Chicken Question

[Smart Red]

Beekissed, I have this thing about dead animals. I can't pick them up even wearing gloves. In the past there has been a dead squirrel, dead chicken, and dead bird in my yard. I've been out there with gloves on and a shovel and just couldn't pick them up. I had to call my neighbor to come and do it.

Mary

I have the same feelings, but I refuse to let these feelings rule my life. I have learned that a plastic bag or shovel work to get them out of the yard (or into the garbage can). I suppose your neighbors are better and closer than mine, though.

In the same way I could never imagine touching someone who was dead, but when Connor passed, the coroner let me hold him for nearly an hour until I was ready to let him go.

 

[Beekissed]

Beekissed, I have this thing about dead animals. I can't pick them up even wearing gloves. In the past there has been a dead squirrel, dead chicken, and dead bird in my yard. I've been out there with gloves on and a shovel and just couldn't pick them up. I had to call my neighbor to come and do it.

Mary

See, that's the beauty of it....they aren't dead until you make them so! Then they are freshly dead, not stiff or stinky like finding a dead animal in your yard. Freshly dead is pretty much like alive, but their eyes are closed and they aren't moving around. You could even pretend they are just sleeping....

One lady on BYC says she can handle the already dead chickens and process them but she passes out if she tries to kill them. I told her that's easy...just go ahead and pass out... and when you revive, go ahead and kill them. If you pass out again, just rest there until you revive, then get up and finish the job. Eventually, she'll kick that whole passing out thing and will be able to process normally.

It's just a matter of making yourself do it, even if you think you can't.

 

[MoonShadows]

i finally found someone who is going to show me how to process a chicken. Mine are too old unless I want to stew them (2 years), but some new 17-24 week old ones will sure taste good!

 

[Beekissed]

I have the same feelings, but I refuse to let these feelings rule my life. I have learned that a plastic bag or shovel work to get them out of the yard (or into the garbage can). I suppose your neighbors are better and closer than mine, though.

In the same way I could never imagine touching someone who was dead, but when Connor passed, the coroner let me hold him for nearly an hour until I was ready to let him go.

Exactly! Same here. It's not a woman's natural nature to kill things...at least most women. We are nurturers and caregivers, not killers. But, killing comes under that title at times, when an animal needs mercy and compassion to escape discomfort and pain. So, it's just a short jump from killing out of compassion to killing for food, which is another nurturing thing when providing the food for your loved ones.

Same about touching a dead body. Nurses have to do end of life care, including washing the dead patient and getting them ready for family to view them. Many nurses and CNAs feel like they just couldn't ever do that, but it's in the job description and somebody's got to, so do it we must. After the first time you realize that it's just an extension of the care and love you gave to them while they were living and so you treat it much like the last caring thing you can provide for them and the family. Then it's no longer an icky thing, but a loving thing.

 

[Beekissed]

i finally found someone who is going to show me how to process a chicken. Mine are too old unless I want to stew them (2 years), but some new 17-24 week old ones will sure taste good!

Use the great equalizer....a pressure canner! Even a 7 yr old hen comes out tender as a baby, but with more flavor by far. All the tendons even soften down to nothing and you can't even feel their texture any longer. I can all my chickens now, as we rarely ever bake or fry a chicken here anyway.

 

[MoonShadows]

But, don't tell my chickens that!

 

[ninnymary]

Bee and Smart Red, I disagreed with your comment "I refuse to let these feelings rule my life". In 60 years I've only had 3 dead animals and these feelings certainly don't rule my life. It's really simple, find a dead animal get one of my neighbors to come pick it up. Nice and easy. They don't mind and neither do I.

I don't think everyone has to be able to kill and process an animal in our times.

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

You're right, not everyone has to process and so they choose not to do so and that's their choice. No one is saying they shouldn't have a choice, but that IF they chose to process, they could likely get past any squeamish feelings they might have by not letting those feelings dictate that choice.

And that's what I mean by not letting those feelings rule my life~can't speak for Red on that one. I'm a girl like most any girl, so icky things are not pleasant to me either. But I don't let the ick keep me from doing the things I want to do. When one butchers chickens every year like I do, that's pretty much my life, so I don't let the squeamish feelings let me miss out on that part of it.

 

[dewdropsinwv]

But back to my original question.... what would cause only 4 or 5 of my hens to stop laying, they are not molting, no critters,snakes ect around. I'm stumped!

 

[Beekissed]

Hard to keep a rat out of the coop when they want to go there...this time of year seems to be prime time for rodents to steal eggs. I've even heard of folks reporting squirrels and ravens getting bold enough to enter a coop and abscond with eggs at this time of the year...everyone's feeding youngin's. A brown wood rat can get in just about anywhere a mouse can.