You must have to be built on farm life. Every animal I raised ended up with a name and I realized I could never eat. So, I thought, well fish aren't very prone to names, so I had a pond dug and stocked it. Then I started naming them too...I had this really big catfish. Oh well.
🤣 you named them all wrong! The pigs are Bacon, Loin, BBQ, the cows are Filet Mignon, Delicious, Italian Beef and the chickens are SweetnSour, Nugget, etc. And outting them in the freezer helps loose the attachment, i never could eat the goat though. 😜
My husband, a city kid, had a friend in college who raised cattle. He innocently asked what she'd named them and was told "First Semester, Second Semester..."
Yeah, my neighbors -real farmers- had those kind of names. I spent too much time looking in eyes and talking to them. The neighbors were much busier than me. (I even gave my two heifers last names on one slow day. Ruby and Pearl became Ruby Slippers and Pearl Buttons and they will always be so.) One of the roosters that had to go stayed in the freezer, along with a leg of Patrick the ram, until I moved. Never could...never.
When I was a child, I was given a brown feathered pet chicken to take care of. She was precious. I carried her around, and she would follow me, to be petted.
My chicken mysteriously "flew away" one day. Broke my heart. Next day, my mom made chicken. Didn't make the connection until I was older.
Came home from school one day and my adorable white pet rabbit was hanging upside down by his back legs, on a branch of our plum tree. He blinked at me.
My dad was sharpening a knife. I screamed and begged amd pleaded with him. He laughed.
I ran to the pond and cried myself to sleep. Hid in the tall weeds until dark.
The following day my mom served up a skinless "chicken" but I was not so easily fooled that time. I refused my plate of dinner.
That was over 54 years ago. Some childhood trauma is never forgotten.
We also have an egg crew of 15 girls. We did get 20 chicks, cornish cross breed, and raised them for food. They are not personality birds and you feed them for 6 to 8 weeks and then must process them as they grow so large they cannot move around. These are what you buy in the stores. We purchased a plucking machine that removes feathers in 29 seconds. We know what our chickens ate so we know what we eat. Takes a little getting use to but is much safer than what the large producers sell you. Nothing is better than free range eggs!
My friend delivers eggs to me every couple of weeks, I just LOVE getting these beautiful eggs, the colors are crazy! I now get the Green Eggs and Ham...my favorite are the green ones❤️
I WISH we could have chickens! I’d love to raise them and have my own eggs. We live in the country with so many predators, foxes and coyotes - we’d have to build a fortress for hens!
We live in N GA mountains and have every kind of chicken eating creature. We made a coop with an auto door and small wire siding . We used foam caulking in all cracks to keep snakes and minks out. Then built a 4 board pen around the coop and put hogwire on it all the way up. Then we trained our 3 german shepherds to protect them. Years have gone by and the only loss was an escaped rooster that an owl had for dinner, or we assume an owl. Ways to critter proof.
I'm currently fighting off a hawk stalking my chickens. Yesterday, he dropped SOMEONE ELSE'S CHICKEN in my yard! I was floored and have no idea where this chicken came from. This morning, I heard my rooster giving his "alert" crow, looked out the window and this hawk is literally sitting on the top of the run fence! Hubs has a high powered pellet rifle and tagged him good. He didn't kill it, but we doubt he'll be back. I really recommend getting a rooster, if possible. As long as they aren't aggressive to humans, they are great protectors of their ladies. So far, my boy has done a great job.
That's fine, you don't want to eat egg-layer chickens anyway. They are literally a different breed than meat chickens. There's only like 2lb of meat on a egg-layer bird vs. 5lb on a meat bird. And it's much tougher due to being 2+ years old...
My hens hatch several broods of eggs every summer. The pullets are kept for eggs and the roosters go in the pot. I don’t fry them because they are tougher than store bought chickens, but I run them through the pressure cooker, eat them with dumplings or casseroles, then use the bone broth for soups.
Chicken is chicken. That stuff the FDA is trying to feed us is poison.
Yup, when we had chickens for a few years, I couldn't eat chicken anymore. They have funny personalities; One-eyed Wilma was my favorite. The rooster, though, was darn right ornery. But he sure protected the hens.
I have chickens, raised from day old chicks. I view them as loving breakfast producers now. I love them, they all have names and I'm constantly protecting them from predators, mainly the damn federally protected hawks. My chickens are literally spoiled rotten and I spend a lot of time, too much really, tending to them. They eat all of our leftovers and I get the "imperfect" fruit and veggies boxes from our grocery store. I hate to cook, but spend an inordinate amount of time slicing, dicing and shredding this produce into bite sized pieces. The extra gets frozen in single layers, then bagged so distribution later will be easier pouring the pieces out like cereal rather than one big frozen glob. BUT, I know that if push comes to shove, they could possibly/will probably become dinner one day. This would indeed make me very sad but knowing they lived their best life and ate a good diet would help. There's a disconnect that I HAD to put in place in my mind before I even got them. I read a book called "One Second After" about an EMP hitting earth, where the people traded their pets (dogs) for food as they couldn't eat their own. I want(ed) a cow, but my husband knows and I know I'd become too attached. I would literally starve to death before I ate my dogs, they are like my children.
Feel the same way. Commercial farms are less than humane. We thank the lord and the chickens for what they have given us. Not something you ever get use to but part of life.it is def humbling.
You must have to be built on farm life. Every animal I raised ended up with a name and I realized I could never eat. So, I thought, well fish aren't very prone to names, so I had a pond dug and stocked it. Then I started naming them too...I had this really big catfish. Oh well.
🤣 you named them all wrong! The pigs are Bacon, Loin, BBQ, the cows are Filet Mignon, Delicious, Italian Beef and the chickens are SweetnSour, Nugget, etc. And outting them in the freezer helps loose the attachment, i never could eat the goat though. 😜
My husband, a city kid, had a friend in college who raised cattle. He innocently asked what she'd named them and was told "First Semester, Second Semester..."
