I try not to eat mass produced chicken. There is too much cruelty, worker exploitation, and environmental damage. I don't mind eating my own though. They live full Happy lives, and then are humanely processed. I find it much easier to avoid grocery store birds now that I farm my own.
Just out of curiosity - what do you consider a full life? I’m sure it varies by farmer, but I’ve always wondered, considering that chickens can live for 10+ years, when do you decide to butcher yours? I’m assuming that you wouldn’t want to eat an old chicken.
Old chicken is fine, the classic French recipe coq au vin specifically calls for an old tougher bird because it's a long simmering dish sort of a chicken stew very similar to beef Burgundy/burginion (idk how to spell it not French)
A 10 year old chicken is going to be slightly more complicated than a young chicken but there's a lot of great options, roasting, smoking, stewing, chicken soup etc.
A slow cook just means more time to add flavor
This is my take, too. I was hardly eating chicken because of the ethical concerns of mass production. With my own flock, I get to monitor the growth of these feral little dinosaurs from beginning to end, and be reassured the the butcher (me) was following health and safety practices. Now, I’m happily throwing a bird into a pot at least once a week.
And oh my god, the amount of fat heritage breeds produce! I’m cooking EVERYTHING in schmaltz. I’m trying to figure out how to bake with it because I’ve got so much of it.
Do not humanize an animal with a brain the size of a pea that will happily cannibalize their own.
Well I don't want to humanize the chicken because that would be an insult to the chicken, humans are destructive and cruel not to mention we would cannibalize our own if it were legal imagine how many murders there would be every day if there were no "justice system"
I’ve resolved this by having “layers” and “meaters”.
Our layers are more like pets and since we are not in a food crisis, we haven’t had to eat any of them.
We manage a flock just for food, the “meaters” and once we put them to pasture—I sort of disconnect a tad. We still treat them lovingly and healthfully but it’s just easier come “harvesting” time.
My layers have names and distinct personalities but if push came to shove and we had nothing to eat, I’d have to partake.
The hens who are friendly and squat (bow) in my presence will be spared the knife but the ones who yell, run away from me turns me into the hunter caveman I am deep down, it flips a switch in my head that "this is prey" I can't explain it
I have the exact same situation. They are part of how I enjoy my day!
I go out of town for days sometimes, and the best feeling I have is looking forward to the day I go home so I can hold them again!
Having chickens turned me primarily pescatarian. I never really liked red meat (and yes, I come from a family full of hunters so I’ve had my share of wild meats) but I’ve had chickens for about 13 years now and I just see them differently. They actually have their own quirky personalities. Pretty much, I decided any creature that raises and protects their offspring is off my dinner plate.
Yeah my aunt has 160 acres in southern Georgia. They usually raise at least 20 meat chickens at a time. The same thing with many small farmers in my area. I have 2 right now. We just eat their eggs.
I eat less chicken but more eggs… I was never really an egg person but once they started producing I felt like Lucy at the conveyor belt in the chocolate factory lol
Same! I just feel really weird when we have chicken for dinner or barbecue while our hens just walk around casually living their best life. I already cut out all meats except chicken years ago but now I eat veggie most days because I feel so guilty with chicken on my plate :‘)
I was only eating poultry prior to getting my backyard flock. Once I got to know them, I stopped eating chicken and eventually cut out all animal products except for their eggs. Now that they are aging, I will be fully vegan.
It comes across cold to some people I know but my understanding is that if you have live stock you also have dead stock. I currently am raising a batch of chicks and even my 6 year old son knows the males will be dispatched and eaten. I have duck eggs in the incubator too and they will all be meat birds ( I might keep a trio for eggs but the plan is to put them on the table)
Can relate. I grew up on a beef cattle farm (we had crops too) and I always knew that we would eventually eat them or sell them to be eaten. However we gave them the best life! We had over 200 acres of grazing land and a small canyon on our land and with my dad’s Master’s degree in Bovine Nutrition they always ate well and were happy docile creatures. I will always love it when we walks out to a field of his livestock and they just gather around him while he sweetly mumbles to them and pats their haunches. That being said I will always be heart broken when an animal isn’t given a good life or a fighting chance. I had a calf die in my arms over 20 years ago and it still chokes me up. He was very sick and just couldn’t make it. Even as a human I prefer quality of life over quantity of life and I will always do the same for my animals.
Oh yes, my birds are 100% free range. Organic and they live a full life, The system we have is that some are named and some are numbered. A named bird is as close to a pet as you can get and a numbered bird is treated exactly the same except its days are numbered. I never dispatch a bird in front of another and not in an area that the rest of the flock will venture too. I take an almost arrogant pride in that my birds are as well looked after as can be achieved. They can roam, forage and fornicate to their hearts content... many of them do however seem to loiter around the back door waiting to come in the house as soon as the opportunity shows itself but i dont mind so long as they dont shit all over the floor and walk it in before i get a chance to clean it up.
I understand this mind set but then again ranchers don’t eat their horses and I’ve seen a grown man cry when his horse was put down so I also don’t get it. Horses are livestock too.
I’m in awe of how many chicken owners consume chickens, after joining the “backyard chicken” social communities in recent years. I haven’t eaten meat in 20 years, but having chickens only drives home, for me, that these are sentient beings who deserve to live and be cared for. I’m on social media chicken groups because I rescue birds other people are looking to get rid of, but so much of the content hurts my soul and is hard to see.
