Our fifty new meat birds will be nice and fat and ready to process (slaughter) end of June.
Here, Solha inspects her new charges. I thought she’d become a frothing lunatic at the sight of these feathery morsels of goodness, but she has surprised me with her sanguine ‘tude. That dog will make a refined Virginia lady yet!
As for June, well, she is tickled by the new birds.
Me: “June, what does a chicken say?”
June: “Deet-deet-deet-DEET!”
Not exactly a peeping sound, but close enough.
“Wait up, dad!”
Jake unloads the feathery cargo into the barn, the birds’ temporary home before transferred again to the outdoor chicken tractors. Please note Solha’s calm demeanor. Seriously. Note it.
“Deet-deet-deet-DEET!”
As we begin another cycle of raising animals for food, I have to wonder — when is it too early to expose a child to the “glorious circle of life?” (That’s my fancy way of saying, “slaughter day.”)
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Its just like taking a child to church. They should be exposed to it so early and so frequently that they can not remember any other way. As for me, I always thought butchering was fun. We did chickens, capons, turkeys, hogs, rabbits, and steers. I wouldn’t point out or try to whitewash the fact that something has to be killed in order for something else to eat. She will be fine. Take a chicken foot, hold it horizontal, claws out and pull the severed tendons to “work” the claws. That always fascinated us. (We didn’t get out much, except to go to church). When ever I butcher anything, I always attempt to teach my children anatomy and biology.
Well, this is certainly your call, but I hope you wait awhile to expose her to actual killing. I still have revolting memories of a headless chicken on the move when I was a little girl.
Use the cones instead of letting the headless chickens run, but like Howard said – what we learn early becomes normal. And watch out for Solha when she is around the chickens and does not know you are watching to make sure she really doesn’t care about them.
Quiet dogs are thinking. Thinking dogs are planning. And then you have a dead yellow cat in the yard.
Oh wait that was my yard! The old calico who had been around forever was fine, but the young yellow one seemed to need to leave.
Never too early. Better to never have to explain harvest day than to have a child horrified at the actual work later on. When it’s just simply a part of raising food, processing is just another chore, not anything to fear.
Do keep an eye on Solha, she’s calm and very watchful but not at all disinterested. My guess is that she’ll have her first taste of delicious meaty chicken very soon if given the opportunity. Tough habit to break once she’s discovered that dinner is nearby whenever she’s in the mood for a snack.
My kids like and participate in slaughter day. My one daughter loves to take all the hearts, livers and kidneys out of the chickens.
June will be fine!
JennNY
How old is your daughter?
I wasn’t too much older than June when it became my responsibility to collect the chicken heads in a bucket and then collect the runaway chicken bodies into a pile on kill day. Never too early, I say! Maybe don’t make her work yet, though
Ugh! Collecting chicken heads sounds nasty. But necessary.
I distinctly remember my dad taking the heads off a few chickens when I was a kid -maybe 3 or 4. I guess I had probably seen it before then too because it didn’t seem out of the ordinary. =)
So nice to see photos of Jake, and especially Jake with June after so long in absence.
It’s part of the circle – slaughtering. We give life to the animals so they in turn can give life to us.
Oh, and… Don’t name your food and don’t eat your pets.
We are a step ahead with our meat chickens. We have 96 Red Rangers that will be ready to go on Memorial Day weekend. This is our first time, and my 3 boys are varied on their attitudes. My 12 year old is looking forward to it and wants to help, my 9 year old has no interest and doesn’t want to see it, my 7 year old doesn’t care one way or the other.
As everyone was saying earlier, start her early, so it isn’t a traumatic thing to experience later on like I am having to deal with. It is a teachable moment.
I think it can go either way — certainly growing up on a farm, or a farm-type of homstead, versus a housing development, children are going to experience things a lot differently. Some things may scar their memory, some things may help mold them into the person they will become. My son is 14 mos and though I am sure he doesn’t ‘get it yet’, he has already witnessed his fair share of baby bunnies at the mercy of our barn cat :/
And I must say, I am so impressed Jake has already jumped right back in….building a fence in one day, bringing home 50 meat birds….:)
Never too soon, let her help!….you know how Paige is. We didn’t shelter her from the “circle of life” at all. She thinks it is fun to help and watch things like the chicken slaughter, though she has been known to ask her grandaddy to say a few words over a dead animal! ie…the ground hog that was burrowing in the horse pasture that had to “be dealt with”. She wanted it shot sooner than later so it wouldn’t hurt Twisters legs with it’s holes. However, the day it was spotted and shot, Dad had to dig a hole while Paige made it a nice little headstone, then she said her few words before he was buried beside her playhouse. I have pictures!
Alright, it’s settled then—June will participate in the chicken slaughter. Paige is a great example.
I’m sure Paige would love to help pick up chicken heads…no kidding!