Is my pekin bantam male or female?

[NFMC]

The one question I get now I have chickens is whether I would eat them. I think I would (it would be very hypocritical if I didn't).

 

So, my questions here are -

1. Has keeping chickens made you feel differently about eating chicken?

2. Would you/have you eaten any of your own?

 

I'll answer my own -

1. I'll try and buy free-range chicken in the supermarket but I have to say I'm not religious about it. I still cook and eat as much. Where I feel a bit squeamish is when I'm cutting up a raw chicken with a big cleaver and my three chickens are sat at the glass door at the bottom of the kitchen 'watching me'.

2. I can't imagine I'd have the guts to kill my own chickens. Much too used to a sanitised life where meat comes in plastic wrapping. Terrible really. If someone else did it then I'd eat them. I think.

[JanTheDiver]

I still eat chicken without any qualms about it, but I wouldn't eat my own.

 

The ones I have in the garden are productive pets so they don't get eaten, but I know some people do. If I ever get my smallholding then I will have a group of egg layers and a group of table birds, but I am not there yet.

 

Hope this helps

[surfer_chicken]

I still eat chicken

 

As for eating my own, I wouldn't eat my egg layers as to me they are my pets, they have names and they get daily attention. However I hatched chicks this summer and I'm intending to eat the cockerels soon, I haven't named them and I try not to get too attached, but I suppose I won't know how it will affect me until it happens

[Patricia W]

A number of people on the forum raise meat chickens alongside the ones they keep for eggs. I've thought about it and may well do it at some point. You know the chickens have a good life that way.

[chookingham]

I am in the 'sanitised' camp. I try to only buy free range, corn fed chicken to cook with. The girls in my garden are my pets and anyway, with all that egg production they are way too skinny to be worth considering as a meal My neighbour raises chickens and geese for the table but there is no way I could actually despatch one I had raised. I think I am a closet veggie really, just that I like the taste of chicken and meat too much to give it up, regardless of all the ethical and moral debates. So now I only eat meat if I can see that the animals have had some sort of life outdoors/ quality of life.

[loumabel]

I am a veggie so obviously I don't eat my own or shop bought chickens, but having said that I think it is far more honest to raise and cull your own animals. Giving them a good life where they are free to be chickens then humanely culling them has to be better than any type of factory farming however good they claim to be.

[Space Chick]

I eat chicken, but will only eat free range or organic from local traceable farms, as I need to know the chicken has had a good life (I do the same with all the meat I buy)

 

Wouldn't eat my girls, they are pets.

 

However, like others I will eat the cockerels I hatch that I can't rehome. I do the deed and preparation myself, if the boys have to die anyway I'd rather their lives be for a purpose.

[jellykelly]

I have raised and eaten table birds. Although I felt guilt initially at killing a bird that I'd raised, I knew that I'd given them a good free range life and a quick death.

 

I try not to buy any chicken from supermarkets now as although the label says freerange, it's the method of death that bothers me.

Did you know that a small proportion of meat has to be labelled up as 'halal slaughtered' but large supermarket chains will sell meat that has not been labelled but has been slaughtered the halal way. Not great if you don't agree with the slaughtering method and would like to avoid buying it at all costs.

 

Same as MacDonalds. All meat they use is halal slaughtered - we don't eat there either now.

[Olly]

I wouldn't eat my own hens, firstly as said above they are bred for egg-laying and would be skinny and rather tough; secondly, even if they were fat and juicy, I couldn't dispatch one myself, much less dress a bird for table.

 

I used to be vegetarian, and for about a month after getting the hens I wavered about returning to a veggie diet. However, even products from meat animals - eggs, and milk in particular - contribute to meat production, because male calves and male chicks are no use to the farmer except as a food product. It makes more sense to eat the males, than to simply waste their lives.

 

I only buy free-range chicken, and won't ever eat it in restaurants or buy chicken sandwiches etc unless it's described as free-range.

[jackian]

I have never been a great meat eater simply because I was never keen , not for any other reason.I have always eaten chicken .

Since having my girls 6 months now my ideas have changed. I rarely eat chicken now but when I do I make sure it is free range . When I see boxes of caged bird eggs I want to smash the lot. I must admit I am eating chicken less and less.We grow all our own veg and I make bread etc., and being a vegetarian has not got the stigma it used to have so I think I will end up being one.More so since having the chickens.

[counturchickens]

About the same as others, only buy free range now!

[Angie]

I eat chicken but i will admit i couldn't eat one of my girls that have faithfully given me her best and all thoses eggs.

