Why do I beat myself up about butchering a few cockerels.

[Mtnboomer]

Sorry... I'm confused... how do you humanely kill a living being who doesn't want to die?

Quickly. Calmly. Deliberately without hesitation.

 

[jspeese]

You've got to be able to distance yourself from certain animals if you raise any kind of livestock. Too many cockerels do exactly what you said, namely fight and are too rough on the hens. Plus they consume feed. Even if you just raise laying hens (and you can still get an occasional cockerel from a sexing mistake), you've got to face the fact that in a few years they will no longer be productive but still continue to eat. Even if you sell them or give them away, you know that they will probably be used for stewing hens. I refrain from getting certain specials like assorted fancy straight run or other rare breeds I'd love to have (like lavender Orpingtons and certain bantams) that come straight run only because I know by the law of averages, half are going to be cockerels and that's expensive meat (what little there is of it compared to a broiler). If you want pets, fortunately there are now a lot of hatcheries that sell very small orders of sexed chicks, smaller than the standard 15-25 minimum, and in a lot of different breeds. But they aren't cheap.

 

[MissTwinkle]

So please no harshness on this. I understand some are for food. I was raised on a farm and raising cattle for butchering is often what we did. I have a hard time with it when I get attached, this happened one year I refused to eat any beef for a long time. A calf had a hard birth and I took to spoil it. I begged dad not to butcher it.. he said suck it up.. lol. I just feel bad that animal trusted me and I go and kill it. Lol. Mind you that I am a hunter and go kill deer every year.
If it’s mine I have these crazy I feel bad feelings. If it’s not mine it doesn’t bother me..

I guess it’s different for me when raised.. its mixed feelings..

I know I am a weird-o
[/QUOTE]

I I don’t think you’re a weirdo at all! It was nearly at tears as I butchered an older chicken that I loved. I felt so bad I couldn’t do the rest. It was terrible. Then there are other chickens I just had no trouble with. Sometimes chickens are friends not food. Sometimes we don’t know when they are which. We love chickens it’s OK

 

[Folly's place]

And remember that for every 'pullet only' order you get, there are at least an equal number of cockerels that have to go 'somewhere'. I'd rather have them live here, have a nice life, and die humanely to feed my family.
Mary

 

[Sheila Weldon]

Ok so we butchered three 5 month old cockerel this morning. I feel bad. I hatched them and raised them. But with the virus I didn’t want to take them to the animal auction because of the risk although it hasn’t been reported in the area yet.. they were over breeding the hens, and fighting a little..


So please no harshness on this. I understand some are for food. I was raised on a farm and raising cattle for butchering is often what we did. I have a hard time with it when I get attached, this happened one year I refused to eat any beef for a long time. A calf had a hard birth and I took to spoil it. I begged dad not to butcher it.. he said suck it up.. lol. I just feel bad that animal trusted me and I go and kill it. Lol. Mind you that I am a hunter and go kill deer every year.
If it’s mine I have these crazy I feel bad feelings. If it’s not mine it doesn’t bother me..

I guess it’s different for me when raised.. its mixed feelings..

I know I am a weird-o

No, You
re not a weird-o! We know we need to thin out our roosters, but can't bring ourselves to do it!

 

[catharineslover]

Ok so we butchered three 5 month old cockerel this morning. I feel bad. I hatched them and raised them. But with the virus I didn’t want to take them to the animal auction because of the risk although it hasn’t been reported in the area yet.. they were over breeding the hens, and fighting a little..


So please no harshness on this. I understand some are for food. I was raised on a farm and raising cattle for butchering is often what we did. I have a hard time with it when I get attached, this happened one year I refused to eat any beef for a long time. A calf had a hard birth and I took to spoil it. I begged dad not to butcher it.. he said suck it up.. lol. I just feel bad that animal trusted me and I go and kill it. Lol. Mind you that I am a hunter and go kill deer every year.
If it’s mine I have these crazy I feel bad feelings. If it’s not mine it doesn’t bother me..

I guess it’s different for me when raised.. its mixed feelings..

I know I am a weird-o

That is what makes us human - we have complex thoughts and feelings!

 

[Smurfnibble]

I feel ya!! I completely understand why you would feel bad, and it’s really not nice to tell you to suck it up just because you have a heart.
I have had to cull my favorite hen awhile ago because she went blind and was being attacked by the other hens. The blindness was a genetic thing, apparently. It was tough.
I’d like to add a Bravo! to you though for doing what you need to do. Fighting and uproars in your flock is no good, and if you don’t need to breed then there’s no need.. oh that rhymes..

 

[MClean417]

Like you our chickens are basically pets with the benefits being that part of their byproducts, the eggs, we eat or give away. However last year I butchered a Roo from our expansion flock.