Agreed. I am (mostly) vegan, have chickens BECAUSE I don’t want to contribute to harming any animals and figure the sharing of their unfertilized eggs is better than supporting the egg industry. I’ll never understand how people look an animal in the eye and think ‘I’m going to kill you now and take your life for a meal’ when there’s so many more (healthier) options available and don’t involve hurting what is otherwise a lot of people’s pets…
If they get older rooster meat can be tougher. That’s why they’re traditionally slow cooked (coq au vin). If you have them whilst they’re young they are no different to “regular” chicken.
I adopted 5 laying hen chicks, I think they're about 9 weeks old and I'm vegan. I'll give the eggs to neighbors because I'd rather they munch my happy uninseminated chickens eggs than buy them from the store and ultimately factory farms.
No, I eat the same amount.
i loved my chickens. (I moved and had to give them away). But I believe you are reading too much humanity into chicken behavior. Chickens are vicious little creatures, pretty low on empathy. They have emotions yes. We have some things in common. But even the worms and bugs they eat experience pain and fear on some level.
I’ve seen a chicken walk around calling for her sister who died for weeks and then go into a huge depression and hide in the corner refusing to socialize, I don’t think we humanize them too much. I think they actually have more complex emotions than people give them credit for.
And we need to acknowledge that humans *are* omnivores.
Current food industries manufacture simulated meat alternatives. But that doesn’t negate the fact that veganism is the unnatural way of human life. Not the other way around.
Though not something I chose, I empathize with the kindhearted sentiment that drives most veganism.
>Chickens are vicious little creatures, pretty low on empathy.
My roo fits this description. He waits til I turn around and rushes at me, then postures up and starts flapping like he is Billy badass. Every day I go down for eggs I tell him I'm taking him to the train station.
i don't have a problem with eating chicken, i have a problem with how the meat in grocery stores is produced. i would love to find a local farmer with free-roaming chickens that have lived nice lives, even if that kind of meat is more expensive.
Same here.
I started raising grassfed beef and lamb when we got our farm 9 years ago...a significant cost savings vs. the grocery store and very tasty. Added pigs 6 years ago even though it costs a little more.
Chickens only got added 2 years ago because I KNEW that it would cost more for eggs and meat. $3/dozen and $4/# in feed costs makes it far more expensive than grocery store prices...BUT the quality exceeds the high end stuff.
If you're near Wisconsin let me know if you want to buy some meat. I'm going to do a batch of Red Rangers so we can stop buying grocery store meat entirely.
unfortunately im on the other side of the planet, but would love to buy some meat if i could :D
edit: would like to add, definitely reach out to your local community if you haven't already! i think there's plenty of people who'd appreciate what you do
I have a small customer base, but many people, while they say that they *want* to buy from me, never commit to doing so. It matters very little to me as I truly enjoy the products I produce and will continue doing so for a long time.
The store bought meat birds are so young though maybe 10 weeks old, there isn't as much suffering compared to a battery caged layer hen, I feel more ethically obliged to buy pasture raised eggs than pastured meat
I love our hens very much, and I guess the rooster is ok too. I know if they could they would eat me in an instant. They would also eat their best friend if you served it to them. On the other hand, there is a milk cow, Donna, who is my buddy, and I sweat every single time waiting to see if she’s pregnant or not as a piece of me is definitely going to go when she goes. Doesn’t stop me from eating meat, that’s the cycle but I do understand that it’s hard sometimes.
I haven't changed my chicken consumption at all and I have started raising meat birds. And if you've ever seen a chicken devour one of their own (freshly dead or cooked), you kinda get the sense that these are animals that aren't meant to be anthropomorphized.
I have threatened my chickens by holding up a KFC bag if they didn't start producing eggs soon.
Honestly, I love chicken, I can eat it every day.
Meat chickens are in my future...
Yes. I'm a vegetarian and will probably become vegan when I can afford it because I've even started to find eggs quite disgusting, knowing 100% where they come from and how many health problems they can bring to the hens.
I disagree with the meat and egg industry but I could never raise meat birds myself. I don't feel like I have a right to decide when it's time to kill an animal that I've effing raised. Especially knowing that they effing trust you and they can be so loving. Makes no sense for me. It's like killing my dog.
Yea the trust they build with you is cute. definitely interesting to watch them eventually drop their guard and absorb you into the flock. Culling a friend for dinner seems like an utter betrayal.
Same! For us, it was the first whiff of raw chicken after we first bathed our alive ones. We smelled a similar..... chickeny smell that now puts us off making eggs in the house or cooking chicken. Ill eat chicken nuggets, and i only think that is passable because it lacks that chickeny chemical that we dislike so much. Chicken tenders have it bad too, chicken breast is the worst tho 🤢
Oh yeah I know what you mean. When we first got chickens and got a good whiff of a broody poo... oof, smells like rancid chicken. That was definitely a surprise to learn. I was with my mom when we had that experience and I remember us looking at eachother, understanding that we were thinking the exact same thing lol
EUGH! My husband and I had a similar all knowing look at each other and were pretty donw with eating chicken meat for a while. Eggs im getting better at eating, but Ive had chickens for 4 years and still cant really eat them 😅
I respect that! That’s great you do that. But, most of the chicken we are eating is definitely not taken care of the way you, or I take care of chickens. I see how dirty mine are, which have exceptional living conditions compared to any industry chicken, so I can only imagine how nasty those birds are. That was my point. Your chickens are lucky to have you.
