I was just looking at the most recent results from this poll. I am very surprised that only 7% of people raise them for meat. It seemed the percentage stayed constant the entire time. I would conclude that this is a pretty accurate representation due to it's consistancy. I'm very curious why this is such a low percentage, seeing as there are so many people that keep chickens for other reasons. I think it was Greyfields that said only a scant 1% of Americans raise their own chickens for meat. I guess he was right (as usual). Any ideas why people, especially people who already keep chickens, don't raise chickens strictly for meat. Anxious to hear what everybody thinks as this has me dumb-founded.
Butchering takes an extra amount of commitment and effort, is stressful and messy for me. Ive done it in the past, but as much as I like to know I have healthy fresh meat, its just less rewarding for me. Eggs are more rewarding and that on a daily basis, Plus, meaties are just rather nasty to raise, theyre piggish and have little personality IMO, which of course helps when the time comes to kill them, but makes caring for them less enjoyable. Guess that makes me shallow and superficial!
1. I don't have the space for meaties. 2. I don't have freezer space for the results. 2. I couldn't butcher them myself and here on Cape Cod, there are no processors.
I was a bit surprised too but I can see how some people who aren't raised to raise your own food would not have the heart to butcher chickens they have raised since chicks.....they can pull on your heart strings. I happen to live in an area where people still mostly provide for themselves so it is VERY uncommon to hear of a strictly pet chicken. Joining BYC was the first time I got to hear of people only having chickens for pets/eggs. We name most all of our chickens, and we are going to eat them all at some point. They are treated just like loved pets and are fed really well. Happy chickens = Healthy meat LOL I make sure my children are being raised to understand how to take care of yourself and how to raise healthy food and they even get involved in the butchering process...and love to do it. IDK why more people don't do it......if they researched commercial meats they would be out there eating their own eta: And we don't butcher a whole bunch at once. We have 2 deep freezers that we store mainly deer meat and veggies in. We eat chicken once or twice a week and we go out and butcher the chicken the day before we have chicken usually. Sometimes I will do several at once but not often.
Oh, I have done it, I'm old and know where food comes from very well, I've helped butcher pigs, deer, moose, carabou and chickens. I do process layers at least for soup at some point, but not en masse as I'd have to do if I raised meaties. Mine are not strictly pets, since I'd need a seperate coop to raise meaties, and a better set up to process them, it's too much to do for something I dislike doing. Besides, as I said, they're not fun to raise like layers are. *shrugs*
We are trying to become a more self sufficient family, and are. However, we have family members who are clueless. I was at my cousins bachelorette party over this past weekend in Chicago, and one of the girls asked me "Do eggs really come from chickens?" All this while my cousin was shaking a box of "egg beaters" cuz she can't stand to touch an egg. OMG! Do you seriously know how hard it was NOT to laugh!!??!!?? Some people feel that food comes from grocery stores! HELLO! No clue from that point. Too funny!! It was so hard not to laugh. Especially since we raise meat birds
Vegetarian for over 20 years....And I would not have the room anyway, live in town and restricted #'s
I used to hunt, so I have no issue with cleaning a chicken now and then. If I were to raise "meaties" though, I'd probably have to invest time, effort, and money in additional equipment, and a place to store it ... sure, you could clean a meatie with just a pocket knife, but do you really want to do 25 or so that way at once? I sure don't. Add to that the need to get more freezer space ... argh. I'd rather raise more dual-purpose birds and clean a couple at a time, at most.
We did meat birds once, to me it was awful... I was told to keep the light on all the time to interupt their sleep so they would eat more... the way they stretched their legs constantly I could only imagine that they were growing so fast that it was painful. I know they lived a better life then the "factory chickens" but it just bugged me. And no I didn't leave the light on 24/7, I refused to do so. The worst part is that my family will only eat white meat so it seemed like a waste.
We successfully raised and butchered 52 meaties this year. We were going to have someone else process, but decided to give it a whirl. We have eaten a few of the birds and they are delicious. We did a few different batches, and recruited help for the final batch of 20. I thought they were little stinky pigs, but that actually made it easier to butcher them. We will do it again next, only we are going to raise them in 2 batches, half in the spring and another in the fall. We had just over $5 in each bird and they averaged 6 lbs. dressed, so we thought it was VERY well worth it. Most people think we are nuts for doing it, but quite a few wish they had the room to do it, and I did sell 20 of mine to family. We also raise our own beef, have a big garden. We also have adolescent layers who seem to be in no hurry to start laying!
