Chickens and Pregnancy

[aikigypsy]

We have a few chickens which my brother and his wife gave us, and would like to get more this spring/summer. I am slightly pregnant and have a couple of pregnancy-related questions.

I know you're not supposed to change cat litter when pregnant, but is there any risk of toxoplasmosis from chicken poop?

We are going to order some day old chicks, which should arrive during my 2nd trimester. I know we'll want at least 6 more laying hens, but I also want to raise our own meat birds, too. The plan was to get a straight run of some dual purpose breed (possibly Welsummers?). Before I got pregnant, I was pretty sure that I'd want nothing to do with killing roosters while pregnant, but now I'm not so sure. I'm feeling more tough and active than I expected to at this point. My husband, who is addicted to horror films and likes violent video games, says that he'll have nothing to do with killing anything IRL. My brother might help, but he's super overwhelmed/busy.

I'm trying to decide whether to go ahead with the plan to order a straight run or just get female chick-chicks this year. Thoughts?

Spiritually, it just seems off to be involved in killing while pregnant, on the other hand I really want to make the switch to all local, sustainably produced meat this year, and chicken is DH's favorite and probably among the easiest to raise ourselves. We could buy locally raised chicken, but it costs $5/lb for a whole chicken, frozen, which is an awful lot for us in terms of $.

[nine_rugrats]

I always had chickens while pregnant. I have never heard that it could be harmful, but that is just me talking, lol. As far as the butchering, its not hard, but it can be time consuming. My kids butcher them and i clean them, but my part seems to take forever...getting all the feathers plucked and stuff. I would hate to do it alone.

[Tizzy]

I've never even thought twice about the chickens while pregnant issue. In fact the morning before I went into labor with DS2 I picked up our first batch of roosters and they were in bins in our office/playroom
I try to wash my hands after handling the chickens anyway.

As for butchering, for me the $2/bird I spend sending them to a provincially inspected processing plant is entirely worth it. DH loads the crates, all I have to do is drive them there at 6am, unload the crates and come back at 4pm to pick up all these delicious looking chickens in plastic bags and toss them in the freezer. Maybe if we weren't doing 100-150 roosters each year I could handle doing a few at home, but otherwise I will continue to splurge on that convenience.

[aikigypsy]

Originally Posted by Tizzy

As for butchering, for me the $2/bird I spend sending them to a provincially inspected processing plant is entirely worth it. DH loads the crates, all I have to do is drive them there at 6am, unload the crates and come back at 4pm to pick up all these delicious looking chickens in plastic bags and toss them in the freezer. Maybe if we weren't doing 100-150 roosters each year I could handle doing a few at home, but otherwise I will continue to splurge on that convenience.

The local "mobile poultry processing unit" here costs $100 for them to show up, plus $4-5 per bird. That is way out of our budget! If it were $2/bird, I would totally go for it. Oh well.

I'm glad to hear that handling chickens is safe enough in pregnancy. I'm still on the fence about the butchering, though.

[sparkygirl74]

It is $2 per bird at the local processing place here too. We have done it ourselves and had them done and it was worth it to have them done.

You might want to consider another kind of chicken besides the Welsummers. Ours were much slower maturing than any of our other chickens and none of the roosters dressed out to more than 3 lbs. Our Marans and Barred Rocks we did at the same time (18 weeks) were all around five pounds. We are probably going to get some meat birds this year instead of doing some straight run dual purpose because it is a shorter process. I never want to eat grocery store chicken again

[Tizzy]

I second the reconsidering the breed of chickens you raise. We did barred rocks the first year, but they took a long time to finish and didn't convert feed very well. Plus we had to keep them so long that they got to be pretty agressive. Now we stick with the dumb white meat birds, we are very careful with them and only lost 2 out of 120 last year. They are much more economical in the long run.

[Pepper44]

I've never had meat birds, but the Welsummer roosters we had were like half the size of the huge cuckoo Marans roosters we had at the same time! I loved the Welsummer boys' personalities.

The only problem I've had with chicken poop and pregnancy is just cleaning it up. My coops got so scary, now I've just started putting clean shavings on top of the composting poo/shavings mix in there. I gave up trying to clean it out. I'll tackle it once the baby is born! (My DH will not clean out the coops. )

[Chicky2]

Well, you could raise meat rabbits instead! They are easier to manage than chickens (of course, they don't lay eggs, though!), and WAY easier to butcher. (my oldest 2 girls actually butcher them!) They are higher in protein and lower in fat and calories than chicken breast (and we think way tastier too!)--they are white meat from head to tail. And their temperaments are not like a pet rabbit, so I find that I don't get attached. I actually get way more attached to my silly chickens. We have gone from raising roos for meat to the rabbits and just keep some hens for eggs.

Otherwise, I've never worried about chicken poo while pg. Just wash your hands.