Any Jewish Poultry Keepers?

[Lauravonsmurf]

Sorry everyone I had no idea my question would cause this. I have no desire to get this thread in trouble or to cause more disharmony.

Anyway have a great week.

Thank you.

 

[Eden83_haaretz]

Sorry everyone I had no idea my question would cause this. I have no desire to get this thread in trouble or to cause more disharmony.

Anyway have a great week.

Thank you.

No don't worry, this will most surely always happen. Let's just keep discussing Torah and the concerns associated with the Halacha of having chickens . Shavua tov!

Last year I just made sure to give them corn, fruits and protein (in the form of kasher fish) during Pesach; heh didn't hear any complain from the girls, they love steamed fish .

Also we never take their eggs until after Shabat is over and they are not near the nests, they definitely get upset and complain if anyone takes the eggs while they are there.

Oh! Awesome info that I found the other day in the Talmud tractate shabat 108b:8.
"The Gemara cites that which Rabbi Yehuda bar Ḥaviva taught with regard to radishes and eggs: With regard to a citron, a radish, and an egg, if it were not for their outer peel, or egg white, they would never emerge from the intestines, because they are extremely hard to digest."

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

No don't worry, this will most surely always happen. Let's just keep discussing Torah and the concerns associated with the Halacha of having chickens . Shavua tov!

Last year I just made sure to give them corn, fruits and protein (in the form of kasher fish) during Pesach; heh didn't hear any complain from the girls, they love steamed fish .

Also we never take their eggs until after Shabat is over and they are not near the nests, they definitely get upset and complain if anyone takes the eggs while they are there.

Oh! Awesome info that I found the other day in the Talmud tractate shabat 108b:8.
"The Gemara cites that which Rabbi Yehuda bar Ḥaviva taught with regard to radishes and eggs: With regard to a citron, a radish, and an egg, if it were not for their outer peel, or egg white, they would never emerge from the intestines, because they are extremely hard to digest."

Thank you for answering.

I have been trying to navigate the conflicting information.

There seems to be two different approaches to feeding animals in general… one is they are expected to eat things we don’t so it is okay for instance if they eat oyster shell and the other is no they must not eat things like oyster shells… so I‘m scratching my head.

 

[Eden83_haaretz]

Thank you for answering.

I have been trying to navigate the conflicting information.

There seems to be two different approaches to feeding animals in general… one is they are expected to eat things we don’t so it is okay for instance if they eat oyster shell and the other is no they must not eat things like oyster shells… so I‘m scratching my head.

Chickens eventually eat their own egg shells, it's basically bone, and well oyster shells qualify as bone too. They also eat insects and they are tereif for human consumption, but since animals only have Nefesh and Ruaj their tikkun is different and need not perform mitzvot; they are not affected spiritually like we are.
I give them kosher fish because I wouldn't want a non-kosher fish sitting in my fridge.
For example Halacha says it's ok if a person accidentally eats a bee leg inside honey (because the leg is considered it's exoskeleton, therefore it's a bone and it wouldn't be considered tereifa; not so a whole bee).

Now I was discussing the issue of chicken feed with my husband and he brought up a very valid point. The Shuljan Aruj enphasizes the intention with which you prepare food for Yom Tov or Shabat, same here would apply to the chicken feed, it your intention would be to also use it for your consumption, then it's definitely something you shouldn't have in Pesaj.
Another thing, if you were to add just a tiny bit of comercial chicken feed, meal worms or even dry dirt to the grain feed that you have and mix it, just because it came in contact with something that isn't fit for human consumption, the whole would become unfit for human consumption and it wouldn't present an issue for Pesaj.

There are several ways to solve problems with some reasoning and halacha. We are forbiden to eat fruits or vegetables that have more than three insects, since those can't be eaten by humans, you can always give it to animals; so you can apply the same to your chicken feed.

In Pesach we avoid Seor Chametz because of a very profound reason: it has the same guematria as the word Sat-an; we know that specially during that time any chametz augments your bad character traits (would do so too if a person eats any leavened product during the week and the rest of the year and doesn't do the berachot and mayim hacharonim), so not eating it helps us have a better chance at getting rid of them. The whole symbolic search for Chametz the day before is so that we search closely within ourselves for those bad character traits that hide in the corners of our self; if a person only concentrates exclusively on the physical aspect of Pesach and not the spiritual as well, they may do Pesach to it's Halachic perfection and it's equivalent would be when the Jews made bricks in Egypt (Chazal explain that making bricks is doing Halacha and mitzvot without knowing why).

