I was talking to a friend the other day. She’s a gentle soul, a kind-hearted person who says, “I could never kill an animal” with wide, pained eyes that let you know she’s not talking in hyperbole.
She wants chickens. She wants them bad. She wants the experience of fluffy little chicks and she wants hens to weed for her and she wants her daughter to have that mini-backyard-petting-zoo experience.
She has, up until now, not given into her chicken-keeping desires. For this I am so proud of her.
You see, there’s a reality to chicken keeping that doesn’t show up when you are scanning Pinterest for gorgeous coops. (I maintain a Pinterest board of chicken keeping and coop inspiration, by the way, if you are into that kind of thing.)
A continuous supply of plentiful eggs requires a continuous supply of hens at laying age. For us non-commercial chicken-keepers, a good rule of thumb is that hens will lay pretty consistently (with periods off for molting, reduced day length and broodiness) from about 6 months old until about 3 years old. Although you will hear a lot of anecdotes about individual hens that keep pumping out eggs until they are 5 or 6 years old, the general consensus is that three years old is usually the beginning of the end for consistent egg laying.
Call it Henopause.
“Woh. Was That A Hot Flash?!”
A well-kept backyard hen, protected from hawks, raccoons and Fido, can easily live to be 8 or 10 years old, and ages of twice that are not unheard of.
Bear with me here as I do some Urban Homesteader math. One layer hen eats about 1.5 pounds of layer feed per week. (Pastured birds will eat less purchased feed – yet another good reason to buy this book and study it before you design your coop and run.)
If a chicken starts laying at 6 months old (this is a bit later than average but it makes my numbers easy) and has essentially stopped laying by 4 years old, and lives naturally to be 8, a backyard chicken keeper is looking at 3.5 years of egg production time, and 4.5 years of Pets Without Benefits time. That’d be 351 pounds of feed going to a hen that isn’t making eggs!
Current, local prices for the layer rations I feed my hens is $28 per 40 pound bag, or $.70 a pound. Admittedly, this is a bit spendy, but I get the locally produced, happy-hippie, GMO-free feed from the lovely folks at Scratch & Peck. At those prices, it costs $245.70 to maintain a hen into theoretical old age and natural demise while you aren’t getting any eggs.
Which means those half-dozen cute peeping balls of fluff you take home from the feed store in spring could cost you $1474 during the time when they are not giving you eggs. And of course I’m not including the cost of bedding, a fractional share of the coop, potential vet bills, etc.
Meanwhile, if you live in a city or suburb, you have an even bigger problem: your now non-laying hens are taking up your legal urban chicken quota which could be filled with younger, laying hens, and you are stuck. You can’t just keep adding to your flock indefinitely when you live on 1/12th of an acre in Seattle. So now you are a Backyard Chicken Keeper without any Backyard Eggs.
If your hens are pure pets, this is all totally fine. These are very reasonable amounts of money to spend on a pet, and if you are not resentful in the least at having to buy both chicken feed and grocery store or farmer’s market eggs, then Chickens As Pets is a wonderful path to take.
There is another option, of course. This is the option you won’t tend to run into on Pinterest. It’s not the solution of a soft heart so much as a calculating head.
You can make the decision to cull your birds when they are past prime lay. This is what all commercial egg operations do, and what “real” (as opposed to “urban”) farmers do, and what everyone who makes a living and not just a hobby from animal husbandry does.
Culled laying hens aren’t good for roasting or frying but they make unbeatable stock and stewing birds.
So basically those are your two choices: you continue to pay and care for chickens that barely give you eggs or you cowboy up and you deal with the slaughter of no longer profitable hens.
Back to my friend who really, really wants chickens.
Could she kill her chickens?
Oh no. Absolutely not.
We both agree, she doesn’t have that in her. Fine, I’ve no problem with that, and I’m glad she knows herself.
Does she want to pay for chickens even if she gets no eggs?
Well, not really.
Fine, I wouldn’t either – I totally understand.
