So I'm not going to do it anymore. I don't think. It's hard to take the life of an animal, any animal, and it becomes more so when it is done for a profit. I LOVE the idea of providing the opportunity for people to be connected to their food source, and it goes along with my belief that if we eat meat, we should be the ones to kill it.
We finished butchering all the roosters but 3 this week, and 2 of those were intentionally saved. One was hiding and didn't come out until we were done. If he doesn't turn mean or aggressive, we'll keep him. If he does, then I won't have a problem taking care of him.
So the idea now is that if people want me to raise chickens for them, I will, but they have to take care of all the butchering that needs to be done themselves. We'll see what happens.
Another thought that came was holding some kind of workshop for people who really wanted to be a part of their food source. This goes against my previous statement of not wanting to butcher for a profit, which is interesting, but the idea was that I could provide the opportunity for people to learn how to butcher and process a chicken. They would get to take their dressed chicken home. In this way, they can experience what it feels like and how we treat the animals here. WHo knows, maybe some of them would become vegetarians.
So I don't know about that. What I do know is that I don't want to raise a mess of roosters with the purpose of butchering them all for a profit.
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4 comments:
I'd be interested in your chicken butchering seminar if I still lived up there. For that matter, I think that if you gave some sort of short course on chicken raising in general, including butchering, I'd be interested, if I lived in a place where I could raise chickens.
I wonder what would work best for the market you are aiming at? Would you make more money by raising other folks' birds or teaching them how to do it themselves? Would the zoning laws in Houghton and Hancock allow people to raise a few chickens in their backyards?
Hey Mike!
How's it going?
You know, I think the new local food group at the co-op knows about these zoning laws. So far, I think it's ok. And only the roosters make much noise, so if people had a few hens that they moved around the yard, unless the neighbors saw them, they wouldn't even know they are there.
Chances are teaching other people about raising chickens would take less time and bring in more money. What would also be great is if I could sell them chicks! If you order through a catalogue, you have to buy at least 25 at a time, and if my girls start sitting, I'll have new chicks every few weeks (21 days from start to finish). That would be pretty cool. I would love to have a mess of chicks and their moms running around the place.
You know, it will just end up working itself out.
You teaching this summer?
Well, you are a professional teacher after all (among other things, of course). I wonder if MSU Extension could help you with a course like that. Maybe they could give you a grant or something, or maybe they already offer a course like that and could use an instructor (I'm just brainstorming at the keyboard again).
I'm having a great summer. I'm doing a little writing, a little painting, a little music-playing, a little biking, a lot of sailing, and no teaching.
Those are some great ideas. Here's what I figure: I'll keep my ears and eyes open and it will figure itself out. I tried the rooster thing and didn't like it, so now it's time to try something else out. I love how this whole process seems to work--it will be really cool to see what develops.
Glad your summer is going well. It was in the 50s here yesterday. COLD!!! AND we still have had the bugs. What up with that??
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