4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[jellykelly]

I ask this because I intially purchased our chickens for egg supply. Before they came along the plan was to keep them until laying ceased - then they'd become dinner.

Now though - having been amused and entertained by them, I'm almost sure that I couldn't 'finsh them off' myself - but at the same time, I don't want to keep a retirement home for chickens when I need more chickens that can lay and supply.

 

For those of you that are happy to eat the chickens - do you 'end' them yourselves or have someone do it for you?

 

Am I being cruel in not keeping them once supply has ceased? This is a long way off yet as the hens are only 10 months old - but these questions have been raised and I myself have no idea how to answer them.

 

Thankyou

[K-F-C]

I've got chickens coz my wife would not let me have a pet dog, goat or snake!

[Raina]

I've wanted chickens since i was 10 years old.

 

We did originally get them for their eggs, but no one in our house can eat them (dunno why)

So now they are just pets,we either give the eggs away for feed them to our pets.

 

We're actually over-run with eggs lol

[xScrunchee]

I've got chickens coz my wife would not let me have a pet dog, goat or snake!

 

Good a reason as any

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got chickens as pets with the eggs being a bonus

[jellykelly]

Lol - KFC, I'm still working on getting the goats too.

 

The good thing is though - men are far more easily persuaded into things then us women!!

[Raina]

I have a phobia of Goats and Sheep

[sjp]

Wanted Chickens since I was a kid!

Mom had 2 Uncles that kept them one just foe eggs and problaly the pot the other bred them, ducks, geese,white lab rats and mice the last 2 didn't intrest me

[Jules.]

A whim!

 

Reminds me of a thread I started a while back.....

 

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14076&hilit=+why+get+chickens

[Space Chick]

OH has wanted chickens for years as Ultimate recyclers (food s"Ooops, word censored!"s into eggs), I grew up with budgies and missed having pet birds.

 

Now we view them as the most fantastic productive pets, whilst they are laying its fantastic, when they stop we'll keep them in their dotage having paid their dues

[Chook n Boo Mum]

Gosh Jules, that was some while back...lots of familiar names on here way back then though

 

I had always had a hankering for chooks, but thought we couldn't have them due to National Trust covenants around where we live . After making some enquiries, I discovered that I could in fact have them, and within a very short space of time, I had bought a previously loved and Snowdrop, Bluebell and Buttercup followed in late June last year. I was smitten

 

Around September time, I wanted to get some batties & give them a chance of a life & having bought my previously loved from a lady 2 villages away, put my name down for the next available rescue. This turned out to be 31st January..in mid January I was asked to adopt 4 Orpies who arrived with their on 30th January just in time for the snow and the batties arrival That was a very busy weekend

 

In July, Buffie decided to go broody so we got her 6 light sussex eggs to sit on...rather than the 6 chocolate orpington eggs I would have liked to get her , we now have 3 Bufflings with her and a chicken of fate in the shape of a buff Pekin bantam who arrived a couple of weeks ago...and really needs some friends of her own size in her positively palatial

 

It's not so much what was the initial reason for getting chooks, more a case of how addictive are they..........

 

Sha x

[littlecrow]

I've wanted chickens since i was 10 years old.

 

We did originally get them for their eggs, but no one in our house can eat them (dunno why)

So now they are just pets,we either give the eggs away for feed them to our pets.

 

We're actually over-run with eggs lol

 

can you now sell your eggs? .. put a sign up " eggs going cheap" lol

 

 

We seen the jamie oliver program about barn chickens ( gross) and never bought a barn egg again. went for free range but it was getting dear... so next step .. get are own, 2 eggs a day lovely jubbly.. and when then stop laying, two lovely pets .. we are veggys so could never eat them.

[sparkysmum]

Wanted to give ex batts a happy retirement

[Gelbel]

For pets that just happen to provide brekkie.

 

They are SO entertaining - providing hours of good clean fun.

