Rollcall: TF mamas . . .Do you raise chickens??? - Page 2

[UUMom]

I'm not 100% TF, more like thoughtful omnivore, with certain TF leanings. But, yes, I do have chickens! I currently have 20 and one of my Silkies is broody and sitting on 5 eggs from another Silkie. My fingers are crossed because I've never actually seen our Silkie rooster with either of the girls. I am hoping he's just shy around humans. So pleasepleaseplease let their be Silkie babies.

They are free range, and come in at night. We have an assortment of chickens. I am hoping to get a RIR rooster next summer.

[Vaquitita]

I have 4 chickens that are almost 6 months old, only one is laying so far and that just started this week. I was so excited to see my first egg! I think it's the rhode island red (we also have 1 buff orpington and 2 americanas). My chickens aren't truly pastured, I live in the city with a smallish yard. Between not wanting them to devastate my veg garden and not wanting them terrorized by our dog, we keep them in a cage. I feed them some chicken feed, but try to mostly give them grass clippings, weeds, extra veggies, and scraps from our kitchen. The 3 eggs we've gotten have all had nice dark yolks, darker then the tj's omega 3 eggs I've been buying.

[spughy]

We don't exactly have chickens. There are 5 chickens in our backyard, they belong to our landlord who owns the house next door. They knocked down the fence between the two yards so they're pretty much shared now. The chickens usually roam freely in the 2 yards - there is some poop but it's not smelly, although occasionally our dog snacks on it and we don't usually let DD run around barefoot in the yard (well, I do, but only when DH isn't home

We do sometimes look after the chickens, and we get a good number of eggs from them - enough for DD to have one a day. The eggs are AMAZING - these chickens are fed pretty much 100% on grass, bugs & vegetable scraps. They have feed in their coop but I don't think the really eat it. If we had our own place, I would for sure get a couple chickens. The only issue I have with them is occasionally they get into the vegetable garden and wreak havoc - they especially like destroying my strawberry plants.

I should add also that where we are, it is relatively easy to get pastured eggs - even the big grocery stores carry them. I can also get pastured duck eggs from a local store, which is nice.

[jenmary]

Not yet... But I would love to raise chickens, I have been discussing this with DH actually. I have always wanted to keep goats, and would love to keep chickens BC I cannot afford the kind I want my family to eat. Eggs, we get now for $2/doz pastured locally, and we like to eat a lot of eggs. I would love to eat eggs from my own animals, and know what was in their diet.

But...my problem is that I don't know how to humanely, hygeinically (sp) slaughter a chicken. I want to raise them for eggs AND meat, but like a PP said, I think I would have trouble killing them. How do you chicken-tending mamas do it? Seriously, I live in the country, we have space, a fenced-in area, and a shelter, but I haven't got chicks yet BC I don't know enough about it to get started with broody hens, and I know even less about when/how/what to do with older animals. Especially 'processing' them for the soup pot.

(I was coming here to start a thread on this question, but I'll put the question to you all first.)

eta - thanks for the madcity site, scorch, i am perusing the "raising ckickens 101" link now!

[OceanMomma]

jenmary there are many ways to kill a chicken. Problem is they usually flap around when they are dead for a while so it all looks very theatrical - especially if you have chopped their head off with a nice sharp axe. I still think it is alot less stressful for them to kill them at home than it is to transport them to a poultry processor myself. www.homesteadingtoday.com has a really good poultry board who you can ask all those sorts of questions.

In terms of how you do it, I have one of those useful dhs : but I guess I would just have to do it if he wasn't about. We only eat our extra roos anyways. I try to sell most of my pullets when they have done their pullet year unless they are good cluckies or good show chickens or just pets. I let the old birds die of old age. I do have the odd moment when I plot to knock them all off & make chicken stock with them but I usually come right

[moonlightinvt]

Originally Posted by jenmary

But...my problem is that I don't know how to humanely, hygeinically (sp) slaughter a chicken. I want to raise them for eggs AND meat, but like a PP said, I think I would have trouble killing them. How do you chicken-tending mamas do it?

I have been told that in my local area there is a gentleman who will come directly to a person's house and harvest their chickens in the most humane way for a reasonable fee. I think I will look into this for us. Even if we only hire him a couple times, we could learn a lot from him and feel more comfortable eventually doing it ourselves (or maybe not wink )

Maybe there is someone like this in your area.

[Gale Force]

Suddenly the barrier to raising meat chickens has been lowered. I dressed and cooked my first ever yesterday, but it was a bit younger than the usual frying size:

If You Kill It, You Eat It

There are also some breeds that are decent for meat and for eggs. You could stick to that breed for both and eat the roosters. We had planned on having two separate areas but then we all "chickened out" on the whole slaughter part. I dressed that chick yesterday out of necessity and thought "OK, I guess I can do this after all."

[FiberLover]

Yep!

10 hens and 2 roosters (White leghorn, Marans, Rhode Island reds, and Araucanas).

I can't imagine my garden now without chickens! I let them out when I'm home and they eat all the bad bugs for me, so nice.