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Hi,

we're looking to get chickens but I'm not sure whether we should get table birds or laying birds?

What birds are good for the table? I know hybrids are good layers. What breeds make good table birds? Are there dual purpose birds?

We like the idea of bantams. Would they be good for the table?

Marans are dual purpose, so are Rhodies, Light Sussex, in fact a lot of the old pure breeds are. I liked the Cuckoo Maran because first year hens are good layers of nice-looking eggs (rich brown ones), 2nd year still lay well, but when they go broody are good Mums, later on, they lay less well, but are even better for bringing up the next generation. In addition, the chicks are 'sex linked' from hatching, with males and females being different colours. If you can't tell for sure at hatching, it becomes obvious as soon as they get feathers.
The final advantage as dual purpose is that the skin is nice and white, which may be popular if you ever end up selling, or giving away, birds for eating.

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

i would love to raise my own meat chickens ...... i just know i'd get far too attached to them ....... theres just no way i could kill them ......

my son asked could we get a pig ..... for bacon ..... i said you mean, after it's been christened porky and you've taught it to sit and fetch, and its fought with the dog and cats over which is the best place on the bed to sleep ........ you'd be able to eat him?? he said good point, lets just get egg chickens lol

it would be wonderful to be able to go and pick a chicken and eat it ...... methinks i'm too soft

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Ha ha, like the bit about the pig. We just got 5 hens and a cockerel. The hens are for eggs but I reckon I could get table birds and remain emotionally detatched enough from them to kill and eat them, look after them but don't name them!

When we had animals destined for the table from birth, they got names which were a reminder, hence 'pork chop' and 'kid curry'. The first turkey was called CD (short for Christmas Dinner).
I've only ever named chickens or ducks if they were intended for keeping. After the numbers get high enough, it gets easier.
With sheep and goats it gets easier anyway, because they go for slaughter when they are at the 'juvenile delinquent' stage, and you get heartily sick of their behaviour!

If you've got a cockerel you might as well hatch a few eggs for Roast Chicken dinners....

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

We keep toying with the idea of getting some meat chooks,but like Lynda said don't know how we'd cope!the fact that you get them at the cute fluffy stage & watch them grow makes it doubly hard,although my most recent way of thinking is once the 1st lot are meat we could get more cute fluffy chicks! whenever we were tempted to get kittens as kids my mum would always say they dont stay kittens forever;getting table birds could almost ensure a constant presence of cute little chicks!? Such a tough one!Really makes me feel like a hypocrite that I eat meat yet not prepared to rear my own,also I enjoy chicken but am really struggling to be able to afford to buy free range(haven't had anything but since we started keeping chooks a few yrs ago&would rather go without than buy cheap factory birds).Is there anyone out there who used to feel like this but has gone on to rear table hens?how did you cope,any tips?

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the fates lead him who will;him who won't they drag.

Happiness is not having what you want,but wanting what you have.xx

I hope I can eat mine eventually, but I'll see how it goes. Would be great to know what the hen you're eating has been eating! I was going to call all of them 'cassie' short for 'casserole' but instead they seem to have developed Variable Name Syndrome (I keep changing their names)
So far, I don't feel too attached to them - they have shown themselves to be really very dumb, poor things! I think they work entirely on instinct. Having said that, I don't think I'd actually be able to commit the act of chopping one of their heads off. One of the hens'
heads off, that is. I don't have multi-headed chickens.

The best way of being able to eat your own chickens is to have lots, and to separate (in your mind at least) the 'keepers' from the 'eaters'. If you have say half-a-dozen 'pets' (hopefully laying eggs) then the others are much easier to avoid falling in love with.
You don't 'chop their heads off' if you can help it. It gets messy. Get someone who knows how to demonstrate the techniques. (It is also probably easier on the nerves if the first time or so the killing is done by someone else).

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

My plan this year has been to raise some chicks for the table - I have a few dual-purpose breeds (cuckoo marans cockerel x barred plymouth rock or silver grey dorking or scots dumpy). This is the first time I've actually raised chicks from my own birds rather than killing and eating an adult, so we'll see how it goes. Some of my birds have been called things like "Headless", "Turkey", that sort of thing, but I'm trying to avoid giving any names at all to the eating chicks. They are about 4weeks old now and spend their little lives chowing down, so I'm hoping they'll get to a good weight!

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Dwell simply ~ love richly

I read somewhere that if you are a bit sqeemish about eating Fred or Lilly etc you could kill him/her, ploat the bird and bung it in the freezer.

That way, when you fancy a chicken dinner in a couple of months time you will be more detached and enjoy it more!

Never tried it, but it sounds sensible!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
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Even better if you can swap dinners with a like-minded neighbour. Also if you put a few in the freezer at the same time, you don't know which is which at eating time.....