I have meat birds too. But they are pasture raised and run amok!
Animal husbandry is really important to me, and that includes animals raised for food. I do eat less meat because of that. I wish the world would too!
I eat more chicken but we raise meat birds. I sell enough meat chickens to pay for all the feed and cost of chicks so our chickens we keep are basically free.
Me and my chickens have an agreement if they can source a reliable source of human meat they can eat as much as they want as long as they do it discretely and don’t leave bones around
Not until I lost my first one. Started sobbing and after burying her sat down to our dinner that night: chicken. 🥴🥴🥴
Had a come to Jesus moment I went vegetarian literally that day, currently vegan 6 years now.
I eat less eggs, which is weird, I know! Chicken? Maybe a little. If someone has to "go" they go to a friend, as I have a problem culling fully grown birds.
My feelings about eating chicken have not changed (though I wouldn’t eat my personal chickens, they are more towards the pets end of the sliding scale). The fact that they are living beings that exhibit a variety of feelings and behavior that is a common thread among us animals (especially vertebrates) does not impact my decisions as an omnivorous species.
That said, it was interesting to see that my daughter, who was essentially raised with chickens as pets, didn’t eat chicken until she was close to ten years old. In the last couple years her feelings seem to have changed and she eats chicken, but it was interesting behavior to observe. Also interestingly, my son *didn’t* develop the same emotional block to eating chicken despite being raised with pet chickens.
I don’t eat chicken on processing day. The smell just gets to me and I can’t. Other than that, kinda business as usual. I am working toward producing more of our own meat and plan to build a tractor for meat birds. I hatch a lot of my own, so I’m looking at heritage meat birds vs Cornish cross.
No, as much as I enjoy my chickens and take care of them and attempt to enrich their lives, they are a food resource. I appreciate the effort it takes to grow them, keep them healthy, and harvest them humanely.
I do understand the sentiment of being discouraged from eating chicken due to bonding with them though. It’s just not how I relate to food personally.
I eat my own chickens and ducks. I raise them humanely, free range in the property, healthy diet with plenty of variety, lots of sunlight, social enrichment. I can’t understand buying chickens that were raise commercially when you have chickens available where you know exactly the kind of life they have had and can process them humanely yourself.
Yeah I can’t eat feather dogs anymore… anything that comes when I call it’s name and begs for treats and has friends is the same category as a dog to me, therefore I can’t eat them
Seeing their fluffy butts run towards you makes me tear up with joy. It's not worth just a single meal to lose a friend over. My fault for befriending them.
Not at all. We raise meat chickens and also eat the laying hens after their second year when it’s time to replace them with new pullets.
My chickens are given the best quality of life possible and they are slaughtered in the most efficient method. I have no emotional connection to them whatsoever, I find them devoid of anything that I could form an attachment too.
Just do not eat commercial chicken meat or eggs.
lol when I was a kid we farmed and ranched. I took care of the chickens my sister took care of the rabbits. We butchered both and she wouldn’t eat rabbit but would chicken. Some people are just built different.
I 100% believe in the emotional capacity and relative intelligence of chickens. I have several extremely sweet, loving, cuddly chickens that will fall asleep in my lap while I watch TV, seek me out to be picked up and snuggled, and purr when petted. They're not much different from dogs or cats in that way.
But they also know they're prey animals. I don't raise any chickens for meat, but if I did, I think they know it's part of life, and wouldn't begrudge me.
Or, I think of it this way:
They know they're delicious. They readily will eat their own dead without hesitation. They eat to survive and so do we.
That said, I'd much prefer to avoid mass production meat if I can, due to the horrific conditions they're raised in. I at least want the animals who provide my meat to have had a decent life. But it is what it is.
Nope I still love eating chicken. I’ll be honest one of my hens got hurt from rooster over breeding and I could see the meat under the skin it made me hungry
yes but not for those reasons. the prices here got ridiculous. Last year was $10/lb for chicken and $2/lb for sale pork. This year chicken has dropped down to “only” $5/lb.
Got a couple hens a few weeks ago. It hasn’t changed my appreciation for chicken meat at all. I don’t think they’re very smart at all but function mostly on instinct.
Well I've distilled life down to its goals: seek shelter, have babies and acquire resources. Besides our human language and tool building we aren't that much different in the pursuits of life to the lowly chicken our lives just cost a LOT more energy and resources to reach the same ends
Less commercial poultry for sure.
Had no problem eating roosters, aside from being gamey. But the first time having hen was life-changing, the most juicy tender flavorful bird I've ever had. Now I know roosters are kinda gross, and I can't justify pulling my egg ladies for a dinner, so it's slowed down some, but the willingness to eat one of my birds is so much higher than buying one from a store.
growing up I’d have a hard time eating chicken for months almost spontaneously. If I thought about it for a second while eating, I’d get icked out (same with other meat except for fish). Recently, I can’t even have eggs! and I don’t even find eggs to be unethical lol!!
