Single hen

[jsbates65]

I've been a vegetarian for around 10 years, but curious. . .those of you who are not vegetarian and come to have chickens as pets. . .did that effect your menu?

 

By the way, for all the anxiety of getting two chickens. . .now it seems like the most natural thing. . . I can't imagine them not being around. I see people drive by and slow. . .they hang out with the dogs. . .they even pop into the kitchen every now & then. . .

 

I can't imagine life without chickens!

 

http://club.omlet.co.uk/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=14739

[Lesley-Jean]

No real change in my diet John, although I TRY to make sure all the chicken and eggs (and products) I purchase are from freerange hens.

[Rhapsody]

Yes js it has for me, I no longer eat any chicken of questionable or untraceable origin- takeaways, pre-cooked supermarket etc and am even more rabid about buying chicken raised humanely.

[UkButton]

Not really, but then if it didn't have a face on it before it got to my plate I'm not interested.

[Couperman]

Our diet has changed,

 

We eat far more eggs than we used to!

 

We still eat chicken and other meat, but the strange thing is we value it more now.

 

Keeping chickens has somehow made us realise where food comes from and I think we have more respect for it.

 

It is easy to forget what that nicely packaged stuff in the supermarkets actually is,was.

 

Kev.

[Egluntyne]

I don't eat meat but I am much more careful about the origins of the meat I feed to the family now.

 

We are lucky that we have a very good local butcher.

 

He's not cheap mind you.

[Gallina]

I don't like dealing with a whole chicken: it feels like a body now, rather than a meal; but I am all right about buying chicken breasts.

 

I have never liked eating meat very much, but regrettably think that we are designed to eat it if we want to keep strong. The vegetarians I know look pale and ill, and the vegans look as though they are dying.

[Suzanne]

I've been a vegetarian for around 10 years, but curious. . .those of you who are not vegetarian and come to have chickens as pets. . .did that effect your menu?

 

I was never a big meat eater but I did eat fish and chicken. Now I find that really difficult and no way could I BBQ chicken pieces on the BBQ outside with Clara and Juliet looking on!

 

Suzanne

[Laura & CTB]

I havent felt able to buy a whole chicken to cook

 

- looks too much like a chicken!!

[Tina C]

Gallina - are you trying to be controversial?

 

I don't doubt that there are unhealthy vegetarians and vegans out there - but there are lots of healthy ones too - including many athletes and sportsmen/women - Carl Lewis was one and (I think) Martina Navratilova.

[The Pearsons]

But given half a chance chickens eat chickens......

 

I do eat meat and poultry and fish but as always when we say Grace:

 

"Dear God, thank you for our meal. Thank you for Lucilla, she was a good pig."

 

Reminds us of just where the meal came from.

 

Helen in Hume

[Helly Welly]

I would say we probably eat more chicken, but this is because i now buy whole organic free range chicken which i get four meals out of.

 

I have no problem eating chicken in front of the chooks, i'm never going to eat them so it doesn't bother me.

[Guest]

I'm vegitarian myelsf (just because I don't like the taste) but yesterday we had people overr for dinner and I cooked a chicken. My three girls stood by the back door and watched!

 

I felt a little bad.

[Looney]

I still eat chicken and meat in general. Like others have said, I am careful about the origin of the meat I eat though.

 

My OH's family are either vegetarian or only rarely eat meat and they were convinced we would stop eating chicken!

[Kathy C]

Since getting our hens I have been much more aware of organic and freerange meat, and get it when I can. I would like to feel that the animal has had a quality of life.

 

I always bought free range eggs anyway. I felt battery farming to be cruel. I have chickens and can see how they live natually I can see how barbaric it is.

[Ziggy]

The whole family is vegetarian, so we've not had to think about whether to adapt our diet, though yes we do eat a lot more eggs

My daughters are quite sensitive, especially Suki who owns the chickens, and she hates the thought of anyone eating any animals... She has strongly inherited my 'animal-lover' temperament, and I too wouldn't eat any animal anymore, and yes having chickens at home definitely reinforces that... I just find meat in any form is not needed, my husband and I are definitely not pale or tired or unhealthy (no more so than our meat eating friends anyway), so my own philosophy is why waste any life to feed ourselves... This is especially true in the UK, where you can find so many vegetarian products and choices in any shop or restaurant... It's not quite so easy in other european countries, where vegetarian protein products such as quorn and even tofu and so on are not so readily available...

[Chooks Aloud]

Used to love eating chicken, but since I've got my chooks, I cannot bring myself to eat any. Still eat other meat, so will not be getting a small holding, as I would then have to become a complete veggie.

[Lesley]

We've gone the other way!

 

I was vegetarian for 25 years when we had our first two hens. Carl used to eat organic or local meat.

