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Just curious
Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2024 9:15 am
by Bkeepr
We have a small flock of free-range chickens…many of them have names. We keep them mostly for eggs, but when we get an abundance of roosters, we do butcher them.
I know Paul and others have kept chickens. My question is, if/when predators kill one of yours, what do you do with the dead chicken? (Does anyone eat them?)
Really just curious. Nobody’s answer will change anything here, but I would like to know how far out we are.
Re: Just curious
Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2024 10:14 am
by Red Dave
Don't have chickens now, but we raised a lot of chickens when I was growing up, both broilers and layers. We never ate the ones that predators killed, or the ones that just died for no apparent reason. My memory of it is that they went on the compost pile.
Re: Just curious
Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2024 7:59 pm
by PHPaul
I just composted them. If a predator got them, there was never enough to even consider cooking, not that I would.
The ones that died of old age would've been tougher than a baked owl.
Re: Just curious
Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2024 7:30 am
by Okierob
We don't eat anything a varmint kills. I haul any remains off to the back pasture.
Re: Just curious
Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2024 12:13 pm
by Bkeepr
Thanks guys, I guess I'm no different from y'all. I haul them up my hill, where buzzards and the occasional bald eagle cleans them up.
Reason I asked is that occasionally (most recent was the day before yesterday) I catch a varmint in the process of killing a chicken and sometimes there's no visible damage to the dead chicken. I'm pretty sure this recent one had its neck broken. I did as usual with it, but was wondering if that was a waste, and if anybody else might eat in a situation like that.
Sometimes I overthink stuff. Thanks!
Re: Just curious
Posted: Sat Oct 05, 2024 12:29 am
by Sid
Bkeepr wrote: Fri Oct 04, 2024 12:13 pm
Thanks guys, I guess I'm no different from y'all. I haul them up my hill, where buzzards and the occasional bald eagle cleans them up.
Reason I asked is that occasionally (most recent was the day before yesterday) I catch a varmint in the process of killing a chicken and sometimes there's no visible damage to the dead chicken. I'm pretty sure this recent one had its neck broken. I did as usual with it, but was wondering if that was a waste, and if anybody else might eat in a situation like that.
Sometimes I overthink stuff. Thanks!
I suppose it would be alright to eat if you was hungry enough. I ain't been that hungry YET. No matter how far I haul it off.most things like that end up in my back yard.
Re: Just curious
Posted: Sat Oct 05, 2024 8:47 am
by Bkeepr
Sid wrote: Sat Oct 05, 2024 12:29 am
Bkeepr wrote: Fri Oct 04, 2024 12:13 pm
Thanks guys, I guess I'm no different from y'all. I haul them up my hill, where buzzards and the occasional bald eagle cleans them up.
Reason I asked is that occasionally (most recent was the day before yesterday) I catch a varmint in the process of killing a chicken and sometimes there's no visible damage to the dead chicken. I'm pretty sure this recent one had its neck broken. I did as usual with it, but was wondering if that was a waste, and if anybody else might eat in a situation like that.
Sometimes I overthink stuff. Thanks!
I suppose it would be alright to eat if you was hungry enough. I ain't been that hungry YET. No matter how far I haul it off.most things like that end up in my back yard.
I have been that hungry, in my youth. I have actually eaten out of garbage cans a few times…fortunately not for a long time. But that might be why I even thought about whether I was wasting these chickens.
Re: Just curious
Posted: Sat Oct 05, 2024 11:27 pm
by Jim @ Jawa
I have been that hungry, in my youth. I have actually eaten out of garbage cans a few times…fortunately not for a long time. But that might be why I even thought about whether I was wasting these chickens.
Bleeper,
I think we might have a similar childhood. I have eaten things I found in the dump. Also stolen farmer's crops.
I'm very formula with hunger. Those memory's still haunt me.
Re: Just curious
Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2024 4:29 pm
by GeneMO
If it had just gotten killed, was a younger hen, and it wasn't all mangled, I would eat it. ( if I had time and felt like cleaning it).
But we just picked up a quarter of been, and I asked them to save me the brains, so I am not a squeamish person.
Gene
Re: Just curious
Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2024 12:16 pm
by GeneMO
Quarter of beef