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

[quote=Snadger;255133]I read somewhere that if you are a bit sqeemish about eating Fred or Lilly etc you could kill him/her, ploat the bird and bung it in the freezer.

That way, when you fancy a chicken dinner in a couple of months time you will be more detached and enjoy it more!

Good idea!
I'm actually surprised that I don't feel particularly sentimental over our layers!Love watching them,chatting to them etc but i think as we have 10 that all look the same less able to become attatched(we think there's 1 particularly friendly 1 but who knows she may change daily!?)when we had the bantams they all looked totally different & they were backyard pets with names~there's no way i could've killed them & sobbed when our friend took them as we had to move & couldn't take them with us.But I think it's easier to stay a bit more detatched when they at the lottie,but will it be so easy when we get them as fluffy chicks & not POLI guess ther's only 1 way of finding out!

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the fates lead him who will;him who won't they drag.

Happiness is not having what you want,but wanting what you have.xx

We have been considering raising table birds too. We have been looking into dispatchers for carrying out the deed. They look a bit like a pair of scissors/pliers and you use them to kill the birds cleanly and with as little stress as possible.

Mini Dispatcher Chicken Duck Poultry Hatching Eggs N on eBay, also Other Bird Supplies, Birds, Pet Supplies, Home Garden (end time 18-Jul-08 22:12:43 BST)

Here's one.

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updated 14 May 2008

It doesn't look particularly humane to me. The stress comes in the few seconds when the bird is held, but not yet dead. I really cannot imagine it being any less unpleasant for them with the use of such a device.
The proper method is simple (but easier to demonstrate than describe), you hold the bird's legs in one hand, and the back of the head in the other, stretch it out and as you reach longest stretch, bend the bird's head upwards towards the tail, and finish the stretch with a sudden jerk.
If you doubt your ability to pull hard enough, use 'turkey technique', you need a broom handle or similar. Hold bird by feet with bird's head on floor (chin down) broomhandle across neck, your feet to hold the broom down, pull upwards on bird's feet.
You will get a lot of flapping about whatever the method, and I would always recommend a demonstration by an expert.
The advantage of tradition 'neck breaking' methods is that you don't have blood flying all over the place, as you do if the head is cut off. Headless chickens rarely actually run about, but they DO flap a lot, and the blood goes EVERYWHERE!
If you pull too hard, the head may come off anyway, and once you've seen that happen, you REALLY don't want a repeat!

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

Loving the sellers other items!!??LOL!

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the fates lead him who will;him who won't they drag.

Happiness is not having what you want,but wanting what you have.xx

OMG! So what market are they aiming the 'dispatchers' at and what are they for?

Those who lack the imagination to see that adding in a device might be easier on the human, but only adds another detail to the stress on the birds, and that one is for culling deformed or sick baby chicks/ducks

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

I agree hilary b. - I don't think that killing a hen with one of those is going to make it any easier on the hen. It clearly has been designed with the human in mind. I don't know if it would be worse than the other methods described though - they all seem pretty stressful to me. Is it possible to send them to sleep using rum-soaked raisins first, or is that me being an inexperienced wimp?

If you want to handle a feathered drunk.....<g>
In fact most chicken make no attempt to struggle when held ready for slaughter. I have several times had a turkey placidly accept having the broom handle laid on its neck, and the only flutter was when I actually pressed down on it for a fraction of a second before pulling. If one of those turkeys had fought, I probably wouldn't have been able to restrain it, but they never did. I think they are too thick to realise, until it is too late.

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

i was thinking more like take it to the abattoir and get them to do it ...... snapping necks and pulling off heads really isn't in my design ....... i could probably eat one of my chickens someone else had killed ........ i just don't think i could actually kill it and i would definitely have to stay detached from it..... will they do that at an abattoir?

i'm still certain i couldn't eat porky though

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sometimes i do talk complete and utter rubbish ...... just ignore me if i do ........i'll go away eventually

http://teachy.myminicity.com/

My father used to raise turkeys and chickens for the Christmas market, and I agree the birds did not seem stressed just before 'dispatch. He would always do the killing in a separate shed to the plucking, using the method described by Hilary B. He was always very insistant on being humane and reckoned the meat tasted better if the animal hadn't got upset just before dying. As children we used to help by plucking, and we weren't distressed by the process. The flapping is, I believe, the relaxation of the muscles after death, it doesn't indicate panic on the part of the bird, similar to the well documented fact of chickens running around if their heads are chopped off.
We used to keep a pig in the garden for pork, but we all knew it was for dinner, so didn't make it a pet. Similarly for rabbits, those destined for the table were not named or petted, but we all had our own pet rabbits that we spoiled rotten, and even if Dad was short on an order, they would never have go to the butcher. He wouldn't even ask.

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