 

Having hens led us to look for somewhere with more land and we were fortunate in that the smallholding we live on now turned up at the right time and practically on our doorstep!, just 2 miles from our house.

 

It has an Agricultural Tie and we have to keep animals. Once we started rearing our own animals, I started to eat meat again. I only stopped for ethical reasons, not the taste.

 

I now eat meat we rear ourselves - including chicken - but am still veggie. when eating out or at friends. The table birds are different to our layers - I couldn't eat one of those, and they are all named.

[enzed]

I now can't bring myself to cook chicken in the house.... I feel too guilty. If I eat out, I often eat chicken, can't cut it out completely (I love Nandos too much ). I know that makes me a bit of a hypocrite, eating chicken of unknown origin, but not being able to cook decent chicken in the house!

[Edge Wife]

The vegetarians I know look pale and ill, and the vegans look as though they are dying.

 

Hello,

I've been veggie for ten years now. You wouldn't say that if you saw me!!!! Still lardy after all these years! And, I get nowhere near as many colds or ailments as I did when I ate meat. Might be co-incidence but I don't think so. I do believe your body tells you what it needs though. Mine tells me it wants pies, cakes and chocolate most of the time

 

Edgeman has become more aware of the whole meat issue since we got together and he now shops far more 'ethically'. Before we got the chooks he would only buy organic free range chicken but even then the guy from Omlet told us that our girls, with run extention, have more room than the EU dictates they have to have to be classed 'Free Range'! The girls have been here six weeks and suddenly Edgeman has gone right off eating chicken. The only meat he eats now is pork, but I've got news for him: Edge Wife wants a pig!!!

 

Not sure I've got the hang of quoting yet: sorry.

Edit - sorted the quote for you Edge wife - Gina

[Jules.]

But given half a chance chickens eat chickens......

 

I do eat meat and poultry and fish but as always when we say Grace:

 

"Dear God, thank you for our meal. Thank you for Lucilla, she was a good pig."

 

Reminds us of just where the meal came from.

 

Helen in Hume

 

What a lovely Grace to say It's good to remember where our food comes from, & who our Sustainer is

[Cinnamon]

It has certainly made us all more aware of what we are eating.

We do still eat & enjoy chicken, but I now only buy Free range & usually organic too if I can get it.

 

Meat eating is a personal thing & whilst I am a true meat lover I respect those who can make a decision like cutting out meat for whatever reason & stick to it (I tried & I couldn't )

We eat vegetarian about twice a week & fish once or twice more. I think thats a healthy balance & it works for us.

 

My youngest is very cautious about what meat she eats & I am sure she will make the decision to become vegetarian in time. I just hope its when she has left home so I don't have to make 2 meals a day

[pinkkat]

Gallina, -

 

How rude, especially as a vegetarian started this thread. Everyone else seemed to be able to express their opinions without getting personal. How about - "I don't believe a a vegetarian diet can be healthy" - or even - "In my experience vegans are unhealthy" instead?

 

It was my impression that this was a friendly forum. This kind of malicious language attacking people for their beliefs is upsetting, especially from someone so active and helpful.

[Lesley]

Hi Pinkkat

 

This generally is a nice friendly forum - but at the same time people do express their opinions and occasionally we all differ

 

I'm sure Gallina does know people who perhaps don't know how to eat a balanced vegetarien diet just as you and I, and others on here, know plenty of people who do it properly.

 

Try not to take the remark personally - and let's celebrate our differences?

[Gallina]

I think I may have met the wrong sort of vegetarians. I am quite old, and when I was young you just weren't allowed to be a vegetarian. You had to eat school dinners (meat) and you were not allowed to bring a packed lunch. Then when I went to University in 1970 I met my first vegetarian (just one in our whole year), and she could not have weighed more than five stone.

 

Today I know more vegetarians, and they are all very thin: but isn't that a compliment, as long as they are healthy?

 

But I cannot accept the vegan way of life. I know a vegan family with two children brought up as vegans from birth, and even their vegetarian grandmother is worried about them. And as for fruitarians....

 

I would love to be a vegetarian as I loathe meat: as a child I had to sit at the table finishing up things like brawn and gristle, and you can never enjoy meat after experiences like that. When I go out for a meal, I always have the vegetarian option for a treat. But I still believe that the human body needs fish or meat, I am afraid, unless you take a whole load of supplements. My husband's aunt went vegetarian in her 70s, and just wasted away and died, because she ate no other protein.

 

Despite forcing down meat, I am still underweight and constantly being told to put on weight myself! If anyone (vegetarian or not) can give advice on how to put on weight enjoyably and healthily, I would love it.

Edited July 8, 2007 by Guest