Adaptable Regenerative Strategies: Should I Name My Chicken?
Naming your chickens is one of the parts of urban homesteading that really connects you to an animal that lays eggs and creates manure for you. The question has always been for us, could you eat an animal that you named? Initially, it seemed like the choice needed to be made early on.
The heretofore unnamed Spotted Sussex, 2 Americauna and Welsummer pullets in a chicken tractor made out of an old bookcase.
When first researching chickens the draw was to get good layers and good meat birds. Amelia and Muggsy, our 5 year old Barred Rock and Australorp hens, are definitely good layers, and as you can see below, pretty meaty birds. One of the thoughts when picking their breeds was when they stopped laying, they could end up as chicken stew. Admittedly, we get a lot of joy from them being alive, but know that we do not have an unlimited amount of space for new chickens.
Amelia and Muggsy eyeing me while making a run for the big doorway of the chicken coop. As you can see, Delaware has already escaped per usual.
Old Birds Get a Free Pass
Due to a number of factors, mostly our love for the birds, Amelia and Muggsy are not destined to end up stew birds in our yard. Once there laying days are over, they will likely eat, roost, scratch, cluck and poop their way into, what we hope, is a ripe old age. Is this sustainable? Or regenerative?
It depends. If everyone took good care of their chickens, we as humans stopped eating chickens, and they all lived too a ripe old age, we as a society would probably have too many Amelias and Muggsys running around. It would be harder to contain fowl based diseases, and no matter how hygenic the setup, we would probably have some serious issues (like way too many roosters). On the other wing, we have a huge amount of middle ground between where we are now, and the world of all chickens being pets.
Works For Now, Does Not Need To Be Permanent
Is it still worth it to own chickens knowing that enjoying them for their eggs, manure and hi-jinks might not be the MOST regenerative use of the animal? To me this seems like an obvious case of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. We still have a chance to change this strategy later if we have too many chickens, which is why we hope to implement strategies that are regenerative AND adaptable.