Found about feeding chickens during Pesach the following (I'm sure there may be more), in The Jerusalem Talmud Pesachim 2:6:1: it says "MISHNAH: One may not soak bran as chicken feed but one may parboil (Bran, the outer shell of wheat kernels, also may become leavened. Since leavened matter is forbidden for usufruct, it also is forbidden as animal feed. It is assumed that the bran becomes inert if parboiled in boiling water)."

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Chickens eventually eat their own egg shells, it's basically bone, and well oyster shells qualify as bone too. They also eat insects and they are tereif for human consumption, but since animals only have Nefesh and Ruaj their tikkun is different and need not perform mitzvot; they are not affected spiritually like we are.
I give them kosher fish because I wouldn't want a non-kosher fish sitting in my fridge.
For example Halacha says it's ok if a person accidentally eats a bee leg inside honey (because the leg is considered it's exoskeleton, therefore it's a bone and it wouldn't be considered tereifa; not so a whole bee).

Now I was discussing the issue of chicken feed with my husband and he brought up a very valid point. The Shuljan Aruj enphasizes the intention with which you prepare food for Yom Tov or Shabat, same here would apply to the chicken feed, it your intention would be to also use it for your consumption, then it's definitely something you shouldn't have in Pesaj.
Another thing, if you were to add just a tiny bit of comercial chicken feed, meal worms or even dry dirt to the grain feed that you have and mix it, just because it came in contact with something that isn't fit for human consumption, the whole would become unfit for human consumption and it wouldn't present an issue for Pesaj.

There are several ways to solve problems with some reasoning and halacha. We are forbiden to eat fruits or vegetables that have more than three insects, since those can't be eaten by humans, you can always give it to animals; so you can apply the same to your chicken feed.

In Pesach we avoid Seor Chametz because of a very profound reason: it has the same guematria as the word Sat-an; we know that specially during that time any chametz augments your bad character traits (would do so too if a person eats any leavened product during the week and the rest of the year and doesn't do the berachot and mayim hacharonim), so not eating it helps us have a better chance at getting rid of them. The whole symbolic search for Chametz the day before is so that we search closely within ourselves for those bad character traits that hide in the corners of our self; if a person only concentrates exclusively on the physical aspect of Pesach and not the spiritual as well, they may do Pesach to it's Halachic perfection and it's equivalent would be when the Jews made bricks in Egypt (Chazal explain that making bricks is doing Halacha and mitzvot without knowing why).

Found about feeding chickens during Pesach the following (I'm sure there may be more), in The Jerusalem Talmud Pesachim 2:6:1: it says "MISHNAH: One may not soak bran as chicken feed but one may parboil (Bran, the outer shell of wheat kernels, also may become leavened. Since leavened matter is forbidden for usufruct, it also is forbidden as animal feed. It is assumed that the bran becomes inert if parboiled in boiling water)."

This helps me a lot. Normally I don’t plan to eat the chicken feed. I just know in a real emergency I could, it would never be my intention to do so normally. So that helps me understand the ideas about feed.

 

[Tzippi613]

Shalom, all! I'm a Jew (surprise surprise, just look at my name) and keeping my first ever chickens in suburban Boise, ID. My family keeps kosher ovo-lacto-pescetarian for ease of cooking (finding kosher meat isn't easy here, and two sets of dishes takes too many of my mental health spoons.) We're keeping our hens just for eggs, and fun!

 

[Mrs. Light Sussex]

We're keeping our hens just for eggs, and fun!

Welcome
Enjoy it is loads of fun!!!

 

[Eden83_haaretz]

Shalom, all! I'm a Jew (surprise surprise, just look at my name) and keeping my first ever chickens in suburban Boise, ID. My family keeps kosher ovo-lacto-pescetarian for ease of cooking (finding kosher meat isn't easy here, and two sets of dishes takes too many of my mental health spoons.) We're keeping our hens just for eggs, and fun!

Get what you are saying, it isn't easy getting meat here either. We are also relying mostly on a ovo-lacto-pescetarian diet and occasionally we are able to get certified Kosher meat or poultry. Possibly looking into getting a shechita course to at least slaughter chickens later.

 

[Nyhillbillies]

Hello! Do we fit in? We are practicing Noahides (Bnai Noach)! So excited to find this thread… I was getting a bit discouraged….

 

[Nyhillbillies]

We are vegetarians now (wanna be vegans - back to the Garden!!). And keep kosher.