Selfsufficientish.com

Oh well, here goes my first question!

I'm on the search for what to do with chicken carcasses. Our cat is fed chicken (any tinned cat food comes straight back up), so every week I have to deal with one or two chicken carcasses.

I don't really want to put them in the bin where they go to landfill; is there anything else I can do with them? Or am I being over sensitive - do you think it's ok to do that?

is it 'ethical' to just chuck them out at night in the knowledge that something will come along and eat it? Or would that attract long term trouble? (or loss of friends in the neighbourhood )

Someone told me to bury them, but surely a fox would dig them up? We live in a semi rural village surrounded by both gardens and fields.....

i'd be grateful for any thoughts on this :)

Starchild x

Well - make chicken stock, reduce it (a lot), and freeze the results. THEN throw the carcasses out. It's not a good idea to just leave them outside, or the mortality rate amongst the neighbourhood cats might shoot up (they can choke on chicken bones).

I understand your worries about landfill.

However we have to accept that some items are destined to be put in the ground. There is no difference to you burying them or your local council (other than the cost of landfill to the council and you as council tax payer).

You should have a clear conscience you have done your best by exploring every avenue before accepting the landfill route.

You could in theory put them in a bokashi bin but you'd need to smash them bones up quite small first!

The best thing you can do is to buy free range in the first place too ...

Ratty

Why don't the cats eat the carcass? All that was left from the big pigeon that met it's end against our bedroom window was the breast bone and some feathers. Of course you'd have to feed the chickens to the cats raw. NEVER give cooked chicken bones to pets. They'll splinter and may cause terrible harm. For experiences about feeding raw foods to pets try googling BARF or BARFING.

Regards, Jandra

Thanks for all your thoughts - MKG, you can rest assured that the carcass has been used for stock first ;)

Ultrazapp - thank you for making me feel better about things; it's hard not to beat ourselves up at times isn't it; but at least I guess it's technically biodegradable waste (although not when it's been thrown out in a plastic bin bag)

Ratty, I was wondering about grinding them and then putting them in a bokashi. I'm considering a bokashi as our next move as my daughter has a tendency to leave bits of cooked food on her plate...........

Jandra; thank you. Hindsight is a wonderful thing! I found out about the BARF diet when the cats were about 9. I tried them on it, but in those days I had no awareness about the issues I do now and they had been used to cooked, tinned or packaged food.

I tried hard to introduce this raw diet, but honestly; they just looked at the food like they didn't know what to do with it. They were good hunters, so I was surprised at this.

Anyway, I resorted back to tinned food.
Now the one remaining cat is 15. She's too old to change, is suffering the loss of her twin sister and I don't feel its fair to try her on a new diet at this stage in her life. If we get other kittens when this one dies, I will definitely be feeding them a BARF diet.

Thank you all! I'm either going to keep bagging and binning ;) or seriously look into the bokashi.

I'm just not sure what my hubby will think of me grinding old bones up
Fe Fi Fo Fum.............

Starchild x

we got a green cone for this purpose.how it breaks down bones??!! is yet beyond me & I have to say its not working terribly well,have posted on here before how the darn thing stinks terribly so at mo ours go in the landfill bin,once used for stock they are quite soft & easy to crush down to a smaller size

Ooooo, Caundlemama, you've put me off a green cone for life (much to my husband's delight no doubt; he was very unconvinced about me trying one of those!)

I'll have a go at crushing down the bones and seeing how I get on. Stupid question alert - how do you actually do that? Crush the bones I mean; with a mortar and pestle, a big kitchen knife, your teeth ??

Starchild x

If you can use the chicken for your cats but somehow not cook the carcass, you'd have any dog owners who feed raw (not barf, but prey model) biting your hand off! I used to *pay* for the chicken carcasses I fed our dog.

lucy.lists - what a brilliant idea. I guess I need to invest in a sharp butchers knife then.

Definitely a creative solution; I love people who think outside the box - thanks :)


Starchild x

failing the dog idea....you can always put them in the garden incinerator....thats where we put ours....the chicken fat helps burn the bones down eventually.....the ash is good to add to the compost afterwards!

Thank you Kimmie,

I've been having this argument with dh. I suggested we burn them (in fact on three ocassions when he hasn't been around I've stuck the carcass on the woodburner ). I

asked him yesterday if he'd every cleared bones out of the ash because he reckoned bones wouldn't burn down. He said he hadn't noticed any.

But I'm guessing long term burning of this on a woodburner isn't such a good idea

The incincerator idea is worth looking into though (apart from the neighbour who reports me to the council for my once-yearly bonfire)

Starchild x

If you have a pressure cooker, the bones put in there will become so soft, you can make them into a mash to feed your cats. They love it! If you don't, certainly no reason not to put them in the fire, where all but the biggest bones burn to a nice, fine aash, and then spread on the vege patch...

Cheers
Andrea
NZ

well thank you Andrea - you've put my mind at rest. I appreciate it. Maybe a pressure cooker might be a thought for use during the summer when we don't have a fire lit - I'll see if I can strike lucky on freecycle ;)

Starchild x

For crushing bones - try one of those old fashined metal meat grinders you attached to a table, and then chuck around your garden - anywhere you get snails or slugs is good, as they can't cross the bone splinters, so ring around a few plants - I ring around my bean wigwams.