Naming farm animals

I read about people not naming the animals they raise to eat or naming them after foods to remind them where they end up. People who cannot eat animals they raise at all and I used to be somewhat unfeeling toward them. I have read that it is harder to butcher named animals and of course the term graduate is often used for butchering, to soften the imagery I guess.

Well on some of these things I have had a change of heart or at least am sympathetic. The poultry we have raised here has won us over and we love them. I really struggled with butchering the turkey's and was so glad when we found a good slaughter house. Once they are packaged I have no problems with using the meat. We give them a very good life and spend far  more time with them that we probably should.

This brings me to names. We name by circumstance as I call our process. The first example of this is my favorite Chocolate Tom....Trainwreck. He was a survivor of the horrible accident on the road when  a truck hit a group of the turkeys.

This one Chocolate turkey limped off the road and went and lay down in the outer stairwell of the house  in obvious pain.  I have always hated to have animals die from injury so I picked him up and took him to the utility building and set up a hospital pen. Poultry vets are few and far between so I applied cattle knowledge to him. Washed and disinfected a horrible cut and gave him a children's aspirin, and dripped electrolyte into him. It was a slow recovery and he survived, hence the name. He is my turkey and will come to sit by me on his own. He was slow to grow but now is almost as big as Spike.

Trainwreck

Roosters have earned their names so we could tell each other which rooster we were referring too. Shoeless Joe is so named because he has one toe without a claw....I have no idea why that made me think of Shoeless Joe the baseball player but it did and thats what we call him.

 Shoeless Joe

Gentleman Jim....was the smallest Rooster we kept and is just that, a real gentleman.

Mr Attitude....was all attitude and it ended up costing him. He was Hen aggressive and rooster aggressive and then attacked me. It was no problem putting him in the roaster! He was a magnificent Rooster but just plain nasty. It took the hens a week to come out of hiding in the chicken house after we butchered him.

Mr Attitude

Lefty....the Buckeye. He got his name because he was the only Buckeye left, we kept three and one we just found dead and the really good one we had carefully selected was killed by the wild dog. Lefty is turning into a lovely rooster but when he was young "Mr Attitude" was his buddy and Lefty was a bit hen aggressive. The broody and mother hens have taught him a lot of manners!

 Lefty

The Duck flock is generic.....they are all "Duck Duck Go" but the ducklings have been named by circumstance or color.

 Goldwing

Look at that color...it has since changed to a silvery gold and we don't know what its going to look like in the end. He is Khaki X Blue Swedish.

Dusty

What can I say, he is a dusty color!

Underbite

Underbite has had a small underbite of his bill from day one. It has not bothered him eating or drinking and he is growing like a weed.

Niblet

The first home raised duckling and he spent time in the house until he was adopted by a Khaki. He would nibble on anything and especially your fingers or ears!

 There you have it...names for our critters.....we have fun with it and some names make sense and some are just odd but all seem to suit the wearer of said name.

There are others named for circumstance or event....Limpy, who was lame for a bit, Lumpy who had a lump on her head from the horrible roosters, Super 8, the hen who has 8 chicks. Lone Wolf McQuade, the chick who's mother gave up on him.

Blackback the Royal Palm Tom who has black feathers on his back without the white trim.

We still use the term butcher instead of graduate and we will still use our own chicken and birds for our table. We feel quality of life is the key, our poultry has shelter when they want it and freedom to graze, bug hunt or sleep wherever they choose in the heat of the day. Water access in close proximity in this hot weather and lots of places to dust bathe. They love the windfall apples in the orchard and are currently feasting on Japanese beetles.  The ducks can enjoy the wild thunderstorms and all the water from them, drinking from the downspouts of the house is a favorite thing. The turkeys have the tobacco barn to get out of storms in and that big old barn is well used for shade.

Now have fun with your animals and name them if it suits you to. Take the time to enjoy the small things they can offer.

God Bless you all...

Little Lord Fluffy Pants!

Attitude and those fluffy Buff feathers.....it was a given!