I just couldn't do it, not if I had named them all and had a "personal" relationship with them. I am a wuss.

I heard an interesting story today about another farm animal

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/1 ... loved-oxen

After a leg injury didn't heal well earlier this year, Lou has difficulty walking. He and his partner, Bill, will be slaughtered at the end of the month, and their meat will be used to feed students at Green Mountain College in Vermont.

Ang, the procedure and process is simple in chickens. But for me, it won't be easy.

I have been and am giving them a very nice life with affection, care and consideration. I will ensure their death, by my hand will be the same.

I don't take this lightly, it's a life, others lives will benefit from that gift.

If there is anyone out there that eats meat, you have to know it lived once.
but you may not want to know how, it would turn you off or repulse you.

I am honoring these lives by making sure their end is swift and respectful and kind. That may be an oxy moron to some.

I recall from the movie Temple Grandin, that she 'felt' livestock understood and accepted their place in the food chain and they were okay with it. The least we can do is make the ending a good one.

Oh Jo, I get it and I think anyone that keeps chickens must be prepared and ready to do this and I think it was a valuable offer to teach others. I wish more of the other chicken keepers could have been there.

but I am just a chic....wait, that would not be a good term to use here, I am just a huge wuss and could not do it.

Most of us do not like to think about WHERE our food comes from. It is just packaged at the grocery store. I think this is a learning moment.

yep. When the time comes, I have no doubt I will be raising my mortal awareness to a place it has not ever been. It is empowering and humbling simultaneously and I am not even there yet.

I post this with the understanding that some folks have done this long enough that it may not be so prominent or profound. It may be more matter of fact and not so deeply analyzed
That doesn't make it more or less valuable to anyone. This is just where I am with it.

I did Cornish X this spring (7200') and they dressed out 3 1/2 - 4 pounds at 8 weeks. We lost one chick at a few days but don't know why; the rest thrived and we'll do it again. I was told by my sister who has done them before in Minnesota that if you let them go too long, their increased weight causes leg and heart problems and she lost a lot by waiting too long to process. At 8 weeks, ours looked like soccer balls on legs.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, Farm Girl. Wish I could have been there. We took ours to a USDA certified processor north of Ft. Collins and by the time you pay for gas and processing, they are pretty pricey. Need to do it ourselves next time.
Kim

I hear you on pricey.. Thanks for sharing.. Makes me more determined to "GO FOR IT" in the Spring.. They sure do look like nice meaty birds.. I'm looking for good friers/roasters.. yummy!!! you are welcome to come over or I can help you next time.. it goes so much faster when there are multiple people to do different steps..

I am having chicken for dinner tonight.


The pressure cooker is simmering away.


It was obvious there hadn't been an egg in the line up for a long time, for these two, and they were extremely fatty inside, they had a good long life and I was glad I was able to discern this by spending so much time with them since June.

I am grateful for the thought I put into this, the advice I garnered from people with experience and the wealth of info on the internet and it was a good end.

I am pretty wiped out though...this was a big deal and I'm not sure that it shouldn't be....

I remember the first time I stayed with Redhead...she said 'oh i will just wait until you leave to go back to Texas to butcher'...I left her house with chickens squawking, I came back to silence and the smell of chicken and dumplings.....

I have four hens. I will let them live out their lives -- a family I know up here had a chicken which, at the time I met her, was 11 years old. Most chickens, I guess, only live five years withOUT butchering.