We have a bronze-breast hen that's just over a year old. She was given to me by a woman of freecycle and I've actually become quite attached to her.
She's quite large, and I'm noticing more and more that she's laying and panting on the warmer days, especially towards the end of the day. Is it possible to keep them long-term or will I have to process her eventually? She free-ranges with the chickens and eats the chicken feed I throw down. There's no way of stopping her unless I pen her, and I really hate to do that. I think the fact that she's free ranged and gets a lot of walking done every day is what keeps her mobile.
There have been a couple times she's been down through the day and I've separated her to withhold feed so she could be processed, but then she's been up and feisty again the next day.
While I do like her a lot, I'm not into seeing her suffer and my husband has no problem processing her for me, if need be. While we don't make a habit out of eating our chickens, she is a meat animal and will not go to waste.
Blessings-
Em
She's quite large, and I'm noticing more and more that she's laying and panting on the warmer days, especially towards the end of the day. Is it possible to keep them long-term or will I have to process her eventually? She free-ranges with the chickens and eats the chicken feed I throw down. There's no way of stopping her unless I pen her, and I really hate to do that. I think the fact that she's free ranged and gets a lot of walking done every day is what keeps her mobile.
There have been a couple times she's been down through the day and I've separated her to withhold feed so she could be processed, but then she's been up and feisty again the next day.
While I do like her a lot, I'm not into seeing her suffer and my husband has no problem processing her for me, if need be. While we don't make a habit out of eating our chickens, she is a meat animal and will not go to waste.
Blessings-
Em
