Home kill, do you?

TastyReuben said:
That only happens if you let it. As long as you remember what you're raising them for, it's not a problem. Just don't confide in your pig all your problems, or let him sleep in the bed with you, and it'll work out. :wink:

My mom, the first year we had chickens, she'd named them all, and given them names to fit their characters, like the one that crowed a lot was Tom Jones ("'cause he's the singin'est!").

Come that first butchering day, Mom was very upset, but she still did the work of scalding and plucking, and I remember her working at the giant washtub sat over the fire, scalding the chickens, and every one that would go in, she'd cry and sniffle a little and say something like, "I'm sorry, Miss Lizzie!" and she swore never to name a food animal again.

Don't name your food animals! :laugh:
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If you named your steer "T-bone", your pig "Pork Chops" and your chicken "Fryer" or "Buffalo Wings" (for Mrs. T), lol...
 
So much depends on the environment you were reared in. I instinctively knew not to make pets of animals raised for food.
Even though my Dad, brothers and George all hunt and fish I have only hunted once. Not long after we met George took me duck hunting. I shot a Mallard. I cried. Obviously I do not hunt. G hunts and cleans I cook and eat. I do enjoy fishing - more to be out on the water than actually catching, not to say that I do not enjoy catching a "Big One".
 
ElizabethB said:
So much depends on the environment you were reared in. I instinctively knew not to make pets of animals raised for food.
Even though my Dad, brothers and George all hunt and fish I have only hunted once. Not long after we met George took me duck hunting. I shot a Mallard. I cried. Obviously I do not hunt. G hunts and cleans I cook and eat. I do enjoy fishing - more to be out on the water than actually catching, not to say that I do not enjoy catching a "Big One".
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Yeah, I love fishing and catching them, but I love being a woman and getting a guy to clean them for me. I don't want a really big fish, those are hard work. I like them medium size, like 25 pounds or less. I have nearly always had a male companion when fishing and guys don't seem to mind cleaning the fish. My father taught me how to do it, but like a lot of things, if someone else will do it I am okay with that, such as taking out the trash, doing yardwork, changing tires, changing the oil in my car, etc. I know how to do these things but I'd rather not.
 
Backbay said:
We grew up hunting, fishing and trapping and were taught, If you killed it, you cleaned and ate it or gave it to others who would eat it.

For me, no hunting or trapping anymore but, still love to fish - catch, clean and eat 'em.
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Hubby would rather clean it and have me cook the fish and do the dishes after. I am okay with this arrangement.

I am not a fan of sport fishing. If it's inedible I want no part of catching it, I don't find that fun at all.

There are people up here who fish in the nearby lake for the fun of it. I would never eat anything out of that lake with the runoff of fertilizers, pesticides, etc. from the houses along the lake. And when I was growing up on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida, I never understood people who enjoyed sport fishing and would have the fish mounted by a taxidermist. SMH.
 
Morning Glory said:
I've heard people say that but it wouldn't work for me. They would still be 'pig with the curliest tail' or 'chicken that rules the roost' etc.
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yep, I found my self this morning saying to hubby to remember to take LBJ out of the freezer and put her in the bin. (It was collection day and I refuse to pay $25 to bury a small animal at the tip when so much cooked & uncooked chicken (& other meat) is thrown away each & every day.)

(we can't bury dead on site because it attracts foxes and as hubby proved only 2 nights ago, we don't currently have foxes patrolling our area - he left the free range chook door open accidentally. Curiously not one of the chooks registered that it was open and instead left the coop by the other automatic door that leads into the area fenced off with an electric fence! Not a single chook came out via free-range door because they hadn't heard the door open, therefore it wasn't open :o_o: . They had however heard the other door open so left by that one! )

I've also decided that we need to rename Big Job (or more accurately big brown job) now that her almost identical sister is dead. Big brown job and little brown job were references to the bird watching term "LBJ" for something you hardly saw and was a little brown job!
In our case little stood for the smaller wattle & comb size of one of the Buff Sussex's we had. Both girls weighed in at around 4kg! But somehow Big Job just doesn't fit anymore.