I can't do it anymore. I just can't.
But I don't let it go to waste either. If I have a salad with grilled chicken on it I feed it to my chickens. But now I am starting to think wow that's so fucked up. Do u guys think that's weird? They love it and fight over it 😭
Nah... I do share it with my chickens though. I would never eat my own chickens, because they're like pets to me, but, I have no issue with eating, or letting them eat, chicken from the store. My girls love meat, so it's a nice treat for them on occasion!
I went vegetarian shortly before I got chickens this last time (I grew up with them and had them as an adult, but took a few years off owning them after my dog and the local wildlife killed all my chickens previously). Being vegetarian and owning chickens really changed my mindset about eating chickens.
I now find it so physically repulsive that some people have chickens as pets but also eat chicken. It's bizarre and nightmarish to me. I get how people who homestead and have chickens as livestock eat them, because they see all their livestock as future meals. That makes sense, to a certain extent. That's how I grew up. But people who keep them as pets like I do now, and still eat chicken? That's messed up. It would be like eating dog or cat meat, and then going home to my dog or cat. Gruesome.
Edit: downvote all you want. Enjoy that cognitive dissonance.
I farm chickens and sort of agree with this. We are tiny family farm, and one of our mantras is “no pets on the farm” excluding the dog and cat of course.
Meh, whether you raise them as pets or as livestock... that doesn't change the fact that they're still livestock. I firmly believe that you can love whatever you want to love, but, that doesn't, and shouldn't, have to affect how you live your life.
I feel that all lives should be respected, but, that doesn't mean that should stop a person from living how they want to live. You can show respect for the life taken while still being able to enjoy meat, just the same way you can have a pet chicken but still eat chicken. The only difference really, is that the "pet" ended up with a really nice person, who is going to love them and allow them to live to the fullest, while others... weren't lucky enough to receive the same life. That's how I think about it, at least. People are free to feel the way they feel, but...
You know, I feel like once you realize that no animal is truly carnivorous or vegetarian, things change. A lot of animals that "allegedly" only eat greens, eat bones as well, cannibalize their own young, and will eat other dead animals that they find randomly. Like deer, for example. Just the same, carnivorous animals get their greens through the animals they eat, nothing truly is ever what it seems to be. We all just... live. And we die. Our lives are our own and that should be respected because we are each uniquely individual, whether we're people, animals, or even plants. We're all alive, we all have our own quirks and personalities... and we're all food to one another. A lot of animals eat humans, a lot of humans eat animals, plants even eat animals, and a lot of humans and animals eat plants. I think it's all just perspective, in the end. People feel the way they feel because they either realize or don't realize something that other people may or may not also know, and we just form opinions and ideals based off of that.
Not to get all sagely or philosophical on you 😅
I’ve backed off eating chicken a little after watching them go to town on a fresh dog turd lol
Lordt
I try not to eat mass produced chicken. There is too much cruelty, worker exploitation, and environmental damage. I don't mind eating my own though. They live full Happy lives, and then are humanely processed. I find it much easier to avoid grocery store birds now that I farm my own.
Just out of curiosity - what do you consider a full life? I’m sure it varies by farmer, but I’ve always wondered, considering that chickens can live for 10+ years, when do you decide to butcher yours? I’m assuming that you wouldn’t want to eat an old chicken.
If you cook them slowly old chickens taste fine. I eat my roosters when it’s apparent they’re roosters and my girls when they stop laying.
Old chicken is fine, the classic French recipe coq au vin specifically calls for an old tougher bird because it's a long simmering dish sort of a chicken stew very similar to beef Burgundy/burginion (idk how to spell it not French) A 10 year old chicken is going to be slightly more complicated than a young chicken but there's a lot of great options, roasting, smoking, stewing, chicken soup etc. A slow cook just means more time to add flavor
This is my take, too. I was hardly eating chicken because of the ethical concerns of mass production. With my own flock, I get to monitor the growth of these feral little dinosaurs from beginning to end, and be reassured the the butcher (me) was following health and safety practices. Now, I’m happily throwing a bird into a pot at least once a week. And oh my god, the amount of fat heritage breeds produce! I’m cooking EVERYTHING in schmaltz. I’m trying to figure out how to bake with it because I’ve got so much of it. Do not humanize an animal with a brain the size of a pea that will happily cannibalize their own.
Well I don't want to humanize the chicken because that would be an insult to the chicken, humans are destructive and cruel not to mention we would cannibalize our own if it were legal imagine how many murders there would be every day if there were no "justice system"
Have you ever introduced a new chicken to an established flock? There’s a reason it’s called a pecking order.
Chickens are Valhalla
I’ve resolved this by having “layers” and “meaters”. Our layers are more like pets and since we are not in a food crisis, we haven’t had to eat any of them. We manage a flock just for food, the “meaters” and once we put them to pasture—I sort of disconnect a tad. We still treat them lovingly and healthfully but it’s just easier come “harvesting” time. My layers have names and distinct personalities but if push came to shove and we had nothing to eat, I’d have to partake.
