What do vegetarians do with unproductive laying hens?

[Nostalchic]

This is a really interesting discussion and addresses the fundamental issues that confront human beings who are mammals, omnivores with appetites, have an intelligence and ability/need to recognize the profound ethical issues involved in something as basic as what (who) we eat! We don't have the luxury of an universally accepted cultural angle on this - too much input from all-over-the-place. But one of my favorite images is from the book "Cold Mountain" - not the wicked-rooster-dispatched scene, though that also has an interesting message on many levels, but that of the old woman who loves and cares for her goats, and carefully and gently kills a kid to feed her guest. It was a loving and compassionate act. It acknowledged the reality of living at the expense of someone/something else, and there were echoes of the blessing/gratitude rituals of Native Americans when hunting/killing game. There are costs to living. It is something that most Americans don't recognize: that they live at the expense of someone/something else. There are many layers to this understanding. We can understand it better if we are connected to those whose lives are also at stake, even love them, and yet can accept that life depends on this ancient relationship of predator/prey, nurturer/executioner, protector/ destroyer. I'm not preaching, just exploring and trying to arrive at some reasonable resolution. But I do know that refusing to buy/eat/support the miserable results of factory farming is a big part of all this, probably for most of us.

 

[Kelly G]

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VERY well said. Thank you.

 

[Iceblink]

I am not a vegetarian, I will eat pasture raised, local preferably organic meat when I can find it. But I am in the same boat as some of you. I love my chickens and appreciate what they do for me, both egg and otherwise. But since my flock is very small, I can't keep non producing hens forever.

When I was picking out the breeds of chickens to get, I picked heritage breeds that I thought would lay over a long period of time. They don't start laying as early or often as hybrids, but hopefully they will lay longer. Also, I am hoping that at least one of them will go broody occasionally, and that is another 'use' for an older hen.

 

[scooter147]

I will share this. I have a good friend, 20 years my senior, and she keeps horses and a few pet goats in Indiana. Well her barn was clean but loaded with bugs. I mentioned to her several years back to get a few hens to let run around the place and I bet her that her bug population would decrease.
She didn't believe me and said she didn't want any nasty chickens pooping all over her place.
Now I have a great relationship with this person and when she said that I said. "how can it be any worse than the piles of horse crap and goat raisins all over the place".
Well, long story short, I got her to agree to take about 8 of my "spent" hens and put them in her barn about this time a year. I told her we would revisit it in the early winter as to wether she wanted me to take them back.
The hens are still there!!! she now has a total of 16 of my older hens.
She does not feed them a thing other than provide fresh water and commercial feed in the winter months and they are some of the happiest healthiest chickens you would ever want to find.
They have learned that horses are messy eaters and gather around their feed buckets when they are fed sweet feed.
These 16 hens are still providing her about a 6-8 eggs a week, just enough for her and her husband to have a great Sunday brunch.

 

[fowltemptress]

I'm not vegetarian, but many of my friends are. Most of the ones that have chickens keep hens as pets and don't even eat the eggs . . . they either give the eggs away or feed them back to their pets. I do have a vegetarian friend who keeps hens for the eggs, though, and she simply can't afford to keep unproductive hens. She simply kills the hens and freezes them to sell to people with snakes, or she makes it into food for her cat. The important thing to her is that the hens had a good life, and while not willing to eat them herself, she's not against making sure they're killed humanely for the benefit of other animals.

 

[WalkingWolf]

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My understanding from a friend who's daughter was a strict vegetarian that she ate NO animal products at all. That meant no fish, no eggs, no milk, no meat. I guess there are different levels to it, because I have seen folks who boasted of being a veggie eat meat. But this girl looked on the ingredients for everything and would not even eat jello.

 

[scooter147]

Walking wolf, you speak of a vegan, they will eat no animal by-product. A vegitarian will eat eggs, milk and products made with such.

 

[TheDuckCrew]

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i agree. i'm not a vegetarian YET. (not old enough according to my parents) i'd keep them as pets. thats what my ducks are now, just pets.

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

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My understanding from a friend who's daughter was a strict vegetarian that she ate NO animal products at all. That meant no fish, no eggs, no milk, no meat. I guess there are different levels to it, because I have seen folks who boasted of being a veggie eat meat. But this girl looked on the ingredients for everything and would not even eat jello.

Eating no animal products is vegan. Very, VERY hard. Jello has geletin (sp?) in it, which is some kind of animal fat, though the type escapes me at the moment. I had a friend who's whole family was vegetarian an when she was 12, her mom decided she wanted to try the vegan diet. She did it successfully with her mom for a few years. Haven't spoken to her in a few years so I'm not sure if she broke down. From my comprehention, there are tons of pills and vitamins that are essential (obviously) and not much one is able to eat, and enjoy from time to time. Same stuff all over unless you have the really spicey foods that are prepared for the vegan diet. (Bland foods are the ones that don't have the animal products, so vegetarian and vegan foods have alot of spices in it for flavor.)

Alright, no more hijacks.

 

[wings]

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VERY, VERY well said!