We went a little overboard. My wife wanted olive eggers but they were straight run (4 roos 1 hen). I bought 10 Polish (2 roos 3 hens 2 breeds). The rest we bought were sexed, correctly it appears by the eggs we get. But we started 24 eggs in the incubator and got 4 healthy birds out of that. Our first try, a good portion didn't develope, some didn't hatch and some didn't live long after hatching. The 4 that DID make it, all roos. I didn't have the heart there and a quick add on Craigs list at 9 oclock got me 4 phones calls by 11:30pm when I took the add off. Man showed up the next day, happily took them off my hands. I'm sure they're living it up in North KC.
The 4 Olive egger roos, at too young an age, were really buttheads. Individually they tried to kill the Polish Roos or kill hens. Not pick on, not bully, Kill. One of those I wrenched the neck on when I had to pull him off my orp hen he was attacking. Two saw that, got out of the pen and wouldn't come back. I never saw them again. The last one, who had looked like a hen up to this time, popped his comb out overnight and went homicidal like the others did. His murder is not this story.
This leaves us to my butchered roo, my first one. Insta potted he didn't turn out too bad but it was hard to do. Not so much emotionally but physically. The Roo in question was one of 5 that I had left and was the same type as one of them. We noticed that a Lavender Orpington was bullying our flock and really throwing his weight around with 4 Polish Roos. He even drove one off buy running him through the plastic fence that I had as a "suggestion" of their safe yard. I saw him do it to another one, just ran full speed into the roo, into the fence and the fence popped at a seem. I recovered that victim. I couldn't find the other one as I came to the run, saw a bit of fence down and at roundup was missing a bird. My neighbor found his remains, victim of a fox. After the attack that I witnessed I separated the Orp Roos to their own little bachelor pad. The one in question went right back to the flock after the attack and as they were identical from across the yard I had to separate them both. Within a week they went from worrying about being away from all those hens to one was attacking the other. Put the non attacker back in the with flock and marked the attacker. The one I put back had no problems with the flock. When I let the other guy rejoin he just went back at attacking so I put him back in the tractor. It was butchering time.

I got the butchering rig ready. And unlike the last time I went to pick him up, he wasn't happy when went into the chicken tractor. After a little cage match I held him by his feet and of course he calmed right down. I took him to and slid him into the cone where he still was in a state of euphoria. Then I did the hard part and walked away to finish the table while gravity did it's work. When I came back my aggressive rooster was gone but someone had left another bird to be butchered in it's place. I had NO emotional attachment to that bird whatsoever. A 57 year old child I know but I told you at the start it wasn't so hard emotionally. That was why. I would do it again in a second. Probably even bet past the whole illusion, eventually. (sigh, I'm just not farmer enough but I'm tryin)

Problem is like everyone else, we buy our chicken processed, no skin, no muss, no fuss. It's been a good 45 years since I last cut up a whole chicken. That bird had his good innerds in a a little bag inside. I evidently haven't raised that breed of bird. Buy the time I got this Orpington to that point, my arthritic hands weren't working so well. I didn't pluck him, I skinned him. It looked so easy on the Tube. Upon further watching (afterwards) I noticed they had two full grown guys in the video each pulling the bird in different directions. Skin and feathers came right off for them. Shoot, I had alread gotten my hands cold with the water before skinning time and they stop working around 45 degrees. Now I was pulling the coat off a bird who although dead didn't want his coat removed!
Then I butchered the butchering job. Could not get the entrails out for nothing. When it came to cutting up the bird I missed the leg and wing joints, missed the correct points on the body and somehow got a finished piece made of wing and leg with nothing in between. I didn't even know that was possible.
Practice makes perfect I know but it'll have to be a warmer day before I do the next bird.
I was thinking of raising meat birds, but not this year. I'll have to be retired or the baby sitting will have to slow down, I just don't have time now but when I do I'll have to buy a plucker.

The other Orp is a good roo and really doesn't get into any squabbling between the other 3 Polish. With 16 hens to watch after they're always running from here to there and really only have time to argue at night before bed. That's usually just one interrupting the others crow.

As for raising meat birds, On a small scale I've read you just spend more money on meat birds then you do buying it at the market. That may be true, but I have a good section of grass that I can pull a tractor up and down for their whole cycle and start again. The whole track is visible from my bedroom window so I should be able to be notified of any fox or coyote looking for a meal. I'll have to buy one of those plucker rigs I already have a turkey fryer that I can use to dip the birds. That or devise some way to skin them easily. I'll also need to wait till I'm retired. There's just no time between regular garden, mowing, work and chicken watching schedules to add another activity. Maybe someday.

Or maybe just raise meat rabbits, I don't know. They can't be too hard, can they?

 

[Chick-a-de]

Ok so we butchered three 5 month old cockerel this morning. I feel bad. I hatched them and raised them. But with the virus I didn’t want to take them to the animal auction because of the risk although it hasn’t been reported in the area yet.. they were over breeding the hens, and fighting a little..


So please no harshness on this. I understand some are for food. I was raised on a farm and raising cattle for butchering is often what we did. I have a hard time with it when I get attached, this happened one year I refused to eat any beef for a long time. A calf had a hard birth and I took to spoil it. I begged dad not to butcher it.. he said suck it up.. lol. I just feel bad that animal trusted me and I go and kill it. Lol. Mind you that I am a hunter and go kill deer every year.
If it’s mine I have these crazy I feel bad feelings. If it’s not mine it doesn’t bother me..

I guess it’s different for me when raised.. its mixed feelings..

I know I am a weird-o

lol, its a state of mind, survivalist meets the privileged. You have been blessed with the gift of awareness that you have a choice. Not everyone can aford to care, but thats just my perspective because I have asked myself that very question.

 

[dekel18042]

Sometime acknowledging it helps. I have even mixed it up with other meat, so I was not sure. The mind is a crazy place, and keeping it under control is a challenge for all of us. Sometimes knowing this can help.

When I am going to cull something, I start distancing myself as soon as that is the decision, I still feed and water them, but I don't watch them, talk to them extra.

As for feeling guilty, people get mixed up and feel guilty for the wrong things. An animal well cared for, and quickly culled, is good husbandry. Much better than an animal kept with strife and danger from the wrong mix of animals in the flock because no one can take care of the issue.

Mrs K

Mrs. K. Not to change the subject but what breed of hen is your avator? We got some that look like that from a bin marked pullets and have no idea (neither does anyone else) what they are. Do they have muffs and beards? Ours lay beautiful pinkish tan eggs.