Mental Block

Tis not the best season for selling extra stock (at least in my neck of the woods) and my choices are becoming rather limited. Winter is coming.  
So I’ve been losing sleep over what to do with my female culls, and DH has been hearing about it for weeks. Well last night he stunned me into thoughtful silence by asking me point blank why I don’t just process them for us to eat? Good question.  The cull boys have already gone to Camp Kenmore, and there is still plenty of room. It’s then I realized I have never processed a female chicken before, and seem to have a weird mental block about doing so.   I can’t help but think about a pullets potential to lay hundreds of eggs in her lifetime, and as a 'layer' SOP flaws like duck foot and feather stubs don’t really matter. Sigh... I wish I had the room to keep a layer flock as well as my breeders, but I don’t. Not without compromising the health and safely of my main flock, which I won’t do. Overcrowding cooped up birds in winter is never good.
Anyway, if you've read this far, thank you. Any advice/tips on how to work through this road block in my head (and buck up already) would be greatly appreciated.

I'd sure love to hear what everyone here does with their female culls they can’t find homes for…

I always seem to be able to find laying homes at "reduced prices" for my retired or hens that don't meet my standards.
But I am having the same mental block about my ewe lambs, these are girls that are "late bloomers", on the smaller side, but still nice confirmation. Many have told me they will grow in time, which I know they will, so they are not culls by any means to many sheep people, just don't fit into my breeding ideas. So my family says the same thing, why not butcher them for us to eat? This is where the mental block comes in and I have a hard time eating girls that can have a nice productive life...

Guess I am not helping am I?

I guess if I didn't have space to keep extra hens as layers, and couldn't find homes for them, then yes I would butcher them for my family to eat. The meat will be just as good as your cull boys are. And really if you put it in financial terms of taking them to an auction, putting time and money into building proper boxes for them, and then probably getting very poor fall pricing on them, it is more economical to feed your family this winter with them than it is to try to sell them off.

I can't imagine why your lovely pullets haven't been scooped up, Flicker.  Around here anyway, nice young hens seem to sell at any time of year. And I saw your ad so I know you haven't over priced them, in fact I was thinking, what an awesome deal when I saw it!
I wonder if it is just a matter of getting the word out there?  Kijiji might be worth trying, or other buy/sell ads.  
I agree its a shame to butcher nice hens that could have a long and productive life.

You could sell them at the Indian Head sale this sunday Flicker People are always looking for layers at the sale

 Love it Camp Kenmore.
I usually sell them off cheep depending on age.
Just had a fellow from Alberta call me
about some hens for sale but I had already
sold them. Not sure where he got my number
as I didn't even advertise them. 

I realize your neck of the woods is different than mine. I have more requests for POL pullets than I can supply. Maybe you can send your extra girls to me. . I have had three calls in the last 3 days for 12 pullets each and just placed some. I wasn't going to sell any pullets, but I have too many right now for my own needs. And not enough for people who want them.

On the other hand, I think the young hens taste better than the boys. The meat would be more tender, my favorite chicken in the old store bought days was always a "Cornish game hen" which was just a hen instead of a rooster the same age...

Thank you everyone.

Hidden, I totally get where you are coming from. You are a wise woman. Thank you.  
I think my main problem is I don’t have a handle on my emotions yet. These pullets were raised with the intention of selling those that didn’t make my cut as backyard layers. And silly me, I’ve befriended them all.  My cockerels were different; not easy (taking a life should never be easy) but expected because I had a different mindset. I hatched and grew them out with the intent to keep only the best and eat the rest. I will be more prepared to do the same with all my future culls. Just not these girls. They are so sweet. This morning during chores I found myself mesmerized just watching them running around. It also increased my resolve to find them homes if at all possible. I hope you can find a solution with your ewe lambs that makes you happy, and keeps the family peace.


Thanks Kathy. You are too kind. I did have them listed on Kijiji, as well as used Regina for awhile. I had a single response, ‘I want to come see your chickens and take some!’ but never heard a word back after I replied back. So I don’t know… DH thinks I marketed them all wrong by listing their faults up front and calling them ‘layer quality’, and he’s probably right. I’d do so again though, because I believe people should know exactly what their buying. That's just how I roll. I think AB has a bit bigger market for chooks too.


Appway, I am trying to get my driver on board for Indian Head. I just may have to play the bday card, as the sale happens to fall on mine. Hope to see you there!  


LoL Karona, the ‘grapevine’ can be a powerful marketing tool.  


Islandgal, your neck of the woods used to be mine too. We lived in Nanaimo (and area) for 15+ years before returning to the prairies. I miss the ocean, but not the wet! And yeah, I heard the same thing in regards to young hens being tender and delicious. Good food for thought.