Eating your own chickens, pigs, etc.

[catspjamas]

How do you do it? How do you transition from feeding and caring for them, to eating them? This isn't an animal rights question or about vegetarians, or not knowing where my food comes from.

I've never had to supply my own meat for my table. I've always gotten it at the grocery store. I understand that the meat I buy at the grocery store was once a living, breathing animal. I don't have a problem with gathering eggs and eating those, I've done that. I fish, and eat what I catch, so I have no problem there. But, I just can't wrap my head around feeding chickens and caring for them and then going out and grabbing one up and wringing it's neck. My grandmothers did, but I never saw it happen, but I always knew the chicken we were eating was once out in the yard. With my own chickens, though, I can see me naming them all and they becoming more like pets, and then not being able to eat them.

Right now, I have no chickens. Eventually though I know I will. It's also in the back of my mind that I should learn to hunt.

[katlupe]

I never could do it either. My husband laughs that if I acquired a baby pig, we'd end up with one of those huge old pigs to care for. I like others who do it, but shoot, I can barely stand to walk past the lobster tank of live lobsters at Price Chopper. I had a pet hen and she died in my arms of old age. I still miss her. She gave us the best eggs. I think of getting a small laying flock of about 6 chickens and just keep them that way. I don't have to eat them just because they are chickens. I am able to buy local meat without seeing them look at me.

[wannabechef]

Originally Posted by katlupe

I never could do it either. My husband laughs that if I acquired a baby pig, we'd end up with one of those huge old pigs to care for. I like others who do it, but shoot, I can barely stand to walk past the lobster tank of live lobsters at Price Chopper. I had a pet hen and she died in my arms of old age. I still miss her. She gave us the best eggs. I think of getting a small laying flock of about 6 chickens and just keep them that way. I don't have to eat them just because they are chickens. I am able to buy local meat without seeing them look at me.

I have a problem with lobster myself...

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2

[alpacaspinner]

My laying flock is just that, a laying flock. And they will have a place in the coop for as long as Nature lets them; I am perfectly OK with having a bunch of retirees clucking about. That said, I am getting very close, intellectually and emotionally, to thinking that I could get some meat chicks, and raise them up with that end in mind. I am very interested/concerned with where my food comes from, and it is important to me not to encourage factory farms with my grocery dollars. I buy my eating chicken from a local farmer now, but I think that I will be able to "graduate" soon LOL. As to how to reach that mindset - I figure that the animals in my care have a very good life, and will have as quick and easy a death as I can manage, which has got to be better than the run of the mill supermarket meat. That is the sticking point for me at the moment though - I need to be sure that I can give them that quick and easy death.

[Ziptie]

Here is some of my thoughts on the topic though we have not been farming for real long...

For us we can not buy meat it the store. So when we had gone for over two years without really any pork products, myself and the children were like one of those cartoons with the wolfs drooling all over the sheep with the knife in one hand and the fork in the other. When it was time to take our first pigs to the butchers. Though there was one pig who was really friendly, and their was some pang of sadness when I drove away from the butchers.
Another thing I not sure of is when our first family dairy cow has fulfilled her useful life span we can't not waste that much meat...so...

When it comes to us butchering things like chicken and such. Well there wouldn't be any chicken eaten in the house for the next week. So, everything is put in the freezer then were all good again (except of oldest is having a harder time eating chicken with the bone in it).

I guess in the end sometimes it is hard to do, but the need for animal protein overrides...well what to call it..sentimental value?

[bluemoonluck]

I raised rabbits for meat. Believe me, after the hundreth time you get bitten/scratched for the crime of trying to pick one up, butchering them suddenly isn't so hard

[Dixie Bee Acres]

To me, its not really a big deal. This is where the phrase, "never name your food" comes from.
My dogs are my pets, my wife and children are my family, every other living breathing thing at my place is food. I buy them knowing they will provide food for my family.

Don't get me wrong, I like my chickens. I like watching them roam around, play tug-o-war with waste I throw in their pen from my garden or table. But, they have a purpose, lay eggs, and take a vacation to club Kenmore. Rabbits make bunny berries for the garden, then go to freezer, turkey grows and becomes dinner. When I get pigs next year, they will have a good life for several months, then be butchered.
Almost every evening, I watch a few deer across the road from my place. Beautiful creatures, especially the for with 2 dawns. I watch them and admire how beautiful they are, yet with any luck, they will become bamboo burger in a few short months.

[Callieslamb]

I don't make friends of my animals. Think of them as meat from the beginning. It's easier. Here's a funny one- even thinking the way I think, I had a hard time eating that first egg that came out of our first chickens. I waited 3-4 days and almost gagged when I did eat it. Not sure why, maybe I had a better idea where it came from?

[luvrulz]

The cows we plan on eating, we name accordingly - "Ribeye", "T-Bone", "Pot Roast". The pigs we name "Sausage", "Tenderloin" etc.... Everyone knows they will grace our table eventually.... Chickens, we only name the ones that are the pets....and those are few and far between.... You just have to adjust your mind set.... Eat to your health!

[nduetime]

First off, we do not eat our layers. We let them grow old, retire etc and just keep feeding them. We did butcher one once..a long time ago...she smelled great, looked delicious and was tough as could be even after stewing all day. So, the layers get a pass and get names.