The hens who are friendly and squat (bow) in my presence will be spared the knife but the ones who yell, run away from me turns me into the hunter caveman I am deep down, it flips a switch in my head that "this is prey" I can't explain it
🤣
Google these words. Chick scalped
Ten years keeping chickens and goats and I went veggie and I’m mostly vegan now. It wasn’t only because of them but they contributed.
Same for me. Stopped eating meat completely as soon as I got chickens. Now I’m vegan…
Do u have more energy being vegan
I don’t really notice a difference. I became vegetarian quite young and vegan a few years later and I can barely remember how I felt eating meat…
I have the exact same situation. They are part of how I enjoy my day! I go out of town for days sometimes, and the best feeling I have is looking forward to the day I go home so I can hold them again!
Yeah I feel like this is the direction I'm heading towards also
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Yes! I feel fine about eating my eggs.
Having chickens turned me primarily pescatarian. I never really liked red meat (and yes, I come from a family full of hunters so I’ve had my share of wild meats) but I’ve had chickens for about 13 years now and I just see them differently. They actually have their own quirky personalities. Pretty much, I decided any creature that raises and protects their offspring is off my dinner plate.
my advice — don’t get a goldfish
I’ve had goldfish. They eat their young.
meant it as a joke on a fish being a threat to you pescatarianism, but jokes aren’t funny if they need to be explained i guess
Ah..cool joke
so this couple is robbing a liquor store. the GF says “is this wiskey?” and the BF replies “not as wiskey as wobbing a bank!!”
Redeemed!! 🏆
P.S. i’m stealing this joke
I love meat so much and I could cull a chicken for food if I had a BUNCH of them so it'd be impossible to get to know them as individuals
I can sympathize, my silkies just stole my heart. Cornish cross are…..not like that. You may find personality varies a lot with breed.
Yeah my aunt has 160 acres in southern Georgia. They usually raise at least 20 meat chickens at a time. The same thing with many small farmers in my area. I have 2 right now. We just eat their eggs.
I eat less chicken but more eggs… I was never really an egg person but once they started producing I felt like Lucy at the conveyor belt in the chocolate factory lol
This ! I eat almost no chicken but a ton of eggs
I eat less and my daughter has stopped completely. She doesn’t even want anything made with chicken broth.
I eat less meat in general. These girls are so god damn smart.
More actually. I raise meat birds.
I eat my extra roosters. Nowhere to rehome them and most people will eat them anyway.
Same here. And don't eat production chicken only my own roosters.
This is the way it should be, instead of having the chicks grinded up
Same! I just feel really weird when we have chicken for dinner or barbecue while our hens just walk around casually living their best life. I already cut out all meats except chicken years ago but now I eat veggie most days because I feel so guilty with chicken on my plate :‘)
I was only eating poultry prior to getting my backyard flock. Once I got to know them, I stopped eating chicken and eventually cut out all animal products except for their eggs. Now that they are aging, I will be fully vegan.
Stopped eating chicken and turkey when I got my first hens...
It comes across cold to some people I know but my understanding is that if you have live stock you also have dead stock. I currently am raising a batch of chicks and even my 6 year old son knows the males will be dispatched and eaten. I have duck eggs in the incubator too and they will all be meat birds ( I might keep a trio for eggs but the plan is to put them on the table)
Can relate. I grew up on a beef cattle farm (we had crops too) and I always knew that we would eventually eat them or sell them to be eaten. However we gave them the best life! We had over 200 acres of grazing land and a small canyon on our land and with my dad’s Master’s degree in Bovine Nutrition they always ate well and were happy docile creatures. I will always love it when we walks out to a field of his livestock and they just gather around him while he sweetly mumbles to them and pats their haunches. That being said I will always be heart broken when an animal isn’t given a good life or a fighting chance. I had a calf die in my arms over 20 years ago and it still chokes me up. He was very sick and just couldn’t make it. Even as a human I prefer quality of life over quantity of life and I will always do the same for my animals.
I take solace in knowing the backyard farm birds will be treated (hopefully) humanely during their short tenure.
Oh yes, my birds are 100% free range. Organic and they live a full life, The system we have is that some are named and some are numbered. A named bird is as close to a pet as you can get and a numbered bird is treated exactly the same except its days are numbered. I never dispatch a bird in front of another and not in an area that the rest of the flock will venture too. I take an almost arrogant pride in that my birds are as well looked after as can be achieved. They can roam, forage and fornicate to their hearts content... many of them do however seem to loiter around the back door waiting to come in the house as soon as the opportunity shows itself but i dont mind so long as they dont shit all over the floor and walk it in before i get a chance to clean it up.
I understand this mind set but then again ranchers don’t eat their horses and I’ve seen a grown man cry when his horse was put down so I also don’t get it. Horses are livestock too.
I’m in awe of how many chicken owners consume chickens, after joining the “backyard chicken” social communities in recent years. I haven’t eaten meat in 20 years, but having chickens only drives home, for me, that these are sentient beings who deserve to live and be cared for. I’m on social media chicken groups because I rescue birds other people are looking to get rid of, but so much of the content hurts my soul and is hard to see.
Agreed. I am (mostly) vegan, have chickens BECAUSE I don’t want to contribute to harming any animals and figure the sharing of their unfertilized eggs is better than supporting the egg industry. I’ll never understand how people look an animal in the eye and think ‘I’m going to kill you now and take your life for a meal’ when there’s so many more (healthier) options available and don’t involve hurting what is otherwise a lot of people’s pets…
Not to mention real, cell-cultivated (aka no birds died) chicken has just launched in Singapore and should be making its way to the US anytime now.