I told her quite bluntly (as is my way) that she should not get chickens.
Can I give them to a chicken sanctuary when they get too old to lay? Some place that has a no kill policy?
No. No. You cannot do that.
She can’t, and no one reading this can. You know why? Personal responsibility. Your chickens, your adoption, your decision, your responsibility to see it through to the end. You do not get to embrace the idea of a more intimate relationship with your food chain and then make that food chain – the food chain you specifically set up – someone else’s problem when shit gets real.
There is a local urban farming message board that is filled – filled – with people trying to give away their three year old chicken to a “good home.” Are you kidding me? You own the chicken. Your home is a good home. And once it’s not, your soup pot is a good soup pot. I once joked to a good friend that I could stock my freezer for the entire year off no-longer-laying hens being given away free “to a good home.”
This pisses me off, as you can probably tell. There is absolutely nothing ethically superior – and quite a bit that is ethically dubious, if you ask me – about enjoying the benefits of a young laying hen and then turning over the care or slaughter of that hen to someone else once it stops laying.
That is not how animal husbandry works and it’s not how pet ownership works, and those are your two choices. I don’t care which path you take with your chickens, but pick one. Playing Little Suzy Farm Girl until it’s time to get the axe and then deciding you aren’t up for chicken ownership just doesn’t fly with me.
Normally I am a Rah-Rah Cheerleader for this quirky way of life, and I think any fair assessment would deem me particularly encouraging to beginners. But a chicken is not a seed packet, it’s an animal and a responsibility. If you can’t cull your own birds or can’t provide for them all the way into their Chicken Social Security, then please, do not get chickens.
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When I was a kid, many years ago, our dog killed a neighbors chicken and my dad tied the dead chicken around our dogs neck (don’t remember for how long) and she never, ever, went near a chicken again.
When I was a kid (a long time ago) our dog killed a neighbors chicken and my dad tied the dead chicken around our dogs neck, don’t remember for how long, but she never, ever, went near a chicken again.
So first, I completely agree with you on the concept here. If you are not willing to at least be witness to the slaughter of the animal, then become a vegetarian. We really need to be closer to the source of our food. There are kids being raised today that really think meat comes in plastic wrap from nature. No really, and they aren’t just 4 year olds either. At the very least understand what goes into raising your food and how it is killed and processed before it reaches your plate.
I am having an odd problem that maybe some of you great folks could help me with. I live in a city in CO where backyard coops are becoming more common. I have 9 birds (technically 1 over the limit) and I have a few that have slowed and stopped laying. What’s worse is one is starting to eat the eggs as soon as they are laid. I need to cull. But the city has recently changed the ordinance to prevent backyard slaughter of chickens and other livestock.
I was all ready to go, I have the books, the multiple methods and figured out the one that I thought was right and most humane. But I cannot slaughter my birds on my property.
I have tried to find another place to do this even. Maybe a friend with acreage that lives outside the jurisdictions? But to no avail.
Now I have to find a place that can do this for me legally. Where can I turn? Anyone know of any kind of . . . I dunno, livestock slaughter co-op I could join? Can I take them to a proper butcher for this?
PIT BULLS that are in packs of two or more are absolutely dangerous. I had my front door open on a spring dy when 2 pits entered my house. My 2 dachshunds tried to protect me and for it they lost there lives. I covered my one dachshund with my body and was bitten 6 times all over my body and head.
Fast forward 2 years AFTER I MOVED from that house and hire some idiot to put in a pool at my farm. The moron shows up with HIS pit and lets him out without asking me my permission. He immediatly started killing chickens. I had no idea whose dog it was so I got my gun and went out with a 9 month pg girl and her 6 yr old daughter hidden in house…to kill that dog. Contractor says…whats going on. I tell him Im fixing to kill a rouge dog. He then admits it his but the dog had already killed my best blue hen. Obviously he was fired on the spot. So whoever out there that owns pits and thinks they are peaceful….you have a bomb in your hand that will go off at some point and kill, maim or destroy before its life is over. For your sake I prey its not nowhere near me or my property because it will be killed on the spot. I now shoot first and don’t care later. Thats for this one breed. Other then them I love dogs and all animals. I also prey that all owners of this breed keep them from children, elderly, animals…well the entire population in the world.
