Bye-Bye Roosters

Esperanza was unintentionally witness to the killing of the first rooster, Sparkles. Richard was so quick, I didn't have time to play out my plan, which was to send Esperanza off with PJ to see all the farm animals while I stayed and helped. I turned my back for a second and then was suddenly watching the deed be done. After a moment of shock (this was the first time I was witness to a chicken being killed too), I turned and swooped Esperanza up trying to turn her back to what was happening. Even though she clearly was in shock and didn't like what she saw, she couldn't keep her eyes off of it. The image is probably still lingering in her mind.

Sparkles, our Welsummer Rooster

Prior to this whole traumatic experience, I spent the entire car ride to my friends farm explaining to Esperanza where chicken meat comes from - real live chickens, just like the ones in our back yard. I explained that raising our own chickens to eat is a healthy and responsible way to get chicken meat. I tried my best to keep it simple and basic. We would not be bringing the roosters home alive and I felt an honest explanation was deserved. And we will be eating them. It's important for us all to know where our food comes from. Starting from a young age. And while I hadn't originally planned on her tagging along with me that morning or her seeing so graphically how the chicken is killed, I was (and still am) comfortable with that day being the day she made the connection as to where chicken meat comes from. I do feel a little bit of sympathy that Sparkles (along with Ariel and Ruby) had to be the lesson. I wouldn't have let her name them if I knew in the beginning what we would be doing with them. They were supposed to be hens though. To feed us with eggs. Instead, they turned out to be roosters. And I can't afford to feed roosters just for the fun of it. So, they will feed us with meat.

Both our Rhode Island Reds ended up being roosters - Ariel and Ruby

After my failed attempt at making her feel better, but after the initial shock wore off, we were able to distract Esperanza from her thoughts by visiting the animals on the farm. The goats, sheep, chickens and llamas were wandering around their huge pasture. The two reindeer were chomping away on some greens in their part of the property. Hiding in the barn was Joe, the sweetest 30 year old horse. Esperanza has taken a ride on him before and didn't hesitate to ask to ride him again. His back has seen better days so unless you're an ity-bity Esperanza, no one rides him anymore. Joe helped cheer Esperanza up and she spent a good 30 or 40 minutes on him with PJ slowly walking him around. I was able to sneak off and help Richard with the other 2 roosters. I guess I mostly watched and learned, with a little bit of awkward plucking and cleaning.

Looks just like a chicken from the grocery store. By the time I had the bird looking like this later that morning while at home, Esperanza didn't even connect it to the rooster she had watched get killed.

Richard and PJ gave Esperanza some quail eggs to take home. They are the cutest little eggs ever. We hard boiled them and she ate them both that evening.

Like most kids, I imagine, Esperanza asked many questions about the roosters and what she saw that day. I left the topic alone and waited for her to bring it up. I knew she would. Little by little. She's the kind of kid that you can't pull questions out of though, you have to wait for them to come. Over the following several days, she asked lots of different questions about why we cut Sparkles, when we were going to eat him, if she had to eat him (NO, I am not going to make her eat Sparkles), can we have our roosters back, do the chickens miss the roosters, etc. That day she said she wouldn't eat chicken again. And it was probably about 2 weeks before she did. But she's back at it. Today while I was cooking chicken, she was looking at the chicken meat as I cooked it in the pan. I could tell by the look on her face that she wondered if it was one of our roosters. She asked and I assured her it was not. She ate dinner without hesitation. All 3 roosters are in our freezer. I'm hoping that when I do cook them she won't ask. I'll be honest, but I hope she just won't ask.