OK...I definitely am heavy on the cockeral side of my last few hatches. They are wonderful little guys - purebred Wheaten Ameraucanas. I have tried to sell them on CL, and even here, for $5 each, with no takers. Well...that's not true. I did sell a couple @ 6 - 8 weeks ago that were from my first hatch this year. But I have @ 6 that would love a good home.
So, yesterday my gate is open and this pleasant man drives up with his wife & teenage daughter. Wife doesn't speak English, and husband essentially translates what she is asking. They wanted eggs (I was out), and asked if I ever sell chickens. I said I do, but that all I have available right now are roosters. He says that's what they want. So I obviously assume he wants to eat them, and show him the non-show-quality 9-wk-old boys. He wants two, and will be back to buy them on Friday.
I don't have an issue with them being eaten. I'm a farm girl, I know what livestock is "for". Obviously, I would rather they got a flock of their own and lived a long happy life, but I know that won't happen for all of them.
My main question is... Do you ever check into how the cockerals will be taken care of until they go to "freezer camp"? Or am I just nutty? It isn't the possibility they will be eaten that concerns me, so much as how they will be cared for until that point. They have a pretty good life here. Would it be reasonable to ask what kind of set-up they have for them? I mean, they aren't ready to eat, yet...they are still pretty small. Not much bigger than a cornish game hen right now.
Any thoughts, wisdom, suggestions?
So, yesterday my gate is open and this pleasant man drives up with his wife & teenage daughter. Wife doesn't speak English, and husband essentially translates what she is asking. They wanted eggs (I was out), and asked if I ever sell chickens. I said I do, but that all I have available right now are roosters. He says that's what they want. So I obviously assume he wants to eat them, and show him the non-show-quality 9-wk-old boys. He wants two, and will be back to buy them on Friday.
I don't have an issue with them being eaten. I'm a farm girl, I know what livestock is "for". Obviously, I would rather they got a flock of their own and lived a long happy life, but I know that won't happen for all of them.
My main question is... Do you ever check into how the cockerals will be taken care of until they go to "freezer camp"? Or am I just nutty? It isn't the possibility they will be eaten that concerns me, so much as how they will be cared for until that point. They have a pretty good life here. Would it be reasonable to ask what kind of set-up they have for them? I mean, they aren't ready to eat, yet...they are still pretty small. Not much bigger than a cornish game hen right now.
Any thoughts, wisdom, suggestions?