Why name chickens?

[mama24]

I probably wouldn't bother naming most of them. Or I'd do what I did with my fish in college and name them all JimBob, Bob, and Earl. Even the girls, and call them one of the 3 names randomly. LOL. My dh and kids like naming them. I like giving my roos all names, but the hens of the same breed just look too alike for me. I mean, if I really look at them, I can tell which is which, but most of the time, I'll just say "one of the silver EE's" instead of calling them by name. It is funny when your kids tell people they had "fried Bob" for dinner, though. rofl.

Oh, and when dh names them, he gives them names like Teri Yaki, and General Tso. lol. We do eat our extra and/or bad roos.

 

[chickbea]

Oh, I don't know. It matters to some folks and not to others, and I don't think that love or affection often has anything to do with it. I've known people who give elaborate names to their dogs and cats, and then have no problem dropping them off at the shelter once they aren't cute puppies or kittens anymore. Then there are people like my sister, who has called every cat she has ever owned "Kitty", but she's a wonderful and caring owner.
Some people just like to name things; my friend named all of her cars, and even her lawn mower has a name - Fred.

When we were kids our bikes also had names.

 

[conny63malies]

Quote:
my kids say yhat "Poachy" is a bad name for a chicken since we lost two of them that were named like that.

 

[conny63malies]

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my husband named my old mini van Myrtle(the turtle) and the GPS is named Nancy, our vaccum is called "the dog eater" since my basset firmly believes that it will eat him.. oh and my current van is called Q-D.(or cutie) after the last to #. the DMV thought it be funny to give my husband(5'6") a license plate that reads 09 BIG.

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

I named the ones that I could tell apart from the other. Like I only had one Andalusian so she had a name but my 20 cayuga duck did not.

As for making up the names on the spot, yeah I have done that... on TV! when the news come they always want to know the names, so we just make them up

 

[gryeyes]

I have a fairly large flock of extremely mixed breeds. Some of the chickens and ducks know their names. The two geese certainly know their names. If I had a flock of, say, all RIRs, perhaps they would all be named Rhoda and it wouldn't matter.

But all my pets have names. My poultry are pets. They have names., just like the dogs and cat.

 

[Avalon1984]

I couldn’t tell from the OP's post if you meant that you don’t name any animals or just not chickens. I name a few of my chickens, the keepers. But I also raise a lot to sell off as young birds or go to freezer camp. I have 80+ chickens and it is hard to keep up with names. My horses all have their names and know them. it helps me pick them out of a group of horses in the pasture. And if I am mad at them and yell their name, they are the only ones twitching and coming over with their head low, it is hilarious.

 

[calicokat]

Well the biggest reason we name them is the all important rule: we don't eat things with names. But it does make it easier to chat with them and fuss at them. You don't want to fuss at the whole flock when only one is being bad.

Like Illia, I try to name groups together - the polish girls are all "belles" -- Annabelle, Isabelle, Hershybelle (she was a chocolate frizzle, LOL) etc.

The egg layers get old lady names because they are the stately, mature women of the farm, or "orange/red" names-- Hazel, Lillian, Millicent (Millie), Mabelline (Mable) or Ginger, Marigold, Pumpkin, etc.

We're still working on names for the Silver Spangled Hamburgs - but they'll probably be tied in with spots or dots (Spotty, Blotty, Dotty, LOL)

I'm afraid I'd name cows, pigs and sheep if I had them too, and that would be a problem with the all important rule and DH

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I don't have a problem eating my roos with names. Some are named, some are not. We had fried Bazooka Joe for dinner the other night. He was delicious.

And very badly behaved... that's my rule for eating things. They can have a name but not a 'tude.

 

[sulco]

The *only* reason I sorta named my 4 roosters was to help keep them straight when discussing with DW which dudes will be hot tubbing on my stove at some point; otherwise all others shall remain nameless. The only animals on our plot that have names are the cat, dog, and our kids.

ED: manners..