Monday, July 23, 2012

The "hen-d" of an era: bye bye birdies

Ethical question: is it ok to eat your own pets? Even if they are chickens? I'm firmly in the eating is ok camp. Mr A is not.

My position is based on the argument that, if you wouldn't eat our chickens, why would you eat any chickens? At least ours were ethically raised, free range and only occasionally chased by a crazy puppy. I hear puppy chasing is de riguer in those battery hen houses. And the puppy is a wolf.

Mr A's stance is that they are cute and fluffy and our pets. It's a pretty solid argument. It's certainly not worth upsetting marital harmony for the sake of two dinners, so Mr A won.

We're moving at the end of this year - Sydney, this time. I've been hitting up Google Earth and the real estate sites, and it's growing increasingly obvious that it's not going to be a chicken friendly location. Since Canberra has a dearth of anonymous chicken adoption drop locations, complete with friendly nuns and a strict chicken education system, I had to find an alternative. Luckily, a coincidental chat with another mum at play school led me to the perfect home. She was about to buy chooks that day!

I spent a delightful morning chasing the chooks around the back yard. It is surprisingly difficult to stuff two large chickens into a small mandarin box. Get one in - no worries. Get two in? IMPOSSIBLE. The dogs and the toddler were not helping. Stop opening the box, Bug! Stop chasing the hens under the trampoline, Panzer! Mien gott.

So, we're now henless.

Tomorrow's job is to reclaim the backyard. Scrape all the pine bark off the grass, take down the fences, scrub out the henhouse and turn it back into a kennel. And somehow recover the grass. Do you have any lawn tips? I could use them...

19 comments:

  1. My illusions are shattered. Mr A is a WIMP. What is the point of feeding, housing and thoroughly exercising a pair of chooks, if you can't eat them? That said, how fortuitous to find a home for them so easily. How do you feel about the Sydney move? At least you wont have to uproot the girls from school and the Big Smoke should be good fun.

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    1. Oh Penny, he's not a wimp! He just likes his wife's hands to be free of blood. Home is his safe place.

      I suspect I will thoroughly enjoy Sydney. It's my home town, but it's such a big joint we won't be any where near my old haunts. Peanut has had her eye on the preschool up the road for two years now (they have a wooden fire engine in the playground - the height of sophistication) so she's a little sad to be leaving before she gets the chance to attend. I sure there will be a suitable school in Sydney that will do, but it's a big move for a little girl!

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  2. I've had hen placement troubles in the past with all our moves so I can relate - although never considered eating them (mainly due to growing up in the bush and having to witness the killing and cleaning of animals...it either makes or breaks you).
    Sydney ey? Wow - right in the guts of it (I seem to remember the military bits are) or a bit outside of it?
    My stepdad loves grass, he is constantly growing more and moving bits and (depending on the grass type) he would buy a box of seed every shopping day and spread liberally - the results of which were a lush lawn as they birds could not keep up with the seed supply lol

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    1. Guts good and proper! We're looking at a house near Coogee.

      I like the seed carpeting idea, I'll give it a go...

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  3. Sorry about your chooks. I agree Sydney's not very chicken-friendly...everything is smaller...houses, backyards...but the people and the resources are great. I have fallen in love with this place! If you move to the inner west, I'm your go-to-person for the best child-friendly cafes, parks & activities.

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    1. Does Coogee count as inner west? I still trying to work out the nomenclature...

      I'm looking forward to the museums! Our Canberra ones are not very young-child friendly, I seem to remember the Sydney ones were better, but it's been a while...

      I miss the chooks, more than I expected actually. They used to peep in the windows and watch me, and it's a bit lonely now! Only two kids, two fish and two dogs... Practically empty ;)

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  4. That's so funny, we were at the hardware store, bumped into a teacher, we were talking chickens & i mentioned how many we 'inherited' & they're going to take a couple. Yay!! I think our chickens have turned the tide of Winter as our 8 hens are producing 4 eggs a day, just like that, Winter Solstice & boom, back into laying more frequently. Once we work out which chicks are hens, we will gladly hand over some adult hens.
    I see it as - we eat their eggs, what is the difference in eating them too?? We buy chicken from the butcher, did they have as happy a life as ours - hand raised, cuddled, stroked to the point that they come & greet you, with 4 doting children who rub their bellies?? They only live for a few years anyway, i don't see the harm in eating them before they pass away from natural causes & better us than a fox!!
    Good luck living in Sydney. My husband was posted to Randwick 10 years ago, they kept pushing RA on us, i refused, how on earth could they not find us a house?? We were difficult, 3 children & a German Shepherd, so eventually they found 6 vacant town houses in Burwood/ Croydon (had been vacant for a year, der!!) & it was a neat little place to live with 3 babies under 3 & a husband deployed. We ended up having 4 children in that little 3 bedroom townhouse, it was fantastic, so easy to live & tidy. Our puppy of course lived with Grandpa nearby, not in the townhouse courtyard, not welcome!! The Eastern Suburbs are a very difficult place to find accommodation at our 'rent price' standards & i refused to live in Holsworthy again, not with children, who would need preschool & primary school, no way. I'm a Sydney North Shore girl to the core, it nearly killed me living out there the first time as a newly wed. Give me Darwin over Sydney any day!! Good luck. DHA are not great, so many properties are listed as Parramatta zone instead of south or west, don't fall into their 'can't find anything' trap, but with 2 children you should find it much easier with all the new housing they put into Randwick since we left. The schools are also great. Love Posie

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  5. About your lawn, we inherited an awful lawn here in Gungahlin, add a German Shepherd who chases birds all day, all the grass dies in Winter, it's pretty disastrous. We'll worry about it a good year before we move, it slopes & has terrible flood issues in a large downpour, plus some bizarre crater in the centre, argh, so glad it's not my back garden!! FYI the neighbours all have flat ones, no idea why ours is such a slope?? Good luck, Winter is not a great time to play grass grounds keeper. Love Posie

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    1. I'm starting early, I figure six months will probably be enough? It wasn't that crash hot to start with, the house was unoccupied for a year before we moved in, so the standard we have to meet in pretty low. But it still included "grass" not "packed chicken pooped mud" so some work is required!

      We're going Sydney central this time, hopefully an early request will give them time to find us a house. RA is so much harder than DHA! And while I'd personally prefer a flash little unit or townhouse (preferably full of white couches and high heels) I then remember I have kids, and dogs, and none of that is practical! Finding a non DHA house may end up being a real challenge.

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  6. Glad they found good homes. Hope you go well with the grass thing.

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  7. Well, as far as eating your own chickens...We ALWAYS ate our own chickens. And our own cattle...

    When my grandma would chop the chickens head off, my brother would have their headless bodies chase me around the yard.

    I may still be scarred...

    And, I can't bear the thought of boiled chicken as a result of cleaning chickens as a child.

    Good luck with the move!

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  8. I've only read the first paragraph and now I have to racer, but I thought I'd answer your question before I do: I suspect that if your pet is a dog, it's frowned on.

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  9. All your hard work making the chooks a safe place in the yard. I wouldn't be able to eat them cos I wouldn't be able to kill them (unless I was really hungry , no still couldn't do it).

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    1. Well, I have a good neighbour who is a butcher, I factored her into my decision making process!

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  10. I agree with Mr A: We do not eat pets. You wouldn't eat Panzer, would you?
    ~S.

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    1. Oh Sorcha, I'm painfully aware you're a vegetarian. I not sure if that voids your meat-eating opinion or gives it an incredible amount of weight!

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