Does anyone keep animals for food?

princesstippytoes

Hi everyone.

I'm a newbie who's inspired by you all.

I came by this site because my husband wants us to live a bit like the Good Life and I don't know where to start.

i've started growing some vegetables but he wants to take it a step further and keep pigs and chickens for meat. :eek:

I'm not sure I could send them off to slaughter after feeding them up. :eek:

Has anyone else done this? If I agreed to the chickens and just used them for eggs could we eat them when they died of old age?

DaisyClaire

I don't and couldn't as I couldn't slaughter the animals -I would grow too attached to them.

I wouldn't eat a chicken which had died of old age - would be a bit chewy!!

Linda32

princesstippytoes wrote: »

Has anyone else done this? If I agreed to the chickens and just used them for eggs could we eat them when they died of old age?

Hello,

Welcome to the forum, Old Style, or OS for short, is to me a little bit of "the good life" - obviously it depends on your take of that

I've never kept animals for food, or animals for that matter. However, and I'm not sure if its the same if your going to eat them yourself, but I remember watching "Jimmy's Farm", and they had a pig which died. They were in two minds as to wether to send him off for slaughter or breed. Can we say he didn't have any lead in his pencil :rotfl: so they were going to send him off when he keeled over.

Because he had died that was it, they couldn't us him for anything. As I say, I'm not sure if thats the case if your going to eat the chickens youself rather than selling the meat.

I'm sure someone will be able to help or put you in the right direction.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

i would love to have a farm or smallholding and rear my own food, but in reality i would break my heart when it came the time to take them to slaughter.....

again in reality.. we have got sooo accustomed to going to the supermarket or the butcher for our food....

but i can remember when we were younger moving into a house ( in a normal road with neighbours ) having old pig stys at the bottom of the garden, and the old lady next door said that they both had a pig each, and reared them..... then they used to slaughter one pig and share it between them, and then they a little while later slaughter the other pig .....if i remember this was in the 40's right through to the end of the 50's ..and if you think about it... in the late 50's early 60's this is when the supermarkets started ( more like a larger independant store size now )

Queenie

I (used to) have a chicken for eggs - even though she never successfully laid any that were edible :laugh:

I've also got quails, again for eggs, but the friend I got them from culled all the males and we shared the meats

I used to do casual work on a farm at turkey time, killing/plucking. None of that bothered me, but, my own birds .... I get too emotionally involved. Didn't think I would, but I did. My chook died very recently - no way was she going to be eaten. In fact, I had chicken down on my meal plan for that night and changed it in case my lads were feeling sensitive

Agutka

What would you do with a whole pig! I got a whole salmon and that was enough bother thank you very much. I don't think you can eat a chicken that has died, you must kill it before it does it for you - something to do with chemistry I suppose, although there was that guy who eats roadkill .
Get hubby to do it, if you have a good supply of chickens you'll soon get used to it. It's not like having only one you get attached to.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Agutka wrote: »

What would you do with a whole pig!

eat it......:D

thriftlady_2

Have alook at the forums on The River Cottage website. They have advice on all aspects of the good life http://forum.rivercottage.net/index.php

jamjar,

I have 5 hens for their eggs, but I'm going to hatch some eggs and grow those for eating.
I also have a flock of sheep, bought with the sole intention of eating the lambs, which we have done for the last two years.
I didn't know until the meat was on the plate if I would be able to eat it, but it was such lovely looking meat that I did.
I never buy any other meat now.
We have thought about getting a pig, but need to find somewhere to keep it.
My advice is go for it if you can.

paddy's_mum

FOr several years, I reared and ate my own produce including all kinds of poultry, pigs, vegetables etc. It is the only way to produce truly great food which you know is uncontaminated. However ... it is a LOT of work. It's not something you can really do part time, in my opinion, but keeping a few hens can be less of a tie.

If you add up the hours, the cost, and the sheer bondage of having to go out and attend your stock in all weathers (think .. gale force winds, bitterly cold mornings, blizzards) the form filling for officialdom, and the need to have adequate storage for what you produce (a whole pig takes up a lot of freezer space!) it is not really worth it, in terms of monetary value.

Better for most people to buy their meat/poultry/eggs from an organic outlet so getting all the advantages without the massive commitment needed to rear your own stock.

Having said that, I still grow most of my own vegetables and agree that nothing can beat home produced anything for taste and quality.

Alfietinker

I keep chickens for eggs - I could never eat them as I'd have to do the actual killing myself and I just couldn't cope I think. But if you were considering it, you need to kill them young, certainly not when they've died of natural causes. I'm not sure of the exact age, but I think most of the ones you buy are only a few months old when they're killed (and that's a slow growing free range one. Cheap supermarkets ones are weeks old).

An alternative to keeping pigs yourself could be to buy a half or whole pig direct from a farm? It'll be far better than supermarkets and cheaper too and you can make hams/sausages to your hearts content - providing you have the space to store it all.