Great post that really fits with my Podcast today where you left a comment about it and where I found this post.
Let me add one thing, I would have NO PROBLEM with a back yard keeper that took the responsibility head on this way.
Logic
1. I want chickens and I am willing to pay for them, take care of them and I want eggs, when the eggs are not in quantity I accept the chicken must make way for new chickens.
2. Due to item one above I understand that either at 2.5 years of age or at the most 3.5 years of age, said chickens must go to the pot and that no one will want them as a pet, I accept that the chicken must die.
3. I can’t kill my chicken, I accept this as my personal limit, I know the chicken must die but I can’t be its killer and eater.
4. Hence I have found a person with out my moral dilemma that sees this chicken as what it is, meat. I have made an agreement therefore with someone who will cull my chickens and put them to proper use. This frees me to get new birds 6 moths before culling and keep my birds productive.
Do I find it idiotic that this same person will likely dine on Tyson or Purdue frequently, yes but I do understand the aversion to killing. I also understand some can’t accept the reality of well, “eating your friends”. That is what farming often is.
I also am in touch with this reality. I raise dozens of egg layers, I therefore must cull and none of my culls tend to have names. I have too many birds to be attached to them. I do think it will be with heavy heart that I cull out my rooster Upgrayyedd when the time comes.
So Susie Suburbanite who has just 4 hens with 4 names for 2.5-3.5 years I do understand why it would be hard to kill and eat them. But as long as Susie makes an agreement with someone like me to deal with it on her behalf and accepts what I will do, swiftly, ethically and with all the humane effort that can be accomplished, I have no issues with her.
By the way I forgot to talk about this today, great way to use cull chickens. It says breasts but I think breasts and quarters would be fine.
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/coq-au-vin-b-recipe.htm
thanks for posting the recipe 🙂 . I did name my hens (I only have 3); charbroiled, blackened chicken, Louisa l’orange, but I still fully intend to eat them (I named them as food for a reason)… waste not, want not 🙂 I agree that if you can’t do it yourself, you can find someone who will.
Thank you – I learned a lot from your post. If I didn’t learn anything else – you MUST, Absolutely MUST do your homework. I live in the city. I knew I would have to check with them first. I have four – yes FOUR dogs. I have had to euthenize (sp?) two of my pets in the past and it’s not easy, but you have to consider their quality of life. Do I want to cull chickens – Nope. I’ll just purchase my eggs and be really grateful I read this article before I went there. Thank you for your honesty and opening my eyes to reality.
I know I am late posting this but as my late Dad use to say “better late than never” and this was the best advise he gave me about raising chickens. “Never name anything your going to eat”!
My solution is to pay a neighbor who is Amish to process our older hens and the meat birds we raise. The $2.50 fee is worth it, as they are totally humane and clean, we don’t have the scalding and plucking equipment ourselves, and I have some health issues which affect my hands.
I do appreciate this article. it is something that any prospective hen owner needs to think about. I had three hens, now I have lots of stock and three different hens. yum 🙂 I am only allowed to have 6 hens in the town where I live and I decided to dispatch non-laying hens. however I am not sure I agree with the assessment that non-laying hens are of necessity non-working hens. they still eat up unwanted kitchen scraps, they still eat up bugs, they still trim my lawn from me, they still till my garden, they still provide lots of compost for said garden. even if they aren’t laying they can still work for a living. I decided to kill mine early because of space restrictions and I wanted to make some stock, but not everyone need make that choice. you can keep them on and have them provide for you in other ways. I agree that if you don’t want to kill them, and also don’t want to keep them (for whatever reason) you have a problem, and that is something that should be thought about Before buying chickens.