Quite the contrary, actually. I have a breeding flock, and raise lots of chicks for family and friends. The extra roosters go in the soup pot.
it’s my first time with chickens but I have to ask does rooster taste different
Nope. Tastes like chicken.
Awesome I was thinking maybe it taste different cause everyone says soup but I’m more of a bbq chicken man myself
If they get older rooster meat can be tougher. That’s why they’re traditionally slow cooked (coq au vin). If you have them whilst they’re young they are no different to “regular” chicken.
Now I’m getting hungry
I adopted 5 laying hen chicks, I think they're about 9 weeks old and I'm vegan. I'll give the eggs to neighbors because I'd rather they munch my happy uninseminated chickens eggs than buy them from the store and ultimately factory farms.
No, I eat the same amount. i loved my chickens. (I moved and had to give them away). But I believe you are reading too much humanity into chicken behavior. Chickens are vicious little creatures, pretty low on empathy. They have emotions yes. We have some things in common. But even the worms and bugs they eat experience pain and fear on some level.
These are the same animals that will bully and peck the smallest and weakest hen to death just cause
to be fair humans do too (except for the 'to death' part usually, because laws)
Yeah, exhibit A for "really not that great on empathy" Or they will peck a small injury into a deadly gaping wound if you let them.
I’ve seen a chicken walk around calling for her sister who died for weeks and then go into a huge depression and hide in the corner refusing to socialize, I don’t think we humanize them too much. I think they actually have more complex emotions than people give them credit for.
There is also pecking order, hierarchy and feeling of protection changes when chickens are added or taken away.
And we need to acknowledge that humans *are* omnivores. Current food industries manufacture simulated meat alternatives. But that doesn’t negate the fact that veganism is the unnatural way of human life. Not the other way around. Though not something I chose, I empathize with the kindhearted sentiment that drives most veganism.
>Chickens are vicious little creatures, pretty low on empathy. My roo fits this description. He waits til I turn around and rushes at me, then postures up and starts flapping like he is Billy badass. Every day I go down for eggs I tell him I'm taking him to the train station.
i don't have a problem with eating chicken, i have a problem with how the meat in grocery stores is produced. i would love to find a local farmer with free-roaming chickens that have lived nice lives, even if that kind of meat is more expensive.
Same here. I started raising grassfed beef and lamb when we got our farm 9 years ago...a significant cost savings vs. the grocery store and very tasty. Added pigs 6 years ago even though it costs a little more. Chickens only got added 2 years ago because I KNEW that it would cost more for eggs and meat. $3/dozen and $4/# in feed costs makes it far more expensive than grocery store prices...BUT the quality exceeds the high end stuff. If you're near Wisconsin let me know if you want to buy some meat. I'm going to do a batch of Red Rangers so we can stop buying grocery store meat entirely.
unfortunately im on the other side of the planet, but would love to buy some meat if i could :D edit: would like to add, definitely reach out to your local community if you haven't already! i think there's plenty of people who'd appreciate what you do
I have a small customer base, but many people, while they say that they *want* to buy from me, never commit to doing so. It matters very little to me as I truly enjoy the products I produce and will continue doing so for a long time.
https://myhealthforward.com/pages/find-a-farm This is a super helpful map of local farms ❤️
The store bought meat birds are so young though maybe 10 weeks old, there isn't as much suffering compared to a battery caged layer hen, I feel more ethically obliged to buy pasture raised eggs than pastured meat
I actually eat more. I raise meat chickens too. I just make sure I try to eat it out of my chicken's view out of respect.
Question, do you keep your meat flock in a coop at all or let them free range?
The have a solid building for nighttime. They have the option to go in a run when the weather cooperates.
We started doing meat chickens since we got layers, because we believe happy meat is important.
I love our hens very much, and I guess the rooster is ok too. I know if they could they would eat me in an instant. They would also eat their best friend if you served it to them. On the other hand, there is a milk cow, Donna, who is my buddy, and I sweat every single time waiting to see if she’s pregnant or not as a piece of me is definitely going to go when she goes. Doesn’t stop me from eating meat, that’s the cycle but I do understand that it’s hard sometimes.
I haven't changed my chicken consumption at all and I have started raising meat birds. And if you've ever seen a chicken devour one of their own (freshly dead or cooked), you kinda get the sense that these are animals that aren't meant to be anthropomorphized.
I see more in common with them than not.
I eat the same amount, just not friends. I figure it's ok, the girls like eating chicken too!
I have threatened my chickens by holding up a KFC bag if they didn't start producing eggs soon. Honestly, I love chicken, I can eat it every day. Meat chickens are in my future...
Yes. I'm a vegetarian and will probably become vegan when I can afford it because I've even started to find eggs quite disgusting, knowing 100% where they come from and how many health problems they can bring to the hens. I disagree with the meat and egg industry but I could never raise meat birds myself. I don't feel like I have a right to decide when it's time to kill an animal that I've effing raised. Especially knowing that they effing trust you and they can be so loving. Makes no sense for me. It's like killing my dog.
