Managing old hens with a chicken-attached daughter

[enola]

Perhaps you could find someone else to process the hens you have now. Then you could start 'conditioning' her thoughts with the new chickens she is helping you pick out.

One year my kids named the pigs we bought to butcher HAM and ROAST !

 

[ralleia]

Perhaps you could find someone else to process the hens you have now. Then you could start 'conditioning' her thoughts with the new chickens she is helping you pick out.

One year my kids named the pigs we bought to butcher HAM and ROAST !

I actually suggested that to her in the conversation three days ago, and she emphatically and tearfully insisted that they be processed here!

I don't know her rationale (or if she doesn't remember what "processing" entails), but I decided to let that part of the talk sit for a bit.

I will share what is in her head once I figure it out, since it might be useful to other parents with aging hens.

 

[pdirt]

Sounds like you are headed in the right direction

 

[bobbi-j]

I actually suggested that to her in the conversation three days ago, and she emphatically and tearfully insisted that they be processed here!

I don't know her rationale (or if she doesn't remember what "processing" entails), but I decided to let that part of the talk sit for a bit.

I will share what is in her head once I figure it out, since it might be useful to other parents with aging hens.

It does sound like you're headed in the right direction. Like I said, kids are resilient. Let them absorb the facts, and they can handle a lot. I like how you're handling it, too. Just talking about it here and there so she can get used to the idea.

 

[scottcaddy]

This is coming from someone who does not process, but is okay with and respect those who do.

IMO, I think that the ones she has now should not be processed. I think it would be much easier for your daughter to accept you getting those Cornish huge chickens that become a roast in like 12 weeks, and tell her straight out that those are raised for meat and if they don't get butchered, they die from being too fat. I think maybe it would be best to separate the pets from the eating chickens and let her know the difference.

I was raised on a dairy with an few hundred hens as a side line for 'egg' money. Us kids always knew what happened to old cows and unwanted bulls. Grand-pa thought making a pet out of something you were going to eat could be a good thing, A pet tame critter is a easy to handle and move critter. Any slow/broody chickens were Sunday dinner.
It's all in how the critter is looked at, as dinner someday, or just a pet. All of our kids looked at any chicken as someday dinner 1st and then maybe a pet.
Scott

 

[HighStreetCoop]

Perhaps you could find someone else to process the hens you have now. Then you could start 'conditioning' her thoughts with the new chickens she is helping you pick out.

One year my kids named the pigs we bought to butcher HAM and ROAST !

Sounds like my godson, he's been raised with the idea that many of the animals they have are for eating and that they're different from the ones that aren't (for example the milking goats and the dog). And yes, all the male goats and sheep get food names, too.