Also I am now curious about this large list of older birds to a “good home” you say exists… I am not doubting you I am just thinking it could be an opportunity… how many of those people would let you have their bird even if they knew you were going to cook it? just a thought…
Do you people think of your horses this way? Your dogs, your kids? Why does the chicken have to do a job for you to deserve to live and the dog does not? If you will not love them for as long as they live, if you can not really love them, then do not get chickens.
Preach it, Erica! Well said! This issue drives me crazy. When people get those cute little chicks they don’t think down the road far enough. I’ve butchered and stewed quite a few non-productive hens that were given to me by acquaintances who just couldn’t do the final deed. Butchering is no fun but I’m glad to do it to get good meat that was raised humanely.
Reading the comment about kids thinking meat came from packages, not animals, reminded me of my friends raspberry patch. The meter reader asked her what she was doing, and she said “picking raspberries”.
“No you’re not. Raspberries come from the store.”
As she popped one into her mouth, and held the bowl forward ” but this is how they grow. Try one.”
“No. You’re trying to poison me!”
My parents grew up on farms, but I observed the knowledge gap about food when I taught science in a city school. My students were disgusted to learn that milk came from a lactating cow. I think they really believed I made that one up. Few people know where their food comes from. The packaged meat and raspberry stories are the norm, not the exception. People are not stupid, They are uninformed.
This is really interesting. My husband and I have an acre in S Texas and we’ve been going back & forth on chickens & ducks and guineas for scorpion & rattlesnake control. I had ducks growing up as pets and they were the best pets ever. Anyhow. This is an interesting perspective. Thinking about post laying chickens never crossed my mind. I personally couldn’t kill the chicken for stew but my husband could. Though I think once a chicken outgrew her egg laying years she might still be useful for fertilizing the yard and weeding? Maybe?
Thank you!
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I needed to read this. You are right, this is something I haven’t come across on the backyard chicken Pinterest boards. Luckily we haven’t gotten our chickens yet… looks like the Mr. and I need to talk about having the guts to cull. Thank you a million. Seriously.
I was having numerous issues as of late with my canine friend, i hoped him to listen to me,
i have found many awesome tricks in this site.
Yes, never get into chicken keeping!! They are addictive, wonderful creatures with a horribly practical edge to them that you’re going to hate! Fresh eggs taste way too good and are too good for you. Henny Pennies are adorable and wonderful pets. They fit in a little TOO well into life, even on the urban homestead. Never, ever get chicks either, especially not when they’re super fluffy with their “PEEP PEEP” and their chicken football when you give them a treat. Never!! 😉
The article and all of the comments are so entertaining!. I really appreciate you taking the time to share more of the decision making process you should go through before deciding. I would love to have chickens in my backyard, but I live in a part of Canada where we cannot have chickens. If we could have chickens, I would have my own, but I would also get a few roosters and start a business that I would call “Cocks on the Go”.
Very interesting and entertaining!
it depends on why you want chickens. if you want them for eggs and them no longer producing eggs will be a problem then don’t get them. if you are looking for pets then chickens can make nice pets, if you are looking for something that will eat bugs chickens are good at that, if you want something that will scratch up the ground they are great for that. we have ducks for eggs and for poop and for pets and will eventually get some chickens from the local animal shelter (who never puts them to sleep and always finds good homes for them!). I have had chickens before and want them mostly for reasons other than eggs.
there are plenty of circumstances where even a vegan absolutely should have pet chickens. no one should ever take on the responsibility of being a caretaker for another living thing without thinking it through and doing plenty of research first but plenty of people love to have chickens regardless of egg production and are happy to spend money to care for them. I am not done researching chickens but as far as the cost of feed goes it is pretty easy to grow most of what ducks will need to eat and the end expense is very little.
Oh and that goes double for all you women… As soon as your ovaries dry up and you can’t have kids anymore, the sensible thing for your husband and society to do would be to dispatch you humanely and replace you with a young, fertile college co-ed. Doesn’t sound so great now, does it?
Swarm, well said! There are many reasons for keeping chickens beyond eggs.
