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[Hunters]

We chased off the fox, but our chicken is dead so we thought we might eat her, but aren't sure if it's safe to do so? Her neck seems to be broken and we can't see any puncture marks. There's also the small problem of all the feathers and innards which we don't know how to deal with. Any advice gratefully received.

 

Apologies for being new to all this, but this is a serious question - I'm not sure if it's safe to eat a chicken which has been killed by a fox.

[migsy]

I often wonder if any of the people on this forum eat their birds. After all, eating chicken is perfectly normal. I'm veggie by the way! However, I think most people on Omlet see their chickens as a source of eggs / pets. Perhaps Hunter will get some advice on the Practical Poultry forum.

[Redwing]

I guess a lot of it depends on how squeamish you are and how you see your hens, personally even though I keep my own chooks for meat and am happy to eat them I wouldnt do it because of the nasties that the fox may have in its mouth. If the hen is a hybrid layer then they'll be very little meat on it anyway.

 

It's an interesting question.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

This thread was removed to Mods. There have been some edits made and it has been returned so that the OP might get some advice on what is a genuine query.

[Daphne]

Personally I wouldn't - you don't know what germs/diseases the fox may have been carrying; and anyway as Redwing says, depending on what sort of hen you had, she may well be old and tough anyway. My vet has always advised against eating hens which have had illness (which seems common sense to me) and although this isn't quite the same, I'd be very cautious.

[Egluntyne]

I agree with Daphne and Redwing.

[Patricia W]

I wouldn't, but some people eat road kill...

 

Maybe it would be worth you going to a kill, pluck and gut course anyway, as dealing with innards is not nice - especially if you haven't been taught how to do it.

 

If you really want to raise chickens for meat, there are people on here who do it and can offer advice.

[Charlottechicken]

I've killed and eaten my own chicken but I wouldn't eat one killed by an animal. I wouldn't eat roadkill either, but as has already been mentioned, some folk do. See ***this*** website for info on fox diseases.

 

The choice is yours, obviously

[Space Chick]

I can appreciate the feeling of not wanting her to die in vain but would worry about unseen damage that the fox could have done which may have contaminated the meat. Also as a layer, there won't be much meat on her anyway as others have said.

[Hunters]

Thanks for all the advice. Based on it, we buried her in the garden instead (very deep). It was the feeling of her dying in vain which prompted the question and I hadn't considered the fact that as a layer she may not have had that much meat on her anyway. I am very interested in the idea of going on a kill, pluck and gut course. I hadn't really considered keeping chickens specifically for meat, but if it's not too difficult, to do all that, it might be a possiblity.

 

Thanks again.

[Aunty e]

It's not all that difficult, but it is time consuming and a bit icky. Personally, I never felt all that much like eating the ones that I had killed, plucked and gutted, so I haven't kept any growers for years now. I absolutely loathed killing the cockerels, and didn't trust OH to do it properly, so it wasn't really a goer for us.

[WitchHazel]

Hi

We have a flock of garden girls who are our pets, and we also have a breeding flock where we raise chicks for our dinner table.

 

I wouldn't eat a chicken that had been killed by a fox, or a chicken that had died of "natural causes" for that matter, mainly because I don't think it's worth the risk. You have no idea what might be there.

 

The "died in vain" consideration is a really good one, and I applaud you for at least thinking of this. We have eaten one of our breeding girls who was badly damaged by the cockerel and had to be culled. I found this very hard, as we hadn't intended to eat any of the breeding girls, we had planned that when they were no longer suitable for breeding, they would live out their retirement with us as pets.

 

If another one had to be culled now, I don't think I would eat her, but that is because the way I deal with raising chicks for the table is that from the moment they are hatched, I know what their fate is going to be. That's just my way of dealing with it, and I wouldn't expect other people to feel the same way.

 

I would recommend going on a course to learn how to dispatch and dress the birds. Being able to dispatch a bird properly is an excellent skill to have, as you never know when you might need to put one of your girls out of pain, even if you don't intend to follow through with the dressing and eating.

 

We did this before we embarked on raising dinner chickens because we wanted to see if we could actually deal with the whole process first. Having done it, I can't imagine trying to gut a chicken for the first time, never having seen it before. It's not the same as sticking your hand inside and pulling out a bag of giblets.

 

You may do a course and decide that you're never going to do it again. But it's best to find that out then, not while you're trying to deal with one of your own.

 

I know it's a highly emotive issue, so well done you for raising it and asking about it.

[Valkyrie]

Having dispatched one of our birds because he crowed (just the once and wasn't given another chance) we roasted and ate him. I couldn't justify killing him and leaving it at that - it was a very good learning curve and in the future would definitely raise birds for the table. I personally would not eat roadkill (although have wondered about the abundant supply of venison along the A30) and certainly not those killed by an animal mainly for the thought of whatever disease might be lurking - even if it's well cooked.

[mostin]

As others have said.......in this case, the bird you have is not fit for various reasons to be eaten, but I don't turn my nose up at you for asking the question . I started with just pet chickens for the eggs. Then I went on the kill, pluck and gut course because one of my pet girls got ill one bank holiday weekend, and she really suffered before I could get her to a vet, so I went to learn how to end them myself .

 

Now I breed chickens for showing. I chose the sussex breed which are good for eggs and meat. The girls are named from an early age and will always be pets, and have a happy retirement. The boys, unless I need another stud, are not named, and are destined from day one for the pot. I feel very different towards them than towards my other chickens. They are not pets, and although they get the same food, water and cleaning out......there is not the bond.

 

It's something for you to consider for the future, I would never have thought I would have ended up being able to do it when I started with my first 2 pet hens. I will always despatch my own boys rather than sell than to someone who I don't know, as they may end up as training birds for illegal cock fighting then .