Yeah, my neighbors -real farmers- had those kind of names. I spent too much time looking in eyes and talking to them. The neighbors were much busier than me. (I even gave my two heifers last names on one slow day. Ruby and Pearl became Ruby Slippers and Pearl Buttons and they will always be so.) One of the roosters that had to go stayed in the freezer, along with a leg of Patrick the ram, until I moved. Never could...never.
When I was a child, I was given a brown feathered pet chicken to take care of. She was precious. I carried her around, and she would follow me, to be petted.
My chicken mysteriously "flew away" one day. Broke my heart. Next day, my mom made chicken. Didn't make the connection until I was older.
Came home from school one day and my adorable white pet rabbit was hanging upside down by his back legs, on a branch of our plum tree. He blinked at me.
My dad was sharpening a knife. I screamed and begged amd pleaded with him. He laughed.
I ran to the pond and cried myself to sleep. Hid in the tall weeds until dark.
The following day my mom served up a skinless "chicken" but I was not so easily fooled that time. I refused my plate of dinner.
That was over 54 years ago. Some childhood trauma is never forgotten.
Dang, that's heavy. Thanks for sharing.
We really should say a deep felt prayer of thanks every time we consume an animal.
45 years ago, living on a farm in far western Kansas I raised two pigs. Named them Pork and Beans. They were quite delicious.
Lol when we first moved to the farm the kids named the animals. That didn’t last long.
Absolutely, as one raised on a farm, I never had a problem eating them!
We also have an egg crew of 15 girls. We did get 20 chicks, cornish cross breed, and raised them for food. They are not personality birds and you feed them for 6 to 8 weeks and then must process them as they grow so large they cannot move around. These are what you buy in the stores. We purchased a plucking machine that removes feathers in 29 seconds. We know what our chickens ate so we know what we eat. Takes a little getting use to but is much safer than what the large producers sell you. Nothing is better than free range eggs!
My friend delivers eggs to me every couple of weeks, I just LOVE getting these beautiful eggs, the colors are crazy! I now get the Green Eggs and Ham...my favorite are the green ones❤️
I WISH we could have chickens! I’d love to raise them and have my own eggs. We live in the country with so many predators, foxes and coyotes - we’d have to build a fortress for hens!
We live in N GA mountains and have every kind of chicken eating creature. We made a coop with an auto door and small wire siding . We used foam caulking in all cracks to keep snakes and minks out. Then built a 4 board pen around the coop and put hogwire on it all the way up. Then we trained our 3 german shepherds to protect them. Years have gone by and the only loss was an escaped rooster that an owl had for dinner, or we assume an owl. Ways to critter proof.
You built a great fortress! 😂
You really do need a fortress but once done it is great.
I'm currently fighting off a hawk stalking my chickens. Yesterday, he dropped SOMEONE ELSE'S CHICKEN in my yard! I was floored and have no idea where this chicken came from. This morning, I heard my rooster giving his "alert" crow, looked out the window and this hawk is literally sitting on the top of the run fence! Hubs has a high powered pellet rifle and tagged him good. He didn't kill it, but we doubt he'll be back. I really recommend getting a rooster, if possible. As long as they aren't aggressive to humans, they are great protectors of their ladies. So far, my boy has done a great job.
We did and it works!
That's fine, you don't want to eat egg-layer chickens anyway. They are literally a different breed than meat chickens. There's only like 2lb of meat on a egg-layer bird vs. 5lb on a meat bird. And it's much tougher due to being 2+ years old...
They go in the stew pot for dumplings
Yes, it works. The crockpot does wonders!
In tough times, meat is meat. It's the way you cook it that makes a huge difference.
My hens hatch several broods of eggs every summer. The pullets are kept for eggs and the roosters go in the pot. I don’t fry them because they are tougher than store bought chickens, but I run them through the pressure cooker, eat them with dumplings or casseroles, then use the bone broth for soups.
Chicken is chicken. That stuff the FDA is trying to feed us is poison.
First rule of farming. Don't name your animals. They are not pets they are food.
Yup, when we had chickens for a few years, I couldn't eat chicken anymore. They have funny personalities; One-eyed Wilma was my favorite. The rooster, though, was darn right ornery. But he sure protected the hens.
I have chickens, raised from day old chicks. I view them as loving breakfast producers now. I love them, they all have names and I'm constantly protecting them from predators, mainly the damn federally protected hawks. My chickens are literally spoiled rotten and I spend a lot of time, too much really, tending to them. They eat all of our leftovers and I get the "imperfect" fruit and veggies boxes from our grocery store. I hate to cook, but spend an inordinate amount of time slicing, dicing and shredding this produce into bite sized pieces. The extra gets frozen in single layers, then bagged so distribution later will be easier pouring the pieces out like cereal rather than one big frozen glob. BUT, I know that if push comes to shove, they could possibly/will probably become dinner one day. This would indeed make me very sad but knowing they lived their best life and ate a good diet would help. There's a disconnect that I HAD to put in place in my mind before I even got them. I read a book called "One Second After" about an EMP hitting earth, where the people traded their pets (dogs) for food as they couldn't eat their own. I want(ed) a cow, but my husband knows and I know I'd become too attached. I would literally starve to death before I ate my dogs, they are like my children.
I would take the trade off for fresh eggs. As I get older, I definitely have less need for animal protein (but I do love eggs and cheese).
Feel the same way. Commercial farms are less than humane. We thank the lord and the chickens for what they have given us. Not something you ever get use to but part of life.it is def humbling.
I'm clicking the like button on these posts but half the time it doesn't work. This has been a great thread.