It’s chick season! I used to look so forward to this time of year! Seeing the adorable, sweet babies at the farm store, picking out a few to add to our flock. The girls all smiles and giggles! Or, ordering some from a hatchery and having them arrive in a peeping box at the post office! Best of all, hatching our own eggs in the incubator; watching the miracle of life right before our eyes! I know how wonderful it all seems, how absolutely adorable those chicks are, how so many people have backyard chickens now and how the kiddos beg you to let them have one. I thought it was just wonderful too and we have had chickens in our family for many years now. We have done it all. Picked out our new chicks at the store, ordered special varieties from the hatchery and waited excitedly for the box to arrive and hatched our own eggs in the incubator in our own kitchen. Are you kidding, I still LOVE the babies!
However…. please let me tell you what I have learned through all of this. As we enjoyed each and every part of this, there was something else. Something nagging at me. Something unselfish and sad. You see, in each of these instances there was something missing. We loved our chicks, we gave them the best care, we had a special brooder with a warm light, good food, fresh water and we loved and snuggled them. But, there was still something missing. Their mother.
A couple times we allowed a mother hen to hatch and raise her own chicks and the guineas do this on their own every year. This is truly a beautiful thing. A hen will choose a perfect spot for her nest; a protected area hidden from predators and usually tucked away safe and cozy. She will prepare the nest and begin laying eggs, about one a day or every other day until she has a nice clutch of eggs in her nest. She moves the eggs into a perfect grouping and then she will sit on those eggs dedicatedly for twenty one days. She will only leave for a short time to eat. Through rain, storms, heat, cold and fear she will sit on her eggs and keep them the perfect temperature, turn them and love them until they hatch. The day of the hatch is full of joy! Just like when a human child arrives. The mother is proud, beaming, exhausted and so, so happy to have her little ones under her wings. If you have never seen a mother hen with her children you are missing something of pure love and beauty. She keeps them warm and safe under her downy body and soft wings. They feel her love, warmth and heartbeat. She leads them in a little line or a little flock trailing behind her, teaches them how to scratch for food, find water, eventually roost in the evening, find their place in the flock and always, always protects them. A mother hen will risk her life protecting her chicks. If a hawk flies over the hen will quickly gather them up under her body and wings to protect them. It is truly precious to see a little head peek out from under a mama hen. As the chicks grow, they become part of the community. They find their place in the flock. In a natural flock, chickens move around all day, scratching, eating seeds and bugs, dust bathing, and enjoying the sun and fresh air. There is a balance of hens and roosters and the circle of life carries on.
However…. please let me tell you what I have learned through all of this. As we enjoyed each and every part of this, there was something else. Something nagging at me. Something unselfish and sad. You see, in each of these instances there was something missing. We loved our chicks, we gave them the best care, we had a special brooder with a warm light, good food, fresh water and we loved and snuggled them. But, there was still something missing. Their mother.
A couple times we allowed a mother hen to hatch and raise her own chicks and the guineas do this on their own every year. This is truly a beautiful thing. A hen will choose a perfect spot for her nest; a protected area hidden from predators and usually tucked away safe and cozy. She will prepare the nest and begin laying eggs, about one a day or every other day until she has a nice clutch of eggs in her nest. She moves the eggs into a perfect grouping and then she will sit on those eggs dedicatedly for twenty one days. She will only leave for a short time to eat. Through rain, storms, heat, cold and fear she will sit on her eggs and keep them the perfect temperature, turn them and love them until they hatch. The day of the hatch is full of joy! Just like when a human child arrives. The mother is proud, beaming, exhausted and so, so happy to have her little ones under her wings. If you have never seen a mother hen with her children you are missing something of pure love and beauty. She keeps them warm and safe under her downy body and soft wings. They feel her love, warmth and heartbeat. She leads them in a little line or a little flock trailing behind her, teaches them how to scratch for food, find water, eventually roost in the evening, find their place in the flock and always, always protects them. A mother hen will risk her life protecting her chicks. If a hawk flies over the hen will quickly gather them up under her body and wings to protect them. It is truly precious to see a little head peek out from under a mama hen. As the chicks grow, they become part of the community. They find their place in the flock. In a natural flock, chickens move around all day, scratching, eating seeds and bugs, dust bathing, and enjoying the sun and fresh air. There is a balance of hens and roosters and the circle of life carries on.
The chicks that come from hatcheries (either that you order or buy at a farm store – both come from hatcheries) have never even seen their mother. The hens kept in hatcheries live in cramped small cages, just like factory farms. They are repeatedly artificially inseminated against their will. Their eggs are taken from them each day and they never have the opportunity to raise their own children. Once they are no longer producing eggs well enough they are shipped for slaughter. The eggs are placed in giant incubators where they are mechanically heated and turned in mass quantities. As the chicks hatch and dry they are poured onto conveyor belts and sorted on the day they are born. There are different varieties of chickens available. There are the layer breeds and the fryer/meat breeds. Both have been selectively bred to meet our desired outcomes. When people order laying chicks, generally they want hens. Obviously roosters don’t lay eggs. Most people do not want too many, if any, roosters and in many municipalities, roosters are not allowed in backyard flocks. As nature is, generally 50% of chicks will be female and 50% will be male. The industry has no use for male chicks of the layer varieties and considers them byproduct. As the day old chicks are tossed onto the conveyor belt, they are sexed and sorted. The females prepared for shipment and the males tossed into a macerator (a giant grinder that grinds them alive the day they are born) or into large trash bins where they suffocate and die in a pile. The remaining chicks are packed into boxes with no food or water and shipped all over the country. They remain in these boxes often for days, in dark, cramped conditions where there is no temperature control, and no mother, tossed onto mail trucks and eventually arrive at the post office or farm store. Many do not survive.
The process is not a whole lot different hatching our own in incubators. Born on a wire grate, dried under a heat lamp and never ever having a mother to love, nurture and protect. It is a smaller scale, but no less sad.
The process is not a whole lot different hatching our own in incubators. Born on a wire grate, dried under a heat lamp and never ever having a mother to love, nurture and protect. It is a smaller scale, but no less sad.
This is where we began. They are adorable aren’t they?
I hear that you love your chicks and that you take the best care of them. I did too. But this is a selfish love. The best care is given by their mother. Each time you purchase chicks from a store or a hatchery you are paying for this to happen. You are supporting the industry. Each time we keep a chicken for our purpose we are taking away their own natural purpose and place in the universal web and intelligence. They are not ours. Nor are they here for our purposes. The eggs they lay are intended only to be their young. Just like humans, they have their own purpose, desire, emotion and place on this Earth. I loved them too, but it was a selfish love. Now I see and love them even more.
I hear that you love your chicks and that you take the best care of them. I did too. But this is a selfish love. The best care is given by their mother. Each time you purchase chicks from a store or a hatchery you are paying for this to happen. You are supporting the industry. Each time we keep a chicken for our purpose we are taking away their own natural purpose and place in the universal web and intelligence. They are not ours. Nor are they here for our purposes. The eggs they lay are intended only to be their young. Just like humans, they have their own purpose, desire, emotion and place on this Earth. I loved them too, but it was a selfish love. Now I see and love them even more.
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