Life (and death) lessons on the 'farm'

My boys learned a lot about life and death this weekend. Some lessons were intentional, others not so much...

This weekend I had to cull our young roosters.

We had 3 to deal with. I asked the boys about it before hand. "Should I kill the roosters today"? "yes! grab the bow and arrow" and other cheers and excitement and sugestions... My 9 yr old knew better though and decided it was time to go play inside. But my 6 and 7yr old were eager, curious, and talked it up.

So I sat them down and talked them through a few things. I explained why we could not have roosters. I explained that we take great care of each one. But on a farm, we can't afford all our animals to be 'pets'. There is some give and take when it comes to farm animals. Some are there to provide eggs, some milk, some meat.

I also talked about the idea of a clean kill. No... bow and arrow is not the way you kill farm animals. It has it's place in hunting, but this is not hunting. We have a responsibility to make a 'clean kill'. I explained how it would be fast and painless. That is the responsible way to do it. It is not a game. It is not fun. It is just a necessary part of life.

We talked a little about the fact that even those who are not farmers are still part of the killing process. Those hamburgers and chicken nuggets have to come from somewhere.

Even vegans and vegatarions can't avoid it (99% of them).

So they had some good questions and we had a pretty good discussion. But they were still rather gung-ho about the whole thing. So I had them go play in another part of the yard while I took care of business. Eventually I had the 3 headless roosters hung up to bleed out before the next step in the processes.

Then reality hit them and a range of emotions swept through as they struggled with the realities of death. The last few times we did this, we had roosters roaming the yard freely (not in a seperate chicken yard). The roosters got to the point where they would chase the kids and made it less fun to be out playing. So they were relieved when I would eventually kill them. This time the roosters were not seen as scarey 'enemies' that 'needed to die'. So they had more sad feelings and at some points felt anger towards me.

But in the end, after some talks and letting things sink in a little, we took a vote. Is our family cut out to be a 'farmer family'? And everyone voted to continue.

Next up will be the rabbits. I've been talking to them about the idea that the older rabbits can be considered 'pets' and have names. But their offspring will be sold and some will be used as meat. They aren't too thrilled about that. But they are starting to understand. But I have not been looking forward to it.

Well, yesterday I had taken all the 5 week old bunnies (10 of them) out of their cage and into the baby bunny pen where they can eat grass and weeds and exercise. I also thought the momma bunny, 'mean emma', would appreciate some excersise. So I put her into the chicken yard where there is a nice big safe area the rabbits can explore. I often do this with one rabbit at a time (more than that and they fight). But Emma hadn't been out for a while. I didn't like to in the past as she was just cranky and was the only one who would try to bite and throw a fit.

She did fine getting into the chicken yard this time, with just a little squirming. Then, in the evening when it was time to go back to her cage I went to get her. My other rabbits come running to me in the evening, knowing they are safer in their cages. Emma came up to me, but wasn't crazy about being picked up. I have to hold her by her scruff with one hand while I open the gate. As I did this, she flipped out and started twisting to bite me and had the back legs going and doing her best to kick and scratch me. She is pretty strong and determined, so I had to set her down quickly so I wouldn't drop her. As I lowered her to the ground, one of her kicks and twists, contacted the ground, caused her back to snap. I had heard about this before, but couldn't believe it happened so quickly and by doing nothing but trying to put her down so neither of us would get hurt. So I had to go tell the family that I needed to 'put her down'. And the 5 week old bunnies would be orphans. They have been eating hay and rabbit food and drinking fine out of water bottles since nearly the first week. But they could have benefited from momma milk for at least another week or more. We were all very sad. Another sobering lesson of life and death on the farm.