Ah, well, Julie and I have been wondering if Cleo, the much larger of our three hens, is actually a rooster. Chicken-sexing at the biddy stage is more art than science. As the chicks matured into pullets, there was something ... manlier about Cleo. Perhaps it was the gravitation towards flannel and the LPGA, I dunno, but the comb and the musculature was pretty hard to ignore. Maybe, though, it was just her particular breed; each of our hens is a different breed. We had hope.
This morning, as I sat at the table working online before daylight, I heard an unmistakable cock-a-doodle-doo. And then another. Another, another, and one more.
Roosters are illegal in Dallas County. I predict Cleo will complement dumplings nicely.
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Rod,
Do you already slaughter chickens? Couldn't tell from your story. There is a huge amount of preparation and clean up that goes into slaughtering. It seems hardly worth it for just 1 bird. I did some slaughtering of cornish crosses this summer, and 4 hours of work produced 20 dead chickens ready for the freezer. My neighbor, more set up for the procedure, does 80/hour. In any case, every single step that you have to do for 20, you also have to do for 1. My recommendation: give the little guy away, or keep him until someone complains, then give him away.
"Trade or give away Cleo to a friend. It will make explaining his/her absence to the children so much easier."
With respect, Another Ann, this is stuff and nonsense. If I recall correctly, Rod's kids are of the age that they can begin to take seriously the connection between a living thing dying and the food on their plate. Indeed, for much of human history, I would venture to guess that no child of any age labored under the delusion that farm animals existed for reasons other than to be eaten. It is only since industrial agriculture that we have shielded our kids from these facts of life.
If you need an ethical context to put the discussion in, Rod, I heartily recommend The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. In brief, his argument is that early humans struck a sort of bargain with certain animals, in which we would breed them to become domestic and docile, and would use their milk and their meat and their wool. In return for which, we would shield them from predators and see to it that they had a decent life, compared to what they would have had in the wild.
Modern people seem to think that the alternative to eating farm animals is keeping farm animals as pets. It's not. The alternative to eating farm animals is letting farm animals go extinct.
Please note: this argument has a humane component. The fact that the death of the animal is an accepted telos of its existence in no way justifies or allows our mistreatment of the animal during its brief existence. Indeed, mistreatment violates the terms of the bargain.
Sorry to jump down your throat about that, Ann, but this is one of those topics that I think has a pretty clear answer, and a good one, and I don't have much patience for woolly-headed romance about what we eat. Respect, yes; sentiment, no.
I dunno about the "don't bother to slaughter one chicken" point. My grandmaw-in-law thought nothing of slaughtering one or two chickens for dinner. As far as kids go, IMO it is good for them to get used to the realities of homestead life re: animals.
Oh, don't KILL her! Him. There must be another way! Let Cleo live!
...Er, Leo.
God bless.
"When reminded that she does eat chicken herself, she exclaimed that she hasn't ever eaten one whose name she knew."
Very smart kid! Wise words to live by.
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