Its a personal choice as to whether one culls or not. I don’t cull mine or have them culled. I have lost a few to predetors and/or diseases. They have a great life living as close to free range as they can and be safe too. CI still get a lot of eggs and they have each other. They are there own family. As they die I replace them. The aldest are about 3 y/o. I may think different as they get older and i get no eggs. Yes, they do need vet care sometimes. Or you can read and educate yourseld and kee ur chicken medical box stocked and a seperate large dog pen as a chicken hospital. Feed them well with purina layina and scratch feed also, they make great garbage disposals also for garden left overs and people leftovers. Mine are big, fat, fluffy and shiney.
….You know some people keep a hen or two as PETS, right? If someone has them as pets then they don’t need to love their hens conditionally. That’s fucked up. Not everyone has to be a LEGIT FARMER or whatever the heck you are trying to say. And making this decision for your friend is not only unfair but it’s manipulative and you are probably hurting her inside. Make your own decisions for YOURSELF. If she wants pet chickens then let her have them! If chickens are handled from a young age and continuously given affection they can become extremely loving animals. Saying they are useless after they get to a certain age is cruel. If you don’t want chickens to FARM them, and you don’t want to keep them as PETS, then don’t get chickens! But you don’t HAVE to kill them?? Seriously??? This is so gross. You need to look at what you’re saying. Unless you think you should be butchered when you go on menopause, in which case you need some serious help.
Did you even read this article?
It clearly states TWO options: raising them as pets after they can no longer lay eggs or killing them for meat. Nowhere does it state you HAVE to kill your chickens. The author’s qualm is with people who purchase chickens, keep them for egg laying, and then suddenly no longer want the responsibility of having chickens after they are no longer useful – just like people who get rid of any other pet when they’re done with them. This is why he asked his friend TWO questions: whether she could kill the chickens, or whether she was willing to spend the extra money on chickens who no longer laid eggs. She answered NO to both questions – she only wants chickens for the eggs. THAT is why the author told the woman not to purchase chickens.
I had two roosters that had their adam’s apples removed so they were virtually silent. I live 10 feet from my next door neighbors, so this was the only way I could keep roosters.
I’ve never heard of this before. Is this something vets will actually do? I think a rooster collar sounds easier, less expensive, and less painful, although I’m inexperienced so I’m unsure what the better solution would be.
“I once joked to a good friend that I could stock my freezer for the entire year off no-longer-laying hens being given away free “to a good home.” This pisses me off, as you can probably tell.”
If I were in that position it wouldn’t piss me off AT ALL. That would keep me in dumpling filling year-round. Don’t get me wrong – I hear you on personal responsibility and the hypocrisy of those who eat eggs, meat, whatever, but can’t deal with the realities of slaughter. Maybe I’m evil, but I would have no problem taking free meat off their hands and telling them whatever they wanted to hear. I do have a minor reputation as that lady who will deal with slaughtering your non-laying hens for you, provided you let me keep the meat and bones. Free stock, free sausage/dumpling filling, and free fertilizer for my fruit trees. Maybe every neighborhood should have plenty of backyard chickens, and one or two solution ladies like me.
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When I first started raising chickens several years ago, I was all in with responsibility of caring for my chicken through to old age. If I ended up with too many roos, I place them in new homes. My first set of hatchlings went well. I had three out of 15 die in shell, but the rest of the chicks were healthy and I didn’t have any problems with them. During my second set hatchlings one of the little chicks got a slipped tendon while trying to kick out of its shell. It’s a horrible thing to happen to baby chick, but there really isn’t anything you can do but cull it. A slipped tendon is extremely painful and eventually the other chickens would pick it to death. Keeping it alive to let nature take its course is torture. So, even if you tell yourself you could never take a chicken’s life, you may not have a choice in certain situations. That’s something to consider if you’re caught up with the romantic notion of having your own chickens for fresh eggs.