If i had a home with enough land to have growers i would have chickens for the table , as well as geese and turkeys.

I tend to eat more turkey than chicken or red meats.

[craftyhunnypie]

We don't eat any chicken what so ever. No matter if free range or not. We don't even eat chicken flavoured things or chicken stock cubes. We also only ever eat free range egg products when we know about it & avoid egg dishes in Chinese restaurants & pubs. We either have to book veggie meals on planes or Jewish meals. Jewish can't eat chicken & have milk / milk products together. We like milk in coffee, so that's our excuse for not eating chicken!

 

I'm under strict orders to never give any pigs any names!

 

Emma.x

[Yorkshire Pudding]

I'm like many here, will only eat free range poultry and would rather go without than knowingly eat anything that isn't.

 

If I could have the space, I would have meat birds as well as layers, quite happy to dispatch them myself and prep them. In fact a few years ago we costed the idea of moving to a French ruin with enough room to raise poultry and run a couple of gites... we just couldn't make the numbers work well enough to actually do it

 

One day!

[The Dogmother]

You always get some wag asking if you eat your hens mine are all bantams and unlikely to supply any more meat than a jumbo quail

 

I'll only eat local, free range meat, and while I don't have the room to keep my own meat birds I am lucky enough to have a friend who does. So long as I despatch and dress it myself, i get a very good 'mate rate'. But for when I don't have the time, there's a very good local farm which rears and butchers their own delicious free range birds.

[Lewis]

I always try and buy Free Range chicken and always eggs (not that I buy many eggs) but do eat chicken out so know I'm not perfect but am a student and do try my best!

 

I have hatched and culled meat birds and kind of enjoyed raising them and knowing how they were treated etc, sure I will again, just need to find the time that I'm at home to do it! I prefered freezing them before eating so its less obvious who it was...

Saying that, I wouldn't eat my laying girls, mainly 'cos there wouldn't be a lot on them, and they have names and are treated differently

 

Don't have a problem with dispatching them as long as its as humane as it can be - have had to cull a lot of ill chickens over the summer on placement, would rather do that humanely than to leave them suffering etc.

[Sammiboo]

I tend to buy meat from local farm that raise and cull their own produce. Since getting the girls i think i count on my fingers how many times i have eaten chicken. We tend to eat beef, lamb and occassionaly pork.

[surfer_chicken]

I dispatched my first meat bird yesterday. I thought I was going to be really upset, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was nice and quick and I will definitely raise chickens for meat again.

Just got to pass the taste test now!

[The Dogmother]

Good for you - once you get into the routine it's not an upsetting task, just a necessary one.

 

I bet it tastes lovely

[chickencam]

Now that I have culled a couple of poorly chickens I know that I could raise and dispatch my own meat birds. I don't have the space where we are, but if in the future we had more room I would love to raise my own meat knowing that I had given it a good life. We are too detached from the reality of our meat in modern society.

 

We try to eat free range meat, but do eat a very occasional Chinese takeaway, even then I try to avoid chicken, and if i have to buy eggs I will buy the best free range I can.

[Space Chick]

Well done surfer chicken It's not easy to do, but necessary and worth it.

 

You can't beat knowing the complete provenance of your food... I love been able to say food metres not food miles

[whoopsie]

I don't know if i'd have the confidence to dispatch my own birds - I know I should have done to one that was maimed by a fox and I still feel bad for being a coward. I was worried I wouldn't do it properly and cause her more pain. When I get new girls it's actually something i'd like to learn about in case the situation occurs again (though I hope not obviously).

 

I do feel very differently now about eating chicken and while I still do, I am very particular about where it comes from (well that goes for all meat really).

 

I was upset the other day when I went into Tesco and found that they still sell eggs from caged birds. Another nail in their coffin for me then.

[Lisa C]

I eat free range chicken, I get my ‘other’ meat products from a good local butcher who gets (some) of his meat direct from a farm about 30 miles away. I normally eat vegetarian when out, after quizzing the waitresses for ages about where the products have come from. I find it almost a challenge to see if they know anything about the product they sell.

 

I’d love to have birds and pigs for the table, but we don’t have the room. I’d still like to experience what it’s like to cull a bird – just to see if I could. Is that wrong?

[Daphne]

No, not wrong. In fact to be applauded Not enough people care about the provenance of their food in my opinion and the fact you are displaying curiosity and a willingness to see if you can do one of the hardest things any of us have to do, which is take a life, is entirely to your credit.

[The Dogmother]

I agree, if you can do it, then it's best to learn how to despatch a bird properly.