There is something here for all of you: whether you eat meat or are vegan, Buddhist or a hunter. It is about us - us humans and animals in this world together - and this issue is just something that is coming up as I started gardening with chickens.
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| Cockerels - still getting along |
I love my chickens. They are beautiful and happy. They are now 8 1/2 weeks old and at this point, not only the Egyptian fayoumis, but also the buttercups and blue Andalusians have crowed. Most likely they will all be ok together during the summer months, but sooner or later, there will be the issue of 16 males and 10 females - not a viable solution for either one. Everywhere I read - it really is not an option to keep more than a few roosters, and that is if you have adequate space.
As a functioning homestead and possibly conscientious breeder of chickens, culling would be done so that only the best and healthiest 10% of each mating will make it each year. I don't know what happens to all the rooster in the natural world. I guess some get eaten by predators, the weak don't make it, but what about the rest? In any case, the fraction of an acre available to me at this time is not gonna support a flock with many roosters.
So, I know a friend who keeps chickens who will take them - most likely to eat them. So when I look at those guys, happy as they are, some of their lives will be short, no matter how many months I manage to keep them here.
So then I think: why do this? But then, if you eat eggs anytime, they are all from hens, and wherever they are, there were roosters that got culled, (just that someone else killed them for you), and most never saw the light of day or got a worm, a grub or had a dustbath. These guys here have it good - they had the chance of experiencing life here on earth, outside, foraging, hanging out and they have even heard music - and I love them and appreciate them. The domestication of chickens was not a one-sided exploitation, but a mutually beneficial arrangement. They have life because of it -is is just that some of them will need to go - or so everyone says.
I do not eat meat, so that part of why many homesteaders keep chickens is not a reason for me.
But lets face it, I need fertilizer and compost if I am gonna grow vegetables in this soil. Trucking in amendments and fish-meal each year is not really sustainable and not even vegetarian. Since a mayor part of their lives here was meant to do tilling and composting/fertilizing, I would say: if the males can get along, they can all stay. But NOWHERE have I found evidence that more than a couple of roosters will be manageable in this kind of flock. They fight and hurt, if not kill, each other. Apparently the males can really have a miserable life with other males in the flock. Is it possible that breeding them for a few generations choosing only the non-aggressive males that there will be a time when roosters just work it out and you can keep them all with a minimum footage of space per bird - without any problem? I am tempted to go that route, as most of the predator warding off will be handled by me. But maybe that is how they die in nature: trying to defend the flock? And if I let all of them live from each year, without any predator selection - they there will be too many altogether.
Granted, by entering the domestication, the chickens agreed to a mutually beneficial relationship, and, as a species, they surely prospered much - being fed and protected, they survived everywhere. So culling some humanely and honoring their spirit (and I have seen it done) and allowing them the final gift of nourishing you would be reasonable. They had a good life here - and it is part of their contract.
It just that - I don't want to kill them - unless it really is for pure survival.
I don't want to even feed them other live things, like worms. Even the grass hurts - but that is live on this planet - it literally is ALL alive - just that we attribute a certain sentience to some beings and not others.
Can you see the dilemma though: what to do with all the roosters?
Am I too wimpy, not accepting the give and take reality on this planet, the circle of life and death in nature?
And going vegan may not be the answer. Soy or other mono-cultures are not doing the earth a favor, just as an example. And harvesting huge areas of planted acreage apparently kills a LOT of animals living there too. In addition, anything you have to truck in from far away carries a high environmental price tag. So the answer really is: grow your own, even in a community, grow locally. And for that, you need fertilizer.....and for that, you need animals, and of those, when bred, roughly half will be males.
da capo al fine
and - it is doing something to me - having to deal with this - not sure what the effects will be. It does bring up a larger picture though of live, life on earth, how it all works out in the einsteinian universe and quantum universe.
Right now I am still hoping the roos all stay non-aggressive - but if not, they got to go.
But when they do, they deserve respect, humane treatment and deep gratitude. And this I know they will get from those who have agreed to take them, whether for breeding or as food.
