well, I feel guilty.

[taraann81]

Quote:
Well I have limited choices around here. My one faint hope is that the processors we use is a small family owned business. They don't have huge amounts of birds to process in a day and as such only process once or twice a week depending on demand. I think besides our 10 they had about 20 other birds.

I suppose I could get friends to process. Maybe make a deal, process my birds gently and you can have one.

 

[PoultryPedia]

With that a small operation, they wouldn't be using the kind of factory line I was referring to.
You could ask your local processors how and how early on they kill the birds. It might be alright.

 

[Jess N Jeff]

Quote:
That is what I thought. I cried when I processed him, then I cried when I put him in the crockpot. Then I tasted him....mmmmm.....All of a sudden I felt a weird sence of pride beause he was awsome tasting. I give my chickens a lot of time and care and love, its my duty to give them a quick painless passing. You will find it hard at first to process your chickens yourself, but you will learn a lot and there will be no guilt in comparison to what you feel when you take them to someone that does not give them a respectful end.

 

[taraann81]

Quote:
That is what I thought. I cried when I processed him, then I cried when I put him in the crockpot. Then I tasted him....mmmmm.....All of a sudden I felt a weird sence of pride beause he was awsome tasting. I give my chickens a lot of time and care and love, its my duty to give them a quick painless passing. You will find it hard at first to process your chickens yourself, but you will learn a lot and there will be no guilt in comparison to what you feel when you take them to someone that does not give them a respectful end.

I am proud I raised these guys myself and that I know my birds had a hundred fold better life than any of the birds I would purchase to eat from the grocery store. I've heard that processing has a bad odor, I don't know if I could eat it if that was true.

 

[GBov]

Quote:
Well I have limited choices around here. My one faint hope is that the processors we use is a small family owned business. They don't have huge amounts of birds to process in a day and as such only process once or twice a week depending on demand. I think besides our 10 they had about 20 other birds.

I suppose I could get friends to process. Maybe make a deal, process my birds gently and you can have one.

They would have been grabbed by the legs, legs pushed into clips and most likely electro stunned and then bled out. By the time they realized they were upside down they were dead. With a small processer they wouldnt have had a bad end so enjoy them without guilt

Oh, and I find cleaning poultry to have very little smell, esp. if you go slow and dont poke a hole in the guts. But then, I dont find much smell when doing a pig either, again because I go dead slow and dont poke holes in anything that shouldnt have holes poked in it

Its understandable to feel sad about your livestock, I felt terrible when the sow I was butchering turned out to have been pregnant

but these things happen sometime and we just have to learn from it and move on.

Oh, and enjoy the good meat, of course

 

[taraann81]

Well thanks for the reassurance and thats horrible about the sow! I am going to cook the smallest chicken tomorrow and I will enjoy it without guilt!

 

[GBov]

Quote:
Yeh it was, and the man who sells me my pigs was HORRIFIED! Having seen him in tears from missing his first shot on one of his pigs he was sooooo upset about the sow. She didnt look the least bit preggers and hadnt been with the boor but managed it somehow

Enjoy your hard earned food, you deserve it

 

[barred-rocks-rock]

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Quote:
Tara,
No problem, "I got your back" ..... As long as the turkey trade for bullie goes.

A fawn and her name is Peaches!

I'm drawing a blank right now on what Stanley Marsden used to breed the BSW but there is a black feather gene in the mix. Cull anything with black feather and blue eyes. I'll look it up and let you know

Steve & Peaches

 

[taraann81]

PEACHES!! and I thought Mabel and Ruby were bad

I have nothing with blue eyes I just noticed one small black feather on one hen.