*I apologize if this topic was already discussed, I didn’t read through all the comments*
I often have bantam hens for laying eggs and when they stop producing I put them on cregslist for free as pets. They are normal in new homes within a couple of days. I can not guarantee that the birds are not eaten, I don’t mind if they become stew, I just am not set up to process them myself. However, most people that take the chickens are getting them as pets for their young kids and I would be very surprised if they eat them. It seems that there is a demand for smaller birds like bantams for just pets. You might want to try getting a kind of bird that you can place once they stop laying.
Love the idea of chickens and have been handling the death by fox issue for two years now. But still we keep getting birds. Just can’t go past free range orange yolks IMO.
Thanks
Bren
I respect people who can raise and butcher their own chickens and other livestock. I eat meat and understand where it comes from!
However, I will get chickens and enjoy the eggs for a few years, and let them compost for me and eat bugs and whatnot when they stop laying. I have read up on how to put them down if they’re injured beyond repair, so I will be able to give them mercy, I just will choose not to cull them for food. My chickens will be pets (with limited benefits), for as long as they live!
I have considered raising quail for their eggs, and to feed to my cats and dogs, but I won’t do that unless I find someone who is willing to work with me – as in someone who will slaughter and process the quail, in return for a portion of the cull, or something along those lines. So, I will not be a “real farmer”, but I don’t mind! There’s more than 1 right way to do things. 🙂
I have three chickens that belong to my parents and I, and just turned a year. They were my Dad’s idea, but my Mom and I consented to it. I kind of took over raising them from my Dad, which may have been a mistake. That was due to we had different ideas on things such as how often to change the brooder and picking up chicken poop outside.
I’m fond of them, but have been struggling with our set up. My Mom decided she didn’t want the chickens roaming our backyard. so we ended up fencing the reasonably large space between the side of the house and the property fence. This has led to the how do we prevent mud puddles and foot issues during the rainy season? We ended up putting straw down, but have probably not changed it as much as we should (and are in need of putting some more stuff down now). I’m still thinking on how I can maintain this to where I’m satisfied.
We have a prefabbed coop that has slightly less space than is recommended for three chickens – And that we recently had to treat for mold in the nest boxes (I’m keeping an eye on it). I’m aware this is less than ideal, but my Dad has refused to let me replace it.
I”d be willing to keep them for life if I were satisfied with out setup. Since I’m not and since I’m struggling with our run, my preference would be to give them to someone who has a large property with lots of grass. My parents (in their 70’s are still enjoying having the eggs and having the chickens running around), so I thought I would give them away this August (when they will be 1 and 1/2 years old, and before the rains start up again). However, I’m now thinking the chickens will be getting somewhat old and would it be better to rehome them now? I would love advice on how do I do the right thing by my chickens and my parents (only please no put downs, as that will not help)?
My family has just under an acre of land and we’ve been keeping chickens for about 5 or 6 years now. Our first batch for chickens were old ones my uncle was giving away (his new wife was allergic?) They still laid some and eventually either died of old age or a pesky fox. We then took on our other uncles chickens (he was getting old himself). They were really aggressive and again, the fox. One survived for almost a full year. Poor thing was super depressed and fought our dog constantly. We just got very young ones, only about 5 months, in December. To us they’re family, not an expense or an asset or solely a food source. We’ve since taken precautions against the fox.
I completely agree. I understand that people don’t want to kill an animal they’ve raised – I’m the same way – but to give up the responsibility? It baffles me. This is the same reason why there are so many cats and dogs in shelters that get euthanized – because people think they’re cute (or in this case useful) when they’re young, then toss responsibility out the window when they get older. I, too, want chickens in my backyard (thank God for our 8 foot fence!), but I certainly would never give them up even after they’re done producing eggs. Hell, I’d probably even keep one inside and train it to be a lap chicken like one of my friends had. If you succeed, they make great therapy pets.
