I have Lucky(because my dog bit her as a chick and she lived) and Alice. Alice, I wouldn't have such a hard time culling. She's a brat. But, we pick them up to pet and play with. With meat birds on acreage, I'd be like you and not get close. Do you also collect their eggs? I'm assuming you only let a certain amount incubate or stay with the mothers? What breed of bird do you raise?

I do collect their eggs. I have 8 Rhode Island Red hens that are my egg producers. They are great layers and don't hardly ever go broody (start setting a clutch of eggs and therefore quit laying). My rooster is a Buff Orpington. I wish now I would have got Buff Orpington hens as well, but I can always get some down the road. The chicks I just "harvested" were a cross between the two breeds. They were really nice, big bodied birds. I left my original 8 Rhode Island hens for now. I'm going to raise another batch out of them, then it'll be their turn to go. They're 2 years old now. Haven't decided if I'll replace them with their offspring, or if I'll go ahead and get some Orpington hens at that point.

Broody and Broonella are annoying and I almost added them to the freezer batch yesterday, but something told me just to leave them. They are constanly broody and will fight you like crazy when you're trying to get the eggs. They're loud too. But they have character and don't take much feed to keep. :)

You have brought up many memories.

The taste of homegrown chicken is unbelievable.
I miss my chickens.

I have 2 hens that lay colored eggs - one lays olive green, the other blue/green. The rest of the 18 lay either brown or white. I can hardly give the darn things away around here and, in fact, am going to run to the food bank in a little while to take another 14 dozen...

I'm one of the biggest animal lovers you could ever hope to meet, but I do understand the reason behind raising ones own food. I don't make pets of my "food;" I feed and water them, and they have a good life while here, but then they go in my freezer. Rabbit meat is just plain yummy (all white meat)!

Homegrown always tastes better but it took me a long time before I could eat what I just killed and cleaned. Same with the beef that I had raised from bucket calves.

My R.R. Alice likes to charge me when I walk around and will sometimes peck at my legs. So, I have to show her who's boss. She could go into the soup pot and I wouldn't cry. They're less than a year old but produce an egg every day! You're right they're not broody at all. I've got a Chickens for Dummies Book that highlights all the breeds. We picked R.R. because of the amount of eggs they produce. There are other breeds that grow bigger, quicker that are best for meat. I've never seen the B.O. here that you're talking about. I think we may add one or two more to the flock but we have a tad under 1/2 acre so we can't go crazy. I wish we weren't attached because when they get to be 10 years old and not producing, we're going to miss the eggs for sure!

Rabbit meat is good, but those bunnies are so gosh darn cute. Chickens are funky looking and pretty dumb so they're easy not to get attached to. :)

I'm also an animal lover like none other, and that's why I'm able to raise my own animals for food. The living conditions and treatment of commercially raised animals is horrible. They're (the animals) giving the biggest sacrifice in the end for us, I think we owe it to them to give them the best we can while they're here.

The Buff Orpingtons are a really pretty gold (buff) color. Orpingtons come in a few other colors too but I can't remember off the top of my head. They are known to be a much more docile bird than the Rhode Islands. But they go broody here and there. They will set a clutch of eggs and are really good mothers.

In the warmer months I get an egg a day from each hen. That's 56 eggs a week! I definitely have a surplus in the spring and summer. But they're starting to lay about an egg every other day now, so 4 or 5 eggs is what I'm getting now. I've been known to run out of eggs in the winter. We're a family of 5 so it takes quite a few eggs for breakfast. :)