SEEDS Blog
Humane Chicken Harvesting Workshop – March 14

Humane Chicken Harvesting Workshop – March 14

Published Thursday, Feb 6, 2020

At the heart of SEEDS’ programs is our mission to teach youth of all ages how to grow and cook food. This includes our fruit trees, annual vegetables, delicious herbs, and meat and eggs from our chickens. 

The SEEDS chickens live a beautiful, happy life. They provide us with many delicious and nutrient-dense eggs each season. Each year, we have added new baby chicks of many varieties to our flock to maintain our supply of eggs and give students a full picture of the life cycle of the animals we raise. When chickens have aged three years, they start laying fewer eggs. Rather than allowing them to age much longer and let their meat go to waste from disease or predators, we have decided each year to harvest the chickens who have begun to age for their meat. 

100 years ago, it would not have been uncommon for everyday people to butcher their own chickens in the backyard. Now, this has become a taboo and greatly misunderstood topic. Because of the horrific slaughter conditions of factory-farmed animals, people often think that chicken processing is going to be gross, mean, cruel, and inhumane. In reality, backyard slaughter is extremely quick, humane, and NORMAL.

Please join us in learning how to humanely harvest chicken meat from our local agriculture extension agent for Durham County, Cheralyn Berry. We’ll gather from 9am-noon on Saturday, March 14th . This will be a hands-on workshop, so please come dressed to learn and help. We’ll take 4 of our chickens from harvest to being ready to cook.

 

Register to join us here!