How do you prepare your children?

[BGinVA]

When we first started talking about getting chickens the thought was that we'd just get hens for the eggs. However, after buying some local chicks straight run, and doing my best to pick what I thought were females, I'm quite certain we have 3 or more roosters in the bunch of 8. The person that sold them to us said he was willing to take back any roosters we didn't want, and had considered that. However, after reading multiple threads about Barred Rock's it seems that there is often confusion over the gender for many months. I'm not sure he will be willing to take back an entire flock of grown roos once we know for sure. So we have entered the thought process of using them for food, as they seem difficult to rehome, and if I have to destroy them I want it to be for a purpose.

Problem is, all the chicks have names and my 3 & 10 year old daughters at this point get quite upset when we mention them as a possible food source. Has anyone found a way to talk to their children and prepare them for that possibility?

 

[trifecta]

So, I personally don't have a ton of experience with children, but my husband grew up raising beef, lamb, pork, and turkey at home. Many of these animals he showed as a child and had names and were very tame. To this day, all of the animals on our "farms" (his parents still have cattle) and our chickens are very tame. I enjoy raising animals that are not fearful of me. On the day of harvest, there is very little struggle... they have no reason to suspect that any harm is going to come to them.

What he has explained to me is, as a child, the expectation was constantly set that these animals were going to feed the family. Speak about them with pride- they are going to provide a HUGE service to your family by feeding the table. They should be respected and honored as such. I have always been amazed at the respect and care my father in law has demonstrated towards his animals (especially for an "old farmer" type!), and I hope to instill this same respect of life in my kids some day. Perhaps if you can show them how the "average" chicken is raised and how much better your roosters have it, it may help them understand.

I think its very hard since your children are young. I would imagine that the first time is going to be very, very difficult and they may be reluctant to eat what they consider a pet, but perhaps with time they will come around. Are you going to take them somewhere for processing or do it yourself? They may not be ready to help or watch with processing. I know when my husband was a kid he used to take "parts" in for show-and-tell; for example, as a grade school kid, his class learned about the heart and lungs from a steer they had butchered at home.

I hope other people on the thread have more direct advice for you, and good luck! I am about to start my second batch of meat birds and don't regret it one bit.

 

[BGinVA]

Thank you Trifecta for sharing your experience. I'm personally just getting to the point myself (being raised a city girl) of being able to consider eating what we have raised, so I am not able to fathom doing the slaughtering at this point, so yes, we would need to take them somewhere for now, but I think we all grow a little with each step we take, so that maybe somewhere in the undetermined future to save money, I may be able to take the next step.

 

[SIMZ]

Sometimes I think it's harder on us, as parents, when we think about explaining it. We started our chicken adventure out with the knowledge that roosters are a potential food source. My daughter's first pullet, "Tracy", turned out to be a rooster, and that was difficult when it came time to process him -- and she really wasn't all that attached to him!

Personally, I've tried to hide my own personal struggle over killing the chickens and been as matter of fact about it as I can. The kids have helped with the processing and do just fine. A matter of fact, "I know it's sad, but it's just how it is." can go a long way. The less it's talked about it, the better it will probably go. Crying is ok - they've watched me bawl over one of our roosters once.

Really, it is sad and should take some getting used to - especially for us city girls!

 

[trifecta]

I agree wholeheartedly- I myself was raised a city kid. About this time last year we were visiting the in-laws and had a fat heifer to butcher; she was a carrier for a genetic disease that we didn't want in our herd and was not terribly friendly, which is unusual for our cows... so the double negative sent her to freezer camp!

It bothered me SO MUCH the night before we slaughtered her. They have a mobile processing guy come out, so all we actually have to do is shoot the critter, and I had no desire to watch that! I had processed 2 steers as part of a teaching lab in school, so I was well aware of how it worked.

It took me close to a year to rationalize in my head that that heifer had a great life, she was out on grass for her entire life except for 2 months for finishing in our home feed lot, where she had a huge, clean, comfortable pen to share with 2 other steers. Her life was much better than any beef animal commercially raised and processed, and she had a quick humane death. She is now in our freezer and we love her even more, LOL!

