Why have chickens?

[guntha45]

Not necessarily. The animals I care for live a good life, and the end (if being butchered) is quick and without drama. Remorse indicates a wrongdoing, something bad. Humanely butchering an animal for yourself or others isn't bad, so no remorse.

Thankful for the meat is the thought that I have.

I know I'm not doing anything wrong. Like you I take good care of my animals and butcher humanely. Maybe remorse isn't the best word. I don't like killing but like hunting, raising animals and providing meat. Killing is required to have meat, whether I do it or not. I can do it myself and enjoy all of it, except the killing, but it won't stop me from doing it. I too am thankful for the meat, just don't think people should have "blood lust".

 

[BDutch]

The choice is yours about eating meat or not but I don't think that just because you won't kill it yourself is reason enough to not eat it. After all, you probably live in a house you didn't build, you use water and flush the toilet without being a plumber, you turn on the lights and use electricity without being an electrician, and you probably drive a vehicle without being a mechanic. Point being, people have different abilities and gifts. We all depend on others to do things we can't. I am blessed coming from a family that had many talents and grew up learning how to do all the things I mentioned, growing up in rural Maine with limited income necessitates learning and being able to do a variety of things or you go without...

This is NOT about skills. This is about caring, feeling and guts. How can you kill an animal you really care for? For me it would be hard to kill my chickens. Maybe just as hard as it is for you to kill you’re dog (if you like him / have one). And I don’t want other people to do things for me I don’t feel righteous about.

We don’t need meat to eat healthy. We do need a toilet, a tap, heating (in winter) and electricity to live a healthy and comfortable life. And I don't feel remorse if someone installs or repairs anything.

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

The choice is yours about eating meat or not but I don't think that just because you won't kill it yourself is reason enough to not eat it. After all, you probably live in a house you didn't build, you use water and flush the toilet without being a plumber, you turn on the lights and use electricity without being an electrician, and you probably drive a vehicle without being a mechanic. Point being, people have different abilities and gifts. We all depend on others to do things we can't. I am blessed coming from a family that had many talents and grew up learning how to do all the things I mentioned, growing up in rural Maine with limited income necessitates learning and being able to do a variety of things or you go without...

This is a good point. People do best when they live in a community where everyone has their gift, and everyone benefits from the talents of each other.

 

[Ruby Rogue]

I love my roosters but they have to go... and I have someone who is willing to get rid of them for me, but it wouldn't be on my terms and the meat would be wasted. I feel --- I got the birds straight run (or hatched them, whatever), I knew the boys were going to have to go, I've fed them for months, and spent the money and time... if I want it done 'right', I'll have to do it myself. It doesn't make me feel bad to know this. Doing and thinking and feeling, (and eating) are different things... I'm still finding ways to put it off...

 

[guntha45]

This is NOT about skills. This is about caring, feeling and guts. How can you kill an animal you really care for? For me it would be hard to kill my chickens. Maybe just as hard as it is for you to kill you’re dog (if you like him / have one). And I don’t want other people to do things for me I don’t feel righteous about.

We don’t need meat to eat healthy. We do need a toilet, a tap, heating (in winter) and electricity to live a healthy and comfortable life. And I don't feel remorse if someone installs or repairs anything.

I was 15 years old in 1976 when my great grandmother passed away at 91 years old having lived without a toilet(2 hole outhouse), no shower or bathtub her whole life, never had a furnace(heated only with wood, 13 cord/year), only had running water at the kitchen sink, hot water was heated by the wood cook stove. My neighbors at the end of the road never had electricity, did have a toilet because they had gravity feed water, and they too heated only with wood. Everyone was comfortable and had happy but labor filled lives. I too raised my children in a log home I built with trees from my own land and heated only with wood. There is no more comforting feeling than when you have your wood in for the year!
People lived for thousands of years without having the comforts and ease of life we have now, but the vast majority did not live without meat, in many arctic cultures that's almost all they had.
Death is ultimately the end of life. Don't people put down their beloved pets when their live becomes nothing but suffering? Do you have any idea of the cruelty of death in nature. In nature animals almost always die a slow painful death, starvation from disease or injury, or from predators. The coyotes we have here in Maine hunt in packs, like wolves. They will take down a deer and start eating it while it's still alive! A one shot kill on a deer is FAR more humane a death!
Let us be kind and take good care of the animals we have, give them a humane death, and let society not embrace the fantasy feed to us since childhood from Disney...

 

[guntha45]

I love my roosters but they have to go... and I have someone who is willing to get rid of them for me, but it wouldn't be on my terms and the meat would be wasted. I feel --- I got the birds straight run (or hatched them, whatever), I knew the boys were going to have to go, I've fed them for months, and spent the money and time... if I want it done 'right', I'll have to do it myself. It doesn't make me feel bad to know this. Doing and thinking and feeling, (and eating) are different things... I'm still finding ways to put it off...

You can do it. I always put it off too, but do get it done. It's a good feeling once you're done, knowing you have food in the freezer

 

[ariri30]

Oh boy

 

[ariri30]

I love my roosters but they have to go... and I have someone who is willing to get rid of them for me, but it wouldn't be on my terms and the meat would be wasted. I feel --- I got the birds straight run (or hatched them, whatever), I knew the boys were going to have to go, I've fed them for months, and spent the money and time... if I want it done 'right', I'll have to do it myself. It doesn't make me feel bad to know this. Doing and thinking and feeling, (and eating) are different things... I'm still finding ways to put it off...

Thank you!

 

[ariri30]

You can do it. I always put it off too, but do get it done. It's a good feeling once you're done, knowing you have food in the freezer

Thanks!
I’m not reading this anymore. I read enough encouraging people and I don’t need the negative things other people are saying. It should be my responsibility to do the job if I allowed the hens to hatch chicks

 

[aart]

I read enough encouraging people and I don’t need the negative things other people are saying. It should be my responsibility to do the job if I allowed the hens to hatch chicks

Gotta learn to just scroll by...since BYC seems to mostly populated with 'pet' chicken owners.

For me it would be hard to kill my chickens.

Then maybe you should not participate in a thread that talks about it.

. I'm still finding ways to put it off...

I put my first off for 4 months (cockerel in his own coop section) over winter while I researched technique and equipment. The first is the hardest, not to say it ever gets 'easy' to kill a chicken, but the satisfaction of filling your own freezer and responsibly taking care of extra males from hatching is priceless.