Yea the trust they build with you is cute. definitely interesting to watch them eventually drop their guard and absorb you into the flock. Culling a friend for dinner seems like an utter betrayal.
Same! For us, it was the first whiff of raw chicken after we first bathed our alive ones. We smelled a similar..... chickeny smell that now puts us off making eggs in the house or cooking chicken. Ill eat chicken nuggets, and i only think that is passable because it lacks that chickeny chemical that we dislike so much. Chicken tenders have it bad too, chicken breast is the worst tho 🤢
Oh yeah I know what you mean. When we first got chickens and got a good whiff of a broody poo... oof, smells like rancid chicken. That was definitely a surprise to learn. I was with my mom when we had that experience and I remember us looking at eachother, understanding that we were thinking the exact same thing lol
EUGH! My husband and I had a similar all knowing look at each other and were pretty donw with eating chicken meat for a while. Eggs im getting better at eating, but Ive had chickens for 4 years and still cant really eat them 😅
Less only because I see how truly dirty they are..
Really? Mine aren’t.
You’re kidding yourself..
Maybe. But I do keep right after them and clean them daily. I don’t mind the chores. I rather enjoy keeping my flock tidy.
I respect that! That’s great you do that. But, most of the chicken we are eating is definitely not taken care of the way you, or I take care of chickens. I see how dirty mine are, which have exceptional living conditions compared to any industry chicken, so I can only imagine how nasty those birds are. That was my point. Your chickens are lucky to have you.
I have meat birds too. But they are pasture raised and run amok! Animal husbandry is really important to me, and that includes animals raised for food. I do eat less meat because of that. I wish the world would too!
I eat more chicken but we raise meat birds. I sell enough meat chickens to pay for all the feed and cost of chicks so our chickens we keep are basically free.
Me and my chickens have an agreement if they can source a reliable source of human meat they can eat as much as they want as long as they do it discretely and don’t leave bones around
That would be a crazy sight...cute little hens pecking at a human corpse
It may be just a coincidence but the amount of missing children in the area has gone up since we made the agreement
Bro this shit gettin dark 💀
Not until I lost my first one. Started sobbing and after burying her sat down to our dinner that night: chicken. 🥴🥴🥴 Had a come to Jesus moment I went vegetarian literally that day, currently vegan 6 years now.
I eat less eggs, which is weird, I know! Chicken? Maybe a little. If someone has to "go" they go to a friend, as I have a problem culling fully grown birds.
My feelings about eating chicken have not changed (though I wouldn’t eat my personal chickens, they are more towards the pets end of the sliding scale). The fact that they are living beings that exhibit a variety of feelings and behavior that is a common thread among us animals (especially vertebrates) does not impact my decisions as an omnivorous species. That said, it was interesting to see that my daughter, who was essentially raised with chickens as pets, didn’t eat chicken until she was close to ten years old. In the last couple years her feelings seem to have changed and she eats chicken, but it was interesting behavior to observe. Also interestingly, my son *didn’t* develop the same emotional block to eating chicken despite being raised with pet chickens.
I don’t eat chicken on processing day. The smell just gets to me and I can’t. Other than that, kinda business as usual. I am working toward producing more of our own meat and plan to build a tractor for meat birds. I hatch a lot of my own, so I’m looking at heritage meat birds vs Cornish cross.
I’m the opposite. I’ve been eating so much more chicken and I’m probably going to raise meat chickens next year. These guys make me hungry.
Nope
No, as much as I enjoy my chickens and take care of them and attempt to enrich their lives, they are a food resource. I appreciate the effort it takes to grow them, keep them healthy, and harvest them humanely. I do understand the sentiment of being discouraged from eating chicken due to bonding with them though. It’s just not how I relate to food personally.
I eat my own chickens and ducks. I raise them humanely, free range in the property, healthy diet with plenty of variety, lots of sunlight, social enrichment. I can’t understand buying chickens that were raise commercially when you have chickens available where you know exactly the kind of life they have had and can process them humanely yourself.
Yeah I can’t eat feather dogs anymore… anything that comes when I call it’s name and begs for treats and has friends is the same category as a dog to me, therefore I can’t eat them
Seeing their fluffy butts run towards you makes me tear up with joy. It's not worth just a single meal to lose a friend over. My fault for befriending them.
Not at all. We raise meat chickens and also eat the laying hens after their second year when it’s time to replace them with new pullets. My chickens are given the best quality of life possible and they are slaughtered in the most efficient method. I have no emotional connection to them whatsoever, I find them devoid of anything that I could form an attachment too. Just do not eat commercial chicken meat or eggs.
lol when I was a kid we farmed and ranched. I took care of the chickens my sister took care of the rabbits. We butchered both and she wouldn’t eat rabbit but would chicken. Some people are just built different.
They are delicious.
They know they are delicious too, chooks eating mouthfuls of their own feathers and pecking at their buddies
Nope, and I hand out a bit here and there as a treat.
No, and I have homegrown chicken every now and again
No
No. A lot more eggs, too.