[Redwing]

I jumped on the 'good life' bandwagon

 

Crikey Sha, I didn't realise your habit had escalated that fast, I thought you'd had chickens for years

[CluckyBucks]

I rescued one chicken and got two more so she could have friends

 

All of them are my friends and i love them to pieces

 

 

xx xx

[Chook n Boo Mum]

I jumped on the 'good life' bandwagon

 

Crikey Sha, I didn't realise your habit had escalated that fast, I thought you'd had chickens for years

 

Yes this time last year I was a newbie !! The chooks arrived the day that I registered on here 21st June, I'd been a lurker before that

 

I remember being told several years ago, by a re-found school friend that I'd always had an addictive personality

 

Sha x

[Redwing]

I remember being told several years ago, by a re-found school friend that I'd always had an addictive personality

 

Sha x

 

nice of them to mention it

[Chook n Boo Mum]

I remember being told several years ago, by a re-found school friend that I'd always had an addictive personality

 

Sha x

 

nice of them to mention it

 

I don't see her much !!

 

Sha x

[beulah59]

We've been talking about it on and off for 7 years .. our four ex-batts arrive Monday - things move slowly round here

[Woodcat]

hey

 

 

My grandmother was always moaning about how much she wanted to have chickens and couldn't so i started doing a bit of research about them and decided that i wouldn't mind having some but they were going to be hers primarily and then our first three came and i totally fell for them and they've turned into my pets and grown in numbers. Ours are totally pets i would still keep them if everyone of them never laid again.

 

Beth

[Cooks]

I got chickens as pets with the eggs being a bonus

same here

When I met hubby I said I wanted chickens and it took me a 'few' years but I got my wish eventually when we moved here.

edited to add, I would not get rid of any of my girls becuase they stopped laying. but I ahve been known to scowl at them for not doing so when I wanted some eggs..

[FunkyChook]

I got chicken after seeing old neighbours of ours with them. Then moving house to have a dog kennel and run in the garden that I planned to get DH to convert. Three years later he still hadn't done it, so it was off to Omlet for my . Which I adore.

 

Also my Grandad used to chicken sit for somebody when I was a child and I loved the eggs from those chickens, so decided it would be nice to have my own.

 

DH would happily eat non-layers. It will never happen for me because I love their personalities now and its only been a month

[debbier]

I got chickens primarily for the eggs, and to ensure they were very fresh, and came from a flock that I absolutely knew had been treated well.

 

I used to get my eggs from a farm where the hans were roaming free in their orchard, but they weren't always as fresh as I'd like!.

 

I'm in a similar boat to the OP in that I'm not sure I could justify the space, longterm for hens that had stopped laying, as I've only really got space for a maximum of 4 hens, (maybe 6 if I put another eglu in my WIR) and I do need the eggs to justify keeping them. I could maybe have half and half productive and non-laying, in terms of cycling it round, but I'm unsure as to what I'd do if and when the day comes when they are all past their best laying times.

 

However, I wouldn't actually eat my old chickens. Has anyone else ever tried it?! The only one I've ever had the misfortune to eat years ago had the texture of squeaky rubber even after long, slow cooking and was, quite franky, inedible. You'd only really be able to use it as a stock base, and that's really not worth the hassle, IMO.

[debbier]

Am I being cruel in not keeping them once supply has ceased? This is a long way off yet as the hens are only 10 months old - but these questions have been raised and I myself have no idea how to answer them.

 

I should have answered your question, so my thoughts on this are that I don't personally think it's "cruel", no, though it may not be easy, especially if you've named tham!

 

I've bought free range eggs and chicken for as long as I can remember as the whole battery chicken thing is abhorrent to me. However, even when the flocks are well kept in good conditions, they are still killed whether that be for meat or when they are past their productive egg laying years. I don't see how anyone could run a profitable business otherwise?

 

Anyone who purchases chicken meat or eggs, or cakes, or mayonnaise, or egg noodles, or pasta or whatever, is effectively part of that process. So why should it be any more "cruel" when it's your chickens than when it's farmed ones? It may, of course, be far more distressing for you, but that's another issue.

[poachedegg]

 

For those of you that are happy to eat the chickens - do you 'end' them yourselves or have someone do it for you?

 

Egg layers are not really suitable for eating as keeping them trim helps the egg laying process - you would usually have specific meat birds for eating, which are fed to fatten them up.