Drumstick Culled his first roo

[yotetrapper]

Great for him! Some of my earliest memories are of dead deer hanging in trees, and tagging along with my grandfather pheasant hunting. I was shooting rabbits when I was 7, and running a trapline (and doing ALL my own skinning) when I was 9.

My husband has kin in Kansas City. One of his sisters daughters came out to visit. She was in her teens! One night, they served pork chops and she had NEVER ate a pork chop. They lived on fast food. Asked what sort of meat it was. She also asked what all that tall green stuff was growing in the field... she had never saw corn before. I feel so sorry for them, and their kids.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Thanks everyone for those wondeful responses and stories. You all have made me feel
much better about this, and a lot less guilty.

He told his mother on the phone(she's at work) what he did but that was about it. I'm
sure he'll tell the kids at school tommorow about it. They are mostly city and suburban
kids. Half didn't believe he even had chickens until he brought in pics.

 

[Dawn419]

And y'all are coming to Tennessee when?

Couldn't resist!

Dawn

 

[nccountrygirl]

Way to go Drumstick. You da man.

 

[MissPrissy]

We live in a very rural community. My kids school is tiny. Even the kids here raised in the country aren't familiar with 'farm life'. Most drive by and see sheep, cattle, goats and even alpacas and llamas in these fields but they have no hands on knowledge of most of it. Many have never seen a chicken up close. Hatching an egg is a completely foreign idea to them.

My daughter begged and begged her teacher to have me bring the buckling goats to school for a show and tell one afternoon. The teacher finally relented when they were 12 days old. 12 days old. Some 10 yr old girls stood back and cried, terrified of the 'monsterous' animals wearing puppy collars and walking on a leash.

Good on you for helping Drumstick learn lessons from the real world he will carry with him his entire life. He will always remember the experience and even more he will remember it was his Dad that taught him and took the time to help him understand it all.

I applaud you and Drumstick. Nice teamwork. I also applaud your wife. I know many women who would be standing in the way and creating trouble because it is a 'messy job' or chickens are a 'filthy animal'. I am sure you know the mentality.

You are raising your boy with skills that most will never be taught these days. You should really be proud he is grasping this and holding tight to it. This is life experience that isn't taught in a book.

 

[Southerngirl]

The greatest thing in raising animals is that your kids learn where their food comes from and the natural cycle of life and death. Our sons understand that they have their pet chickens to play with and the meat birds are for food. Once I had a neighbors kid when I was growing up asked me what that " brown thing was in the nest", it was a brown egg !!! She had only ever seen white eggs in the store and was raised in the city her whole life !!!!! He will be a much more rounded person in this world. Great job Dad !!!

 

[Zookeeper9000]

Good for you and good for him. He is going to need those skills in the years ahead. As my Dad use to say the tough times are not a coming. They are here and we need to learn to survive them.

Congrats again to you and that little guy. Me, I call my brother and tell him to bring the assembly line chicken killer and then I give him 1/2 he can do 100 birds in less than 2 hours and all out side with hot and cold running water. Got to love that brother (well I have to love all 7 but I really only like about 2 of them LOL and he is one of the 2).

Keep up the good work Mom and Dad.

 

[SeaChick]

Hey PC-
Like everyone else I think this is wonderful.
When Olivia was 7 we were living on a boat and fishing a lot. Now, killing and cleaning small fish is somehow different, to me at least, than killing a chicken or other animal. BUT when we caught those 50# tuna -amazing, elegant, awesome animals whose beauty and fight and life you can't help but totally respect- well, that was different. We always took a moment to stop and say a word of thanks and respect for the animal giving its life for our dinner. One time Olivia even made a drawing of "thanks" which she released into the ocean afterwards. I feel like this sort of understanding and appreciation of life and food is sooooooo important, and so lost to most American kids these days. So, kudos to you and your wife and hooray for Drumstick!!

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
Better to identify with the hawk than the baby birds, I'd say.

PC, he knew what choice he was making, he made the decision to cull, and he handled the process from start to finish. So he's not too young to do it. Sounds like he never faltered or second-guessed himself. There's a lot of adults that wish they were as comfortable with that process!

 

[blue90292]

my son who's 6 said he didn't want to eat any of our chickens, even the mean rooster. i asked him, what about chicken mcnuggets from mcdonalds, that's kinda chicken? and he said that's fine.

i have a ways to go, it seems.