other names are/were

JJ2 usually just JJ now because Just Jane died, she's Just Judith after a friend (at her request)
Arya (came with that name)
Silver (a brown chook with whitish/grey markings! We had an identical girl with yellow/straw coloured markings called Gold!)
Pebbles, Rock & Stone 3 identical Lavendar Sussex chooks who require identification bands to tell them apart.
Speckles (recently deceased) & Ptarmigan are speckled Sussex chooks. Ptarmigan used to be predominantly brown but mounted last year and is now predominantly white!
LBJ & BBJ (Buff Sussex's)
We've lost all of Julia Black, Julia White & Julia Grey, all named for a friend we were raising them for, the rest is obvious!
Lily & tily (recently deceased) came to us with those names
Stacey - after a friend
Lacey - well that's descriptive! a pencil laced wyandotte bantam.
henrietta - after Houdini... Harriet had already been used. First thing she did was escape on the way home with her... 2hrs to catch her in a park. Luckily Australians are very helpful in the most bizarre of situations. Lol.
Clara & Tilda after a friend's children
Elvis - very flamboyant roaster rooster who almost all the girls liked!
Lavendar, Chequers (B&W feathering pattern like a chess board) & blueberry are Lavendar, Cuckoo & blue araucanas.
Snowflake & Blackberry, a brilliant White and a jet black Australorp.
HP after Hercule Poirot because he was such a gentleman chook.
Xena - the only member of her flock to survive after owner abandoned them.She came to us as a rescue in appalling condition.

typo corrected!
 
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SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
yep, I found my self this morning saying to hubby to remember to take LBJ out of the freezer and put her in the bin. (It was collection day and I refuse to pay $25 to bury a small animal at the tip when so much cooked & uncooked chicken (& other meat) is thrown away each & every day.)

(we can't bury dead on site because it attracts foxes and as hubby proved only 2 nights ago, we don't currently have foxes patrolling our area - he left the free range chook door open accidentally. Curiously not one of the chooks registered that it was open and instead left the coop by the other automatic door that leads into the area fenced off with an electric fence! Not a single chook came out via free-range door because they hadn't heard the door open, therefore it wasn't open :o_o: . They had however heard the other door open so left by that one! )

I've also decided that we need to rename Big Job (or more accurately big brown job) now that her almost identical sister is dead. Big brown job and little brown job were references to the bird watching term "LBJ" for something you hardly saw and was a little brown job!
In our case little stood for the smaller wattle & comb size of one of the Buff Sussex's we had. Both girls weighed in at around 4kg! But somehow Big Job just doesn't fit anymore.

other names are/were

JJ2 usually just JJ now because Just Jane died, she's Just Judith after a friend (at her request)
Arya (came with that name)
Silver (a brown chook with whitish/grey markings! We had an identical girl with yellow/straw coloured markings called Gold!)
Pebbles, Rock & Stone 3 identical Lavendar Sussex chooks who require identification bands to tell them apart.
Speckles (recently deceased) & Ptarmigan are speckled Sussex chooks. Ptarmigan used to be predominantly brown but mounted last year and is now predominantly white!
LBJ & BBJ (Buff Sussex's)
We've lost all of Julia Black, Julia White & Julia Grey, all named for a friend we were raising them for, the rest is obvious!
Lily & tily (recently deceased) came to us with those names
Stacey - after a friend
Lacey - well that's descriptive! a pencil laced wyandotte bantam.
henrietta - after Houdini... Harriet had already been used. First thing she did was escape on the way home with her... 2hrs to catch her in a park. Luckily Australians are very helpful in the most bizarre of situations. Lol.
Clara & Tilda after a friend's children
Elvis - very flamboyant roaster who almost all the girls liked!
Lavendar, Chequers (B&W feathering pattern like a chess board) & blueberry are Lavendar, Cuckoo & blue araucanas.
Snowflake & Blackberry, a brilliant White and a jet black Australorp.
HP after Hercule Poirot because he was such a gentleman chook.
Xena - the only member of her flock to survive after owner abandoned them.She came to us as a rescue in appalling condition.
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That's so interesting and funny!

LBJ in the USA (at least around older generations) would be Lyndon B Johnson, the former president, or his wife Ladybird Johnson.

Did you typo that Elvis was a roaster meaning he was a rooster, or was he both a rooster and a roaster?

I'd love to see pics of them sometime. Well not the dead ones, of course, unless they are a lovely roasted brown color. Since you don't eat them, I know that's not happening.
 
JAS_OH1 said:
Did you typo that Elvis was a roaster meaning he was a rooster, or was he both a rooster and a roaster?
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a typo!
though due to the very windy and often cold (down to -10°C ) weather my larger girls are dual-purpose chooks with a longer life span. JJ, our top chook and flock leader is in her 9th season. She came to us at the end of her breeding career over 5½ years ago.
 
Wow, how long do they generally live (without someone or something killing them for food)?
 
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