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Chickens

Posted at 9:27 PM on August 27, 2008 by Leslie Allen (4 Comments)

My local eating habits have been dominated recently by chickens. As I briefly mentioned in my last post our chickens have begun to lay eggs. Two of them started laying around July 24th, and about two weeks ago two more have joined in the egg laying fun. We are now collecting between 3-4 eggs per day.

We were pretty concerned about the noise they make when they lay, and if our backyard poultry phobic neighbor would complain. So far, so good. She hasn't complained, and the neighbor on the side of the coop loves to hear them cluck in the morning. Finally getting such a tasty product from the chickens has made James warm up to them. He was really unhappy about building the coop and dealing with the angry neighbor. I think he thought the chickens were more hassle than they were worth. But now, we are getting excellent eggs and it's only costing us the cost of feed.

Speaking of feed, it is very difficult to find organic chicken feed in Nevada. I called three feed stores and they all laughed at me when I asked if they had organic feed. I can special order it from the co-op, but that order is once a month and I can't seem to remember to place it. I was lucky enough to drive by S&W Feed in Carson City the other day, where the nice cowgirls happily sold me chicken feed. They had chickens in front of the store, and didn't think it was at all strange that I wanted organic feed.

My backyard hens are not the only chickens in my life. I recently spent a day at Sod-Buster farm helping them process over 80 broilers. My friend and fellow locavore, Shelley, sent out a call for volunteers to help Cliff and Deb. Their chicken orders have nearly tripled, and they can't handle the increased workload by themselves. They desperately needed help processing their orders, and Shelley was able to rally five brave volunteers.

Let me tell you, processing chickens is not for the faint of heart. There's the killing, scalding, plucking, head and foot removing, and finally, eviscerating. I wasn't ready to station myself at the killing cones, so I picked up a knife and spent 6 hours eviscerating. Surprisingly, it did not get easier as I cleaned more chickens. I tried to psych myself up for the job by comparing it to cleaning fish. Cleaning chickens is a far cry from cleaning fish. I have serious respect for the hard work Cliff and Deb put in providing the only local free-range poultry. I don't know how they do it.

Processing the chickens made me reevaluate why I eat meat. I didn't walk away a vegetarian, but I did decide not to eat any meat from the industrial agricultural complex. Have any of you had similar experiences. Do you think it is a benefit to know exactly how the animals you eat lived and died?

Comments (4)

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Leslie,
Thanks for a great post. It's good to hear that you are enjoying fresh eggs from your own chickens. We have no luck finding organic chicken feed 'round these parts, either. My husband's cousin creates his own special mix to feed his chickens; I keep meaning to ask him for the "recipe," and if I ever remember to do that, I'll let you know.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings on the butchering experience. You hit the nail on the head: Actually participating in the killing and butchering of a live animal will forever change the way you view meat. Personally, I think that connection between food and consumer is one of the most powerful links missing from our modern food system. People eat meat today without ever thinking about what it is, where it came from, what kind of life it led, and how it met its end. Frankly, I believe that if you aren't willing to kill it, then you have no right to be eating it. That may sound harsh, but killing is a harsh reality to face. Once you do it, you learn that it involves respect for the animal and gratitude for its life. If people experienced firsthand how animals are treated for industrial meat production, let alone participated in their slaughter, there would be an all-out food revolution.
Thanks for bringing up this important issue. It's more than an animal-rights issue; it's a reflection on the ethics and moral values of our society.
Happy local eating,
Autumn

Posted by Autumn Long | August 28, 2008 7:10 AM

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Chickens are omnivorous. I tend to think of them as two legged feathered garbage disposals. They can eat weeds, leftovers and trimmings from your food and garden,stuff that groceries throw away. Molded, rotted chickens will eat it and turn it into great eggs. Actually the green stuff improves the color and flavor of the eggs.

I give mine whey from cheesemaking and any cheese that totally flops. The fruit that falls off the trees and vines.

I get racks of baked goods from the day old place and the chickens get all the sweet stuff and anything blue. In reality chickens are at the bottom of the food "pecking" order.

So do not worry too much about getting them "chicken" food. It is all calories and the chickens will eat it.

Posted by Naomi | August 28, 2008 5:12 PM

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Leslie,
Thanks for the interesting post on chickens. I became a sustainable-fish eating vegitarian 14 years ago and started adding free-range, organic chicken to my diet (as in knowing the producer) after participating in a slaughter. I also have voluntarily gutted rats, mice and chicken for a Raptor Rehab Center. The reality of knowing creatures I care for need that protein helped me start eating it again as "sustainable fish" are hard to come by in New Mexico and I hate Tofu. I agree with Autumn that being part of the processing connects us with the animals and teaches respect. I am considering getting laying hens too except I have a wonderful source who sells me lovely multicolored eggs. They too forage. Keep telling us how it's going.

Posted by Kathleen D | September 8, 2008 9:57 AM

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Leslie,
After eating those fresh free range eggs this summer, I too am a believer. I saw which chickens they came from!
Paulette

Posted by P. Thompson | September 10, 2008 7:43 PM