One thing I think you should add to your article (because beginners may be unaware): when purchasing chicks, you won’t know for certain whether or not they are going to grow up to be male or female. You can’t really tell until they grow a bit. Even the most reliable sexing methods can be wrong (some are equivalent to a coin toss or should only be done by professionals), so you could end up with the wrong sex. If you’re me and want to purchase chicks from somewhere like Theisen’s, they don’t even separate male and female chicks – you just grab some and pray. This is important for people who 1) want chickens solely for the eggs and aren’t planning on breeding, or 2) live in a neighborhood like I do where chickens are allowed but roosters are not. So if you don’t have a plan in place for a chick that grows into a rooster, I suggest you cock-a-doodle-don’t buy them as chicks.
…Sorry for the horrible pun, I couldn’t resist.
Thank you! It is so refreshing, to see a post from someone with both the balls and eloquence to bluntly express the reality of life with hens (or any other animal). Hens can and do lay (sporadically) for 10 years or more. At least mine do. Some of them. But really they’re yard art, with occasional vet bills. That is the nature of the forever home.
Kudos to everyone who know themselves well enough to know whether they are able to make a commitment, as opposed to still being one of those people who still think animals are just things, trash to be thrown away when it is no longer convenient. Like any thing else – getting a dog, a car, a house – if you can’t afford the whole obligation, food, insurance, payments for 30 years, whatever, don’t even start. Just get one of those pet rocks, or maybe a houseplant.
Well now I was shocked at the people reading this shouldn’t get chickens. I grew up on a farm. Paw (my grand father) would buy from his brother 100 sexed chicks, supposedly male but there was always 5-10 miss sexed. he raised the chicks till fall and separated out the hens. he would then go through the older hens he had from previous years those that were no longer producing went in with the males. And then on a Saturday when all the family could help…..it was like a production line…..He killed …we kids feathered..older kids were in charge of removing pen feathers ….and mom and grandma and any aunts cleaned/gutted, and of course kept the hearts, livers, and gizzards. and some one else bagged and tossed them in the freezer. For dinner it was always chicken and dumplings with the added bonus of immature eggs in the with the lovel;y bread balls. it never seemed to fail at least 1 or 2 of those old hens would have one egg on board and the slow bloomer that just had not looked like a hen would also add to the pot..
I guess what shocked me was that anyone wanting to have backyard chickens would not realize that at some point they don’t lay and needed to be reused for something else. I mean honestly I remember trying to turn some of those chickens into pets but the truth is they don’t really make good pets. But I suppose there is one good trick a pet chicken can do…….clean the aphids off your roses heck I even saw some scratch up a nest of field mice and swallow them up hole at an amazing pace. but even when they are used to getting a pet now and then they don’t really look like they enjoy it.
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possess the gift.
You are so right. People don’t think things out, they want they get and then they have big problems. Free range chicken are my problem, my neibore lets his Rome free in my yard and I have dogs that will kill them, my dogs have to be tied up when let out and only run when the birds are gone. This makes me mad, I don’t kill the birds because he is being rude. Most problems with animals start with people. Keep you pets in your yard,
Just found your website via your new book! Great blog post! I totally agree with your reasoning. In my book, if it’s a pet, it’s a life commitment. Until I learn to make the transition from pet to animal husbandry, it’s no chicken stock for me! Cheers!
Yep. Yep yep yep yep. I saw one of those ads for a free pet chicken once. I was like, “Heck, I’ll take it!” And then I saw that they were actually serious about the pet part, and they intended to inspect the chicken’s future lodgings to make sure she wouldn’t end up in a pot. Well, never mind. 😉
CLAP. CLAP. CLAP. CLAPCLAPCLAP leads into wild applause!! Very well said!!! Thank you for saying it!
I find this post to be ridiculous. Some people do not have chickens for the purpose getting eggs. Just because YOU send your chickens to the slaughter house when they aren’t producing eggs doesn’t mean everyone else does or should.
I want backyard hens for eggs and also to eat once they stop laying. Question is though do they need a rooster atleast with in visual proximity to lay or will they lay plenty without a rooster around? Have been told having roosters around keeps them laying but not sure how true that really is.