Do You Name Your Chickens?

Do you name your chickens? I answer often…”That depends”…Or “Yes, sometimes I do…”

Meet Hazel my Buff Orpington…my pride and joy…(chickenwise)..;)

We started raising chickens for a variety of reasons. I wanted to step over that precipice into the world of these feathered friends. I could not wait to have my very first flock the weeks seemed to take months but then we came home with chicks and they were so cute and fluffy. I mean I had heard they were so docile and easy to raise. They are without a doubt all of these things but they are so much more than that. I get asked all the time “Do you name your chickens?” The Truth is at first I did…I named all of them and then they met an untimely death from heat or predators etc…. Don’t be deterred though; in my opinion chickens are the perfect farm animal that we all can raise and truthfully I think HOA’s need to lighten up and allow more people to raise a couple of chickens even in urban settings. You see the relationship a farmer develops with the farm animals is complex as we really value our chickens as suburban homesteaders. They provide us with fresh delicious food and we owe it to them basically to take care of them and provide for them food, shelter, safety, and eventually when they are no longer useful we cull them.

That’s just how it works….that being said I think Hazel has outlived her usefulness on our homestead. she does not lay regularly but she will remain a permanent part of our landscape if you will. Call me soft I’m good with it…..I have a fondness for her that I cannot explain.

Hazel is from my 3rd flock that I have had here in Coastal North Carolina and the rest of the crew right now is from the 6th flock except for our Rhode Island Red and that is entirely another story. She has been absolutely hilarious to watch over the years we love watching her waddle quickly across the yard for a fresh tomato, she can be really mean to the other chickens and other times so tender hearted with us when she approaches us for a treat of course 😉 Whatever the reason is yes sometimes I do name my chickens. When it comes time to butcher a chicken I don’t want to have to say “Farewell Hazel” so I imagine she will get slower and a racoon or possum will get her before we do and that’s just the way of raising chickens.

Hazel is my chicken who early on was egg bound and I had to go in and fish it out. She’s not had that happen ever again. She was in the chicken infirmary in our garage in a kennel and she loved every minute of it and did not want to go back to the coop. She also loves to sit in warm water…she’s just a hoot!

This is meant to be a mildly humorous blog post but also a post to remind you of the good stewards us urban, suburban, small-scale, and large-scale farmers are. We take the care of farm animals seriously and many folks make plans to care for some animals that have outlived their usefulness. I do eat chicken from the grocery store and I do know that raising chickens at home is a much healthier source of meat.

I do feel happy that our chickens have such a good quality of life. They get to live in the woods which is actually what they are designed to do and for those that do not know chickens are actually woodland creatures. They love to scratch the ground up and eat all those yummy worms and grubs!