Changing Attitudes

I have many friends that treat their chickens as spoiled pets.  The chickens live in the house and they fret over every shed feather.  I admit I just don't understand that way of thinking, but I have yet to kill any of my own chickens.  I have an 11 year old game hen that stopped laying this year, but she will stay until she dies naturally.  She is a beautiful bird and I love to watch her in the flock.  This fall I plan to raise meat birds for the first time.  I hope I don't end up with a bunch of fat chickens that live past the butchering date.

Today one of the chicks wandered into the dog kennel. I am not sure which dog did the dirty work, but the chick did not survive. I was disappointed because it was developing into a good looking bird, but I was not upset or angry with the dogs. If one of my dogs had killed another pet, I would have wanted to kill my dogs, but chickens are different. I have always looked at chickens as food with a short lifespan. It has never bothered me very much when one of them dies.  The broody hen who has been raising them was very upset.  She screamed when the chick was attacked and did not settle down until bedtime, but tonight, even though the chicks are less than three weeks old, she had them up on the roost.

So rest in peace little chick.  You had a good life for a chick.  You got to scratch and catch bugs, run free in the yard, and eat ice cold cantalope on a hot day.