The meat chickens on the other hand...by the time they are ready for butchering i cannot wait to see them go! I call them pig chickens cause all they do is poop and eat. I do not butcher them myself just because I like the way our packer does it and I know it is all safe and good and done right. I used to help butcher as a kid and I still remember the stink of a hundred chickens being butchered, plucked etc and how Mom and my Auntie were panicking about cooling them down quick enough. So not for me.

Our calves are also named. Burgermeister for the boys and Barbie-Q for the girls. they are also taken to slaughter, given a pat and sometimes a hug and then I walk away. Have i shed a tear....oh probaby now and again. I get over pretty quick though. We have to keep impressing on our kids and grandkids that so and so is for meat to feed us and that helps us keep it in mind too. They get love, treats, pets and scratches. They learn to lead on a halter, pick up their feet, and allow brushing and cleaning etc but when it is their time then that is it.

[highlands]

They are food. We're all part of the web of life. I don't see myself as being separate but rather a part of it all.

If it worries you, realize that both a chicken and a pig would gladly eat you given the opportunity. It is the natural order of things.

[Maura]

The first chicken that you put in the oven will be the rooster who attacks your child. That one is easy. Then, the one that attacks you. If you have enough roosters, your initial betrayal will be easy.

I hate killing them, it is worth it to me to pay someone else to do it. I think it is about $1.50 to have a chicken killed, gutted, defeathered, beheaded, and chilled. Ducks are closer to $3.00. Keep in mind that this is an organically fed, free range bird, which would cost much more to buy than it would to raise up and pay for butchering.

As for the whole betrayal thing, keep in mind that these chickens and pigs have had a wonderful life while in your care. You are much kinder raising them yourself and having them butchered, than buying the same animal from the supermarket.

[TnAndy]

It's simply being honest about your source of protein. Buying store meat raised in a factory farm is less than honest, and far more cruel to the animals, in my opinion.

I'm not a religious person in terms of a denomination, I find most of them to be hotbeds of hypocrites that rarely listen to their own message, but I think I am a spiritual person in many ways. One of those is that we are good stewards of the land we occupy while we're here.....and the creatures that share our land.

To that end, my critters live as good a life as I can provide....much better than most of my neighbors in terms of care, such as shelter, feed, clean water, shade, etc, and I feel many, many times better than any meat you're likely to buy in a store. I kill mine as quickly and humanly as possible, and silently thank them for providing the nourishment for me and mine to continue life. On slaughter day, I don't joke around about it, and anyone here to help that does gets an earful, and is invited to get an attitude adjustment or hit the road.

[Wolfy-hound]

When I raised chickens for meat, I thought of them as food animals from the start. When it was time to kill and clean, it wasn't too hard.

My breeders and hens, when I needed to kill the occasional one for various reasons were a little harder but the death was quick.

My special birds that I felt more were pets, those I only killed for humane reasons, feel upset, and if it was okay(due to whatever reason I needed to kill them) I didn't have a problem eating them afterwards, once they were already dead. The only times that happened were when a dog injured two and a hawk(or owl? maybe raccoon?) injured another. All three were dispatched quickly to end suffering, but then used as food afterwards. So I was upset that I HAD to kill them, but killing them was humane.

Once it's dead, it's meat. I've only NOT felt that way about my own horse who died of colic and my dogs. I always said I would happily use a horse as meat, but when it actually happened, it was such a blow that I honestly didn't even consider it, I was numb with grief. Even if I had thought about it, she had been given drugs of some sort so it probably would not have been possible anyway, but still.

[chickenista]

I don't have a problem killing our birds for food. Even the ones that we name.
And when the hens get old, they go in the pot.
I cannot tell you how I do it. I suppose that the realization that I am feeding my family something that we raised, something free of all of the guck that comes with commercially produced food just outweighs any squeem I may have.

[Gray Wolf]

Never worried much about it. That's the way nature works, we just happen to be almost at the top of the food chain.

[SFM in KY]

Originally Posted by Dixie Bee Acres

This is where the phrase, "never name your food" comes from.

Very true.

I can't tell anyone who hasn't grown up raising their own food how to shift their mindset to seeing the livestock you raise as food, but the rule from the first I can remember at home was that we didn't name the livestock we raised to sell as the ranch income or for the table and we didn't make pets of them. Almost all of our meat came either from livestock we raised or from hunting when I was growing up.

[Goat Servant]

Meat.
We don't know where or how they were raised unless we did it ourselves.
We know what feed, how they were cared for.
Some of them even had names.
When your own freezer is empty it's hard to buy from grocery store. Dang cardboard tasteless mush.

[Harry Chickpea]

If humans got to live forever, I might worry about it. Everything dies. These animals wouldn't even be alive if they didn't have a purpose. If you have seen how nature deals out death, you wouldn't be so concerned.

[catspjamas]

It's just me, so I'm not having to feed a family, no kids, only cats. I didn't know there was a difference between layers and meat chickens. Poultry wasn't part of the Vet Tech program, like sheep, pigs, cattle, horses, and goats. The chicken I'm buying at the grocery store is what concerning me right now. The breasts are huge, more like small turkeys, then chicken. There is an independent meat market near where I live. I know he processes deer for people, and his meat is local. I'll have to check it out.