Free Lunch Chickens! Hawk Attack!

[gtaus]

while I understand that chickens are livestock, I love mine dearly, and it truly broke my heart when that hawk got one of my girls. Not everyone feels that way about their chickens,

Someone here on the BYC invented a word for her chickens. She called them "petstock." Somewhere between family pets and true livestock. That's pretty much how I feel about my laying hens. Not pets, but neither livestock. I can tell you the personalities of almost every one of my girls.

I feel the loss when they get sick or die, but I'm not overwhelmed by it. I will butcher the older hens and get new chicks are a regular 2–3-year rotation. But I do protect them the best I can while they are under my care. That means, in my case, confined to a nice chicken run with bird netting on top.

 

[hammyanne]

Someone here on the BYC invented a word for her chickens. She called them "petstock." Somewhere between family pets and true livestock. That's pretty much how I feel about my laying hens. Not pets, but neither livestock. I can tell you the personalities of almost every one of my girls.

I feel the loss when they get sick or die, but I'm not overwhelmed by it.

Beautifully said! this is how I feel about my birds. Being able to compartmentalize grief plays a big role and has certainly come with age for me—in regard to your friend's daughter, maybe a tough concept to convey to someone relatively new to life ◡̈

 

[ChickyCh00k]

petstock

Yes! Perfect description!