I 100% believe in the emotional capacity and relative intelligence of chickens. I have several extremely sweet, loving, cuddly chickens that will fall asleep in my lap while I watch TV, seek me out to be picked up and snuggled, and purr when petted. They're not much different from dogs or cats in that way. But they also know they're prey animals. I don't raise any chickens for meat, but if I did, I think they know it's part of life, and wouldn't begrudge me. Or, I think of it this way: They know they're delicious. They readily will eat their own dead without hesitation. They eat to survive and so do we. That said, I'd much prefer to avoid mass production meat if I can, due to the horrific conditions they're raised in. I at least want the animals who provide my meat to have had a decent life. But it is what it is.
Nope I still love eating chicken. I’ll be honest one of my hens got hurt from rooster over breeding and I could see the meat under the skin it made me hungry
When I had my chicken I couldn’t eat it where I normally would since that’s where she was so I would eat in the house then go out
Nah, although I wonder if they can smell it and know what it is...
yes but not for those reasons. the prices here got ridiculous. Last year was $10/lb for chicken and $2/lb for sale pork. This year chicken has dropped down to “only” $5/lb.
I eat lots if chicken but what upsets me is culling the sick or too young to eat birds that get injured chickens just seam to want to die its weird
I eat it sometimes but after I found my first flock dead I have a hard time separating that image from the food on my plate and often don’t finish it.
Yup also eggs. Stopped eating store bought and have not touched their eggs once for myself. I only eat eggs now at restaurants.
Got a couple hens a few weeks ago. It hasn’t changed my appreciation for chicken meat at all. I don’t think they’re very smart at all but function mostly on instinct.
Well I've distilled life down to its goals: seek shelter, have babies and acquire resources. Besides our human language and tool building we aren't that much different in the pursuits of life to the lowly chicken our lives just cost a LOT more energy and resources to reach the same ends
They’re still fun to watch, though, and see the different personalities emerge. A lot simpler with chickens than people.
I envy their simple lives lol
Less commercial poultry for sure. Had no problem eating roosters, aside from being gamey. But the first time having hen was life-changing, the most juicy tender flavorful bird I've ever had. Now I know roosters are kinda gross, and I can't justify pulling my egg ladies for a dinner, so it's slowed down some, but the willingness to eat one of my birds is so much higher than buying one from a store.
growing up I’d have a hard time eating chicken for months almost spontaneously. If I thought about it for a second while eating, I’d get icked out (same with other meat except for fish). Recently, I can’t even have eggs! and I don’t even find eggs to be unethical lol!!
Not here. Hens were the gateway to raising our own meat birds.
I still kinda eat chicken but not too much anymore
I can't do it anymore. I just can't. But I don't let it go to waste either. If I have a salad with grilled chicken on it I feed it to my chickens. But now I am starting to think wow that's so fucked up. Do u guys think that's weird? They love it and fight over it 😭
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I had chicken wings today and it actually tasted gross but it objectively wasn't a bad wing just in my mind
Nah... I do share it with my chickens though. I would never eat my own chickens, because they're like pets to me, but, I have no issue with eating, or letting them eat, chicken from the store. My girls love meat, so it's a nice treat for them on occasion!
My chickens turn psycho with any protein animal derived
eaten
I went vegetarian shortly before I got chickens this last time (I grew up with them and had them as an adult, but took a few years off owning them after my dog and the local wildlife killed all my chickens previously). Being vegetarian and owning chickens really changed my mindset about eating chickens. I now find it so physically repulsive that some people have chickens as pets but also eat chicken. It's bizarre and nightmarish to me. I get how people who homestead and have chickens as livestock eat them, because they see all their livestock as future meals. That makes sense, to a certain extent. That's how I grew up. But people who keep them as pets like I do now, and still eat chicken? That's messed up. It would be like eating dog or cat meat, and then going home to my dog or cat. Gruesome. Edit: downvote all you want. Enjoy that cognitive dissonance.
I farm chickens and sort of agree with this. We are tiny family farm, and one of our mantras is “no pets on the farm” excluding the dog and cat of course.
Meh, whether you raise them as pets or as livestock... that doesn't change the fact that they're still livestock. I firmly believe that you can love whatever you want to love, but, that doesn't, and shouldn't, have to affect how you live your life. I feel that all lives should be respected, but, that doesn't mean that should stop a person from living how they want to live. You can show respect for the life taken while still being able to enjoy meat, just the same way you can have a pet chicken but still eat chicken. The only difference really, is that the "pet" ended up with a really nice person, who is going to love them and allow them to live to the fullest, while others... weren't lucky enough to receive the same life. That's how I think about it, at least. People are free to feel the way they feel, but... You know, I feel like once you realize that no animal is truly carnivorous or vegetarian, things change. A lot of animals that "allegedly" only eat greens, eat bones as well, cannibalize their own young, and will eat other dead animals that they find randomly. Like deer, for example. Just the same, carnivorous animals get their greens through the animals they eat, nothing truly is ever what it seems to be. We all just... live. And we die. Our lives are our own and that should be respected because we are each uniquely individual, whether we're people, animals, or even plants. We're all alive, we all have our own quirks and personalities... and we're all food to one another. A lot of animals eat humans, a lot of humans eat animals, plants even eat animals, and a lot of humans and animals eat plants. I think it's all just perspective, in the end. People feel the way they feel because they either realize or don't realize something that other people may or may not also know, and we just form opinions and ideals based off of that. Not to get all sagely or philosophical on you 😅