Do you name your chickens?

[Pampered chicken girl]

I always name my chickens, I know each ones egg and sometimes I even thank them. My are spoiled rotten too! So do you ever name your chickens?

 

[Buckingham Palace]

I name my chickens.

 

[wamtazlady]

I used to name the chickens. That was when I had all different breeds and could easily tell them apart. Now I have 4 hens that are the same breed and look nearly identical. Solid black chickens do not have many distinguishing markings. No sense in naming them.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I usually have from 25 to 100 chickens. Since they are all black, it would be a waste of time to name them. Since I eat all the extra boys, I try not to eat anything with a name. When I was a kid, I ate my pet steer.
I used legbands to tell the chickens apart but now I use wingbands.

 

[Painted Calls]

Every single one

 

[Pampered chicken girl]

I am going to hatch chicks eventually and will name them all but attempt to not get attached because I will have to sell extra boys or the extra hens.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

It seems contradictory, but I voted that yes, I name them all, and no, I don't name the ones I plan to sell or slaughter. All of the birds I intend to keep get names, and some of the ones I know I won't keep are named as well, though usually the name comes before I know I'm not keeping them. The ones that I know from the start will not stay, I generally don't name because I fear I'll grow too attached, unless they really earn a name despite my efforts.

As for the ones I plan to keep, I painstakingly search through names and other random words, and test out different ones on my birds until one finally clicks. This can happen when they're quite young, too young even to be sexed, or it can take me months to find a bird's name. It must be just right to suit each individual, after all! If they're hard to tell apart, they get leg bands to differentiate them so that I can call them by their proper names, though usually once they're old enough to have their comb grown in I can tell them apart easily without their bands. I used to know whose egg each hen's was, but that was before I reached ~50 hens in my flock, many of which are related and lay near identical eggs. But regardles, I talk to my birds and encourage them when I catch them on the nest, and I consider mine spoiled as well, whether they end up staying or not.

 

[Painted Calls]

I guess I've developed a tough heart after farming for so long.

Everyone gets a name. Everyone gets loved and cherished. Some get slaughtered, but they had a name, a good life, and a good death.

As far as chickens (now ducks) go, I do not raise chickens for the table. Just pets/show.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

There should be a rooster only option too. A lot of people I know have named roosters but not the hens since they can’t tell them apart.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I guess I've developed a tough heart after farming for so long.

I freely admit I haven't been in farming as long as others, so it's distinctly possible I just haven't reached that point yet. The chickens came part way through my childhood and we didn't eat any of them until I came to realize in my adulthood that there shouldn't be any guilt to giving them a good life and then one bad day to end it. I do not fault anyone for naming and loving the birds they intend to rehome, or even the birds they intend to eat, but it's not something I can do easily, myself.