Raising Chickens For Meat Is More Humane Than You Think

I’ll never forget the first time I saw a cage full of Speckled Sussex hens. They were the most strikingly beautiful chickens I had ever seen. I wasn’t prepared to rescue them, but knew that one day I would have some. Back then, raising chickens for meat was the furthest thing from my mind.

For 10 years I ran an all-bird rescue with some friends. I was the only one with room for poultry, so was the designated
chicken rescuer, on a little one acre farm. Over the years I collected quite a menagerie of chickens laying wonderful multicolored eggs of all sizes.

I had to be very creative keeping
roosters separated, while scheduling
free-range time for everyone on alternate days. For all those years and all those chickens, I could honestly tell people that I wasn’t raising chickens for meat, and had no intention of it.

That seemed to put people at ease when surrendering chickens, if they had a guilty conscience. (But I did eat store-bought chicken regularly.)

By this time I had my own flock of sheep and raised lambs sent out for butchering. I even raised some rabbits for meat, but couldn’t imagine killing any of my chickens, not even the most ornery rooster.

I love birds of all kinds, especially chickens and I had rescued all kinds of birds from the tiniest finch to peacocks and everything in between, including: parrots large and small, ducks, geese, pigeons, doves, you name it.

What Made Me Change My Mind

Fast forward, I’m closer to 60 than any other round number. Since I started keeping chickens, life has really changed. I’ve moved more than half way across the country to a nice 5 acre property and for the very first time have considered raising chickens for meat.

I no longer can stomach eating animals that aren’t treated well or fed right, no matter how cheap their meat is on sale or in the drive-thru, and organic free-range chicken at the market really pinches the pocketbook. I guess I’ve arrived at the point in life where 1 + 1 finally equals 2 and raising specific chickens for meat has become the answer.

One day, while surfing through
Craigslist, Farm & Garden section, I found a local guy selling
Cuckoo Marans cockerels for $2 or 3 each. This is a nice large dual purpose French

Choosing the Right Meat Breed

breed known for their dark chocolaty brown eggs and excellent meat.

These 13 half-grown boys were gangly plucked things, eating each others feathers, but basically healthy … now I was really raising chickens for meat. We got them home, threw together a make-shift pen with roost and voila!

Every day I studied them, looking for reasons not to keep most, a crooked toe, wry tail, poor confirmation, and signs of aggression… as they grew muscle and beautiful feathers, free-ranged and matured.

My loving eye for chickens and roosters was turning hunter and the boys seemed aware of it, always suspicious of my presence.

After a few weeks I mixed them with my laying flock and all was well, but in the back of my mind, I knew that I and these extra roosters would soon have to face the music. On-line I studied multiple methods for dispatching chickens and harvesting their meat, picking the best ones for me.

I chose the no plucking, no gutting method, which I’m sure after 100 chickens I will be quite proficient at. (Raising chickens for meat is the easy part.)

I have to laugh at myself, being so “all-thumbs” and uncertain about an activity that has kept humans alive for many thousands of years. You can take the girl out of the city, but…well, just hope for the best.

I did sell one of the roosters to a neighbor for his hens and kept two for breeding. As for the rest, the meat is excellent.

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