But seriously, it took me almost a year to be ok with it and raise my own chickens for meat, so I think that feeling is COMPLETELY normal and I really applaud you for what you're doing. Your first home grown meal will be an awesome experience and I'm sure you won't regret it, and I'm sure your daughters will come around with time and patience!

 

[Life is Good!]

Having just 'finished' a similar experiment, I hope I can offer some advice.

We've been owned by Black Java chickens now for just about 2yrs. I began to prepare our sons (at the time 11 and 9) that we were going to expand our 'farmette' to include Black Javas and why I chose this specific breed, etc. With some screening, and preparation on my part, I found a not-too-awful youtube video about conditions at a typical 'feedlot farm' (I think it was a turkey farm). I know Dirty Job's tv show did a similar one on turkeys as well as pigs - might go that route instead for your youngest daughter (Dirty Jobs is available on Netflix). Having had previous discussions about puppy mills, my sons were fairly familiar with the set-up and rationale behind why our family does not agree with this type of 'farm' and how we can change our eating habits to reduce our family's dependence on things like Tyson or Hormel.

We broached the subject matter-of-factly - that yes, God makes all thing in pairs (even bugs!), both male and female - and that for our situation and purposes, the egg layers can only be girls and we only need 1 very special boy. I included them in the decision about which boy to keep (remember, they all had names at this point, had lived with us for about 6wks, each son had a 'favorite' and argued about who to keep!), but they understood that as primary keeper, Dad and I had the final vote. We ended up with 7 boys and 5 girls. We obviously kept all the girls. Two boys were out because they were white Java's - George and Little Bo Peep. 2 boys were out because they constantly fought with everyone over anything - Wacko and Star. That left 3 boys to decide between. So, I put up a 25' section of fencing and a dogcrate 'coop' and plopped the 'contestants' in this secondary pen to live in for a very short while while we watched their temperments.

I will tell you that one son was devastated to learn his first choice was not going to stay. He got over it once he discovered the cockeral who was staying was friendly if given mealworms from hands, and is now in charge of the mealworm farm to give treats to the flock everyday. He loves to sit with the chickens gathered around him waiting for their next tasty tidbit! The other son was and still is pretty ambivalent over the whole thing.

As for the processing part. As a Christian family who's church has a fellowship meal after service every Sunday, we proudly brought 'Chipmunk' to lunch as a first-fruit offering when he got big enough to be worth a meal. Obviously, Chipmunk was a guest of honor by being part of the main course! Sons were very proud to share what they helped 'grow' (yeah, I did the work, but in their mind visiting the chicks daily to pet them counted as 'care'!) - much as the pumpkin pie we'll bring in the fall again, or the apple cobbler or the spaghetti sauce lasagna - it's just part of the circle of life. Now, when we're eating chicken, the boys ask "is this ours?" and if I say no....they're not as anxious to dig into the meal! They too have figured out that homegrown tastes so much better, whether it is tomato or cucumber or chicken! Perhaps your older daughter will appreciate that fact.

Our now 13yo did help process some of our cockerals this past spring. Much like he helps process our catch of bluegill every year. Each year, he does more and more - and each year we watch him mature. Our now 11yo will begin learning in earnest this year to process bluegill (did try last year, but got startled when the fish jumped at the pressure of the knife). Didn't push the 11yo to come out to see the chicken processing. He will when he's ready.

Hope this long explaination gives you some insights. It's tough, but part of parenting. Your 3yo is old enough to understand some of this - that everything eats something else to live (chicks eat bugs, right?), and part of living is eating tasty things. As my husband says, 'things that eat tasty things taste tasty to me!" Good luck!

 

[Bluff Country Chicken]

I believe in a straight-forward approach from the get-go. Before we got our chicks I told my two-year-old son that we would raise the chicks (broilers) and then we would put them in our freezer to be our food. This way, it's just the way it was. My son enjoyed helping with daily chores - feeding, watering, moving the pen. He had no qualms about the processing or eating of the chickens. Rather, he was proud to tell about his role as helper. This was last summer.
This summer he's three years old and will quickly share the process from getting the baby chicks to the dinner table. He ends his sharing by saying "...and me get a chicken leg...they be so ummmy!"