old hen that laid irregularly up until her death.

As for our plans with non-layers, keep 'em most likely unless they weren't a nice bird to begin with (in that case, I doubt laying will have anything to do with it!). We are in between the folks who have chickens "for food only" and chicken "for pets only". Excess roos are dinner (or given away if possible). While I am a big animal lover and and support animal rights completely, I also prefer to have healthier food options in the house (no nonsensical injections of hormones and anitbiotics, cramped, poorly kept quarters, etc). However, anything that has stayed on our property for any length of time (barking, meowing, bagawking (laying or not)), will live out there lives here. We will hatch our own eggs as necessary to prevent outside birds from potentially "contaminating" the existing flock.

 

[cindyanne1]

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Hear, hear!!

The chickens are a new thing for us, but we raise pigs and (sometimes) steers for meat and 4-H projects, and I can't own an animal without spoiling it and giving it the best life I can... and that goes for the pork and beef, too.

I feel much better knowing that particular animal had a good life and was as comfortable and happy as I could make it before the slaughter, vs. an animal that was raised in misery and filth.

It's all a matter of perspective, I suppose.

Although I'm glad I can pay people to do the butchering for me. I have a feeling even if I was living 150 years ago I'd be sticking to the kitchen and just be washing and wrapping the meat as it came in from being butchered... not out in the middle of it all.

 

[GoldenSilverLaced]

Here's the thing. They're chickens. I eat chicken. I will have a clearer conscience eating a chicken that I've had for 2 or 3 years knowing that throughout her life I've kept her safe, comfortable, and with as much sanitation a chicken can have.

That chicken that comes from the store was kept in deplorable conditions and never knew anything about the word "comfortable", not to mention the fact that it's feet never touched *dirt*. I still have to eat those chickens because I have no place that I can raise meat birds, but I do have layers that will need to be eaten just to make room for egg layers down the road. They will be respectfully put on the table and eaten with a lot less guilt than the ones "from the store".

That's a great way to look at it, IMO. My fiancee and I have plans to butcher a hog for our wedding feast, which we will be preparing ourselves. Right now he will be the one doing the butchering, and I will probably just observe as I have never seen or done anything like it before and he has. We have already reserved a hog from a farmer near his hometown who raises the hogs (mostly) free range. We feel very strongly about quality-of-life for livestock and other food animals; it can be difficult to adhere to that while living in town, but we do the best we can.

As for chicken, I've mostly stopped eating it, we're more of a pig/cow/lamb/elk kind of household anyway. But I do love duck and roasted chicken and turkey still, it has been a bit difficult for me to look at my plate and see my girls there in my dinner's place. I think anything that I keep as a pet will be forbidden from my dinner table. For some, it would be like keeping a dog as a pet but also raising dogs for meat.​

 

[my5lilrugrats]

I am one who will keep my hens until they pass on. There is no way that I could bring myself to eat my pets. I have 5 children and we eat a lot of chicken but my pets will never be at the dinner table. I do understand how others can do it, but I just don't have it in me. I'd much rather eat a bird I didn't know from the supermarket than one I've cared for and nutured.

 

[lelisabeth]

My husband and I really don't eat much meat at all, maybe ground beef or chicken once a month. Its more an issue of carbon footprint than animal rights for us, although I feel guilty that the meat we do eat comes from the grocery store, which is worse in both cases than if we raised our own or bought it from a local farm. Since we eat so little meat, we really should start sourcing it closer to home.
We just got three 10-week old Wyandottes, and I love them to death. My husband and I definately treat them as pets, although I am trying to think of them more practically. I have an issue with morning over pets death for a loooonnnggg time, like for years. I can't let them go, so right now I am trying not to see them as pets, but I know they are. I love them! The plan is to get chicks in a year or two and once those start laying to have the older ones butchered by someone else. I don't know yet if I will be able to do that, but I can't keep much more than 3 chickens living in the city.
My pet process so far has been when they are really sick to take them to the vet and leave them there to be put to sleep, I don't want to see them dead. But I also don't want to be a hypocrite and eat meat that came from MUCH farther away and lived in MUCH worse conditions. Such hard decisions...

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

If it doesn't lay eggs or give milk, I'm not feeding it!"

My DH's days may be numbered...

 

[cindyanne1